The Huskies were quicker, better rebounders, craftier shooters and, certainly, more tournament tested.
Dye used 13,000 truckloads of sand and dirt to build the ups and downs of Whistling Straits, which was tournament tested only by club pros in 1999.
Chunks of the airport in Belo Horizonte, another host city, are wrapped in scaffolding and sprinkled with dust and will remain so well after the tournament ends in July.Unfinished work at Arena Corinthians stadium in São Paulo means only 40,000 fans will attend a pre-tournament test game on May 18th, well shy of the 68,000 expected at the opening match on June 12th.
Fifa say that the mass procedure was necessary because some of the Costa Rica players had been unavailable for the mandatory pre-tournament tests.
Until midsummer, that is, when the techies tournament-tested a little gizmo, called a pendulum tester, that measures not the C.O.R. but, rather, how long (in microseconds) a little weight lingers on the club face after striking it.
To call the first round of the Memorial Tournament a test would be an understatement.
His first tournament will test the underlying theme for the tour's FedEx Cup promotional campaign, which positions this as the season in which it is Woods's "turn to catch up" against a determined group of players who have been emboldened by his absence from the winner's circle.
Ireland, a country yet to make a World Cup semi-final, will attempt to break their duck minus four key players and possibly a fifth after it was confirmed on Tuesday that Paul O'Connell's tournament and Test career were over, that Sean O'Brien had been banned for a week and that a decision on Jonathan Sexton's fitness could be delayed until just before kick-off against Argentina on Sunday.
Physicality is the buzzword of the year and the tournament will test the Scots in this department.
