Olympic Club - Lake's new tees

[Wayne Wiggins, Jr.]

Played the Lake Course on Wednesday with a friend who's hoping to qualify for the US Amateur this year.  I invited him out so he could see and play the course, so we played a couple shots from the new tee boxes.  My observations:

#2: This new tee box fits nicely with the hole in general.  It keeps the same line off the tee, dictating the same kind of shot (typically a fade) only resulting in a slightly longer iron into the green.  For him, it was a matter of hitting 2 clubs more.

#5: I don't think this teebox fits with the scale of the hole or the course.  There are actually two (maybe 3?) new boxes, the deepest one stretching the hole to 505 yds.  They are BIG, square tee boxes that, to me, seem a little out of character with the "tightness" of this course.  From the penultimate box your tee shot is kinda blind, since you can't see over the ones in front of you; however, one does get clear vision of the fairway from all the way back.

As for me, this tee shot just makes this hole REALLY long since i'm not that long off the tee.  For my playing partner though, it does change the strategy of the hole.  Whereas before a longer player has to either hit a controlled fade with a driver or play a 3-wood to ensure holding the fairway, his take was that this "thinking" process is basically removed when playing from the new back tee.  He hit a couple balls, and realized that just bombing it over the edge of the right-tree line was best.

#12: New tee boxes being built adding about 30-50 yds. (from 410 yds to 450/460).  The tees are offset to the right, and it is stated, to keep the chute effect intact through the corridor of trees.  They are triming up some of the branches to clear it out a little, and cleared the brush from behind these tees which offers a very cool "visual" of the hole as one walks down #11.  Should be interesting to see how this plays when finished.

All in all, the course played fantastic.  Firm and fast.

[redanman]

#12: New tee boxes being built adding about 30-50 yds. (from 410 yds to 450/460).  The tees are offset to the right, and it is stated, to keep the chute effect intact through the corridor of trees.  They are triming up some of the branches to clear it out a little, and cleared the brush from behind these tees which offers a very cool "visual" of the hole as one walks down #11.  Should be interesting to see how this plays when finished.

especially "They are triming up some of the branches to clear it out a little"

The lengthening of this hole has always been a bit of a ha-ha visually  

never forget:

A tree needing "trimming" or "limbing up" just plain need to come out!

Didn't JWN hit one of these stoobid trees on SWWG against the "God-like putter" Johnny Miller?

[AndrewB]

I agree with your friend about five.  The "old" tee required contending with the bend in the fairway by shaping it around or playing it over the trees, or taking less club to avoid it all together.  Now it's just a straight away shot for me that I play right down the middle of the fairway.  I'm in the fairway more often because of this, but I'm also hitting a five wood into the green instead of a mid iron.

From what I saw of 12, the tee shot looks like it will require a fade since the tee sits to the right as you mentioned; the most agressive line possible (with respect to hitting the trees) looked like the left side of the fairway.  It didn't appear that enough trees were taken out to allow for a straight shot when I was there last, and I was told no more trees would be taken out either.

[Mike Benham]

I agree with Wayne's assessment about the 2nd hole, at least for the longer hitters the new tee puts the driver back in their hands making this perhaps the most difficult driving hole on the course.

As for #5, it does make the hole silly long, even for the big hitters and still may take drivers out of their hands as under firm and fast conditions, it may be impossible to keep the ball in the fairway.

Andrew Biggadike told me after playing the new #5 tees that for him, their isn't a choice on what to hit off the tee or the second shot, driver and 5 wood ...

As for 12, I didn't think they could squeeze in that much more yardage ...


The 2nd tee under construction as viewed from the 4th fairway:




The view from the new 5th tee, blind to the landing zone:

[Mike Benham]

Andrew Biggadike told me after playing the new #5 tees that for him, their isn't a choice on what to hit off the tee or the second shot, driver and 5 wood ...

  I'm in the fairway more often because of this, but I'm also hitting a five wood into the green instead of a mid iron.

Whoops, passed in cyberspace ... but aren't you suppose to be flying somewhere today?

[AndrewB]

... but aren't you suppose to be flying somewhere today?

Oops, that's right, I should get packing.  Dornoch here I come!

I should add that I'm not a long hitter and a few people I have played with either can reach the bend in the fairway or run out past where I get to and hit long to mid irons in (for them).  I expect for the US Amateur and US Open that the longer players will be able to get to the dogleg and perhaps this new tee (1) forces them to hit driver to get there or (2) makes laying back with three wood a more realistic option.  I'm probably just playing the wrong tee for my length when I go all the way back on that hole, but I'm not sure how the hole was intended to play.