Thanks everyone. The qualifier was originally supposed to be on the Ocean course but got moved to the Lake course because of the work being done on the Ocean's 15th and 16th holes (and a recent aeration?). In any event, I was excited to have the opportunity to play the Lake, but wasn't sure a qualifier was necessarily the best time to play it for the first time. But, it all worked out. Thanks to both David Tepper and Mike Benham for giving me very helpful advice on playing the course.
The course was in great shape considering the weather we've had here the past month or so. The fairways and greens didn't seem overly wet to me at all, but it probably was a bit on the softer side. The rough was pretty long and hairy, but luckily I only missed one fairway (no doubt saving myself several shots). From the one I missed and seeing my fellow competitors' shots, you had to get a good lie to even have a chance of going at the green.
Design-wise, I definitely thought the course was tough. I'm trying to think of a stretch of consecutive holes I've played that's tougher than two through five, and I'm not coming up with anything. I was actually wondering how anyone ever broke 80 out there walking to the sixth tee (at three over par).
One of my main take-aways from the course in terms of difficulty (and fun) was that I rarely felt comfortable or at ease over a shot. I attribute a lot of this to the many sidehill lies I encountered throughout the day. This required (and enabled) me to think a lot more about the shape of the shot I had to play in to greens. Specific examples of this are trying to cut it off a draw stance on five and nine to hold the ball straight into a right hole location; similarly, I played for a draw off draw stances to left hole locations on six and 14. My short approaches into seven and 17 were made considerably more difficult by uphill, fade stances, and a few longer shots (second on one, four, 11, and 17) were made difficult by fade stances as well. Downhill lies with long-irons in to 10 and 12 caused me to take one club less, allow for the low ball flight, and try to run it on. Very few shots out there were just your "run-of-the-mill stock X iron", and it was great. I'm not sure I've had to think quite so much about the type of shot I was going to play (in terms of shape and trajectory) since I left Dornoch in August.
Most of the greens have pretty significant slopes to them, which also added to my lack of feeling comfortable. Even though the greens weren't too fast, I felt like I always needed to be careful because it seemed the speed and/or break could easily get away from me and leave a long next putt. Aside from the seventh and 11th, though, I didn't observe a lot of undulations within greens aside from their general slope. I think that makes judging the speed a bit easier since you don't have to worry about speed changes throughout the putt. Still, I found the slopes quite challenging and I wonder how fast they can get the greens before things get "out of hand" (difficulty-wise). I bet Payne Stewart would've had something to say about that, but what's the feeling from Olympic members and the USGA?
The course seemed to play longer than the yardage to me. I don't know if it was the wetness or not hitting my driver solidly, but I was left with longer clubs into most holes than I expected. Have others experienced this?
Oh, and we played the new back tee on three. Not surprisingly, there were two or three groups on the tee pretty much all day. That tee is probably a bit much for the likes of us, but I think it will be a good test for the pros.
I'm curious to hear some feedback on my thoughts from those who have played the course a lot.