Last Wednesday, I played Shaker Run, the site of this week's Public Links Championship. Shaker Run is an Arthur Hills design originally opened in 1979 as a private course for Armco Steel. In 1994, it was sold and became a public course.
The design itself is representative of Hills' prolific but stunningly average portfolio of courses. There are some terrific holes, some boring holes and an overall feeling that this terrific piece of property could have produced a truly outstanding golf course, rather than the solid one Hills designed. The property itself alternates between open meadow (site of the 1st and 8th hole), heavily treed rolling parkland (most of the front nine, a few holes on the back) and a lakeside setting. The lake is the site of two reverse image cape holes: one extremely well done (the 18th, a dogleg left over the lake where the fairway narrows considerably the closer one gets to the green), the other fairly average (the 9th, a dogleg right over the lake where the fairway ends short of a peninsula green...a direct line to the green is probably between 300 to 320 from the championship tees, so there may be some players who hit driver, but most will hit to a fairly generous fairway with an iron or a fairway metal).
The green sites are relatively flat and uninteresting. I can only remember one green (the par 3 14th) that had some slope that could challenge the best players. A couple of greens have large trees that could guard pins located toward the rear of these holes. I was told the greens were stimping at 10 to 11 last week and that the USGA would like to see them run between 12 and 13 for the tournament. However, the maintenance staff has a real concern that if the greens are cut too closely they may be severely damaged for the rest of the year.
The bunkering at Shaker Run is both sparse and uninteresting. There is a stretch of holes between the 2nd and 9th (which includes two par 3's) where there are no fairway bunkers. I recall two holes on the back with no fairway bunkers either. After contesting the tournament at Blue Heron Pines East last year, which is heavily and interestingly bunkered, Shaker Run should have many players salivating off the tee. The bunkers themselves are fairly shallow and flat. They are perfectly groomed, meaning that they should present no problem for players the caliber that the course will see this week. Hills seemed to make a conscious decision in designing this course to let the trees replace bunkers as hazards. There are several fairways where the rough extends five to ten yards out and then a wayward shot hits the hardwoods.
The rough was cut to about 2 1/1 to 3 inches last week, with an intermediate cut of about one inch. I was told that no further mowing would take place before the championship. The rough is a bit uneven and in some places rather tame. Ohio has had a very dry June and July so lush, penal rough has not come to fruition. In fact, I remember the rough being much more penal when I played the course for the first time in the mid 1990's.
The fairways themselves were anywhere from 30 to 40 yards wide and cut a bit more closely than usual.
The course will play to a par of 70 and at a length of 6966 yards. Two par 5's (the 4th and the 13th) have been converted to the now obligatory 485 yard par 4's). I could only see one new tee that had been built (on the 1st, a now 570 yard par 5). The maximum length of the original course was 6953 yards.
Overall, the set-up that I saw last week was very fair, bordering on benign. If the weather is good, as it has been today, I would not be surprised to see the medalist finish with a 9 or 10 under 131 or 130. If the remnants of the hurricane impact play Tuesday, the scores may go up a bit...or they could soften the course and allow the players to throw darts at the greens.
One of the more interesting things that I picked up was the staff's fear, almost resignation, that once the tournament is completed, the course may effectively be done for the year. It will still be playable but the greens in particular will take a heavy beating. It makes one wonder whether the prestige in hosting the event is worth the toll it takes on a course that relies on the public, and its belief that the course is well above average in design and conditions, for its revenue.