[Kalen Braley]

JK,

Thanks for the report.  I'm curious what you thought of the dell hole.  Thumbs up or down?

[John Kavanaugh]

If I start a new individual thead on every hole at Erin Hills you should find out in detail in about a week.  As a teaser I will say it is my favorite hole on the course.

[Mike McGuire]

I like the kick plate short right of the green. If the pin is front it is hard to hold a downhill approach.

You have an option to land a ball short and watch it feed down to the hole.

[Mike McGuire]

If I start a new individual thead on every hole at Erin Hills you should find out in detail in about a week.  As a teaser I will say it is my favorite hole on the course.

Will the thread on the BYE hole occur after the ninth or at the end?

[Eric_Terhorst]

Eric,

I think you would agree that I must have a favorite opening hole among the modern courses I have played.  It is not a superlative to name this hole as that.

John, I was reacting to your opening statement, that it "appears to be one of the great openers in modern golf."  At least you qualified the superlative with "appears to be."  But when they publish your well-respected comments on the web site, they'll leave out that part.

You can have all the favorites you want, and I promise not to move your cheese either.

But since you've played Ballyneal, I can't understand why you prefer the Erin Hills opener to that one.  My recollection is the BN 1st has a more fun risk/reward tee shot, and the element of surprise in where you might find the result in relation to the positioning required to get the best look at the green.  It's a better starting hole imo

[John Kavanaugh]

I'm sorry but I don't see any risk to the Ballyneal tee shot on the first unless you are worried about the colorado worm habitat.  If you get the ball airborn you have a short iron to an interesting but deep green.  I do love an inviting opener especially considering the lack of want or ability to warm up at the obtuse practice area.

[Ken Fry]

I liked the first a lot until the green.  

Erin Hills is not an easy golf course, period.  If you don't play the approriate tees, the place can easily eat your lunch.  There are not many areas a very high handicap player will find the going easy.

With that said, the first hole is a nice mix of challenge risk/reward.  There's a ton of room right if a player wants a safe line.  The catch is the next shot needs to fly fairly high to get to the top plateau.  The shot from the plateau down to the green could be a low runner, punch or fly to the hole giving lots of options.  It sets the tone for what's ahead.

It's a great place and it was a great day to meet some fellow GCA'ers.

Ken

[Brendan Dolan]

I think it is a good hole, but I might be a little biased!  I think the hole works fine with the tree and would work fine with out it.  I think the tree even adds to the strategy off the tee as you need to be futher right to have a better angle in if you plan on going for it.  

Brendan

[Ryan Farrow]

John, K that was a pre-work post but I don't shy away from posting during class  

Anyways, I thought the sarcasm was obvious, didn't mean to turn the thread into Erin Hills having the best 2,3 combo of all time. The closest I came to Wisconsin since its opening has been western Montana!


John you are too predicatable some times, after that teaser post last week I expeceted nothing less from you.

Carry On.

[John Kavanaugh]

It is not my intention to be sarcastic with my series of threads on Erin Hills.  Overall I don't think it is quite as good as Ballyneal but it does remind me of what Ballyneal would be if someone took a giant ball of Sillypuddy, placed it on top of Ballyneal, stretched it out and there you have it....Erin Hills.  It has convinced me that we do live in the greatest era of golf architecture the world has ever seen...we need to tap it while we can.  

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I did not like 1 or 10. 1 felt odd and without balance. Then 2 has a blind shot. I liked the 2nd hole but the openers got the course off to an uneasy and odd start. The path on 1 is for explorers not golf.

[Jim Franklin]

JB -

Did you mention what tees you played? Parden me for being a numbskull if you did.

[Brendan Dolan]

The path on 1 is for explorers not golf.

Just curious what you meant by this Tiger? After a play or two or if you have a good caddie, it is a pretty simple hole.  

[John Kavanaugh]

We played a combination of tees to give us a yardage of about 6900.
With the cutting of the "fescue" to about 6", the course was much more appealing.
We had perfect playing conditions and weather, for November.

Jim Franklin,

The above describes the tees we played pretty well.  I have the exact tee markers in my golf bag and will fill them in later as we go on this series.  Did I mention I played with one ball and never found a bunker.  I think we only had one bunker shot in the foresome for the day.

[Jim Franklin]

Thanks JB. I found more than one bunker when I visited. I look forward to reading more of your review.

[Dan Moore]

Regarding the tees we played.  One of the quirks of the course is the fact a lot of the yardage is concentrated in the par 5's, the fescue fairways are pretty firm and quick, and many of the tees are elevated so (with the exception of the par 5's) the course plays shorter than the card.  The everyday course set-up lacks a set of tees in the 6,700-6,900 yard range.  Based on my prior experience playing the course in the Publinx qualifier where we played a 7,200 yard mixture of green, blue and black tees I suggested a composite course comprised of a mixture of mostly green tees (6,544 course) about 6 blue tees (7,112 course) and one black tee (7,824) to give a course in the 6,800-6,900 yard range.   I will add my thinking on which tee we used to the thread on each hole.    

For the first hole we played the green tee at 549 yards.  This enabled one in the second group to go for the green in two, brought the narrower layup area around 100 yards more into play and made the lay-up a club or two easier for the rest.  

[John Kavanaugh]

Dan was instrumental in the success of our outing given his work in choosing the proper tees.  I doubt if many first time players are so fortunate.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I took a cart after drivng 2 hours to play a great round in the AM then 2 hours to play another round at Erin Hills in the late afternoon. The cart path on 1 was a majical mystery tour. I wonder who thought of that path. I played the back or next to back tees depending on the wind and hole. I think it would all be clear if one played there on a regualar basis. 1 is not a bad hole. It just seemed off without a strokesaver.  I tend to think the first hole should be straight forward on a public access course. I loved the course but felt it started poorly. I look forward to the next time I play there.

[Brendan Dolan]

That cart path was added after it was clear that the little bottleneck would not beable to handle the cart traffic.  The first hole defenitly gets better the more you play it.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Brendan I believe you and agree. Bandon Dunes starts with a hole that is not straight forward as well. It is also a very good course. They are changing that hole now. I am not sure for the better but it will move play along better. It might be a simple as having a starter available to explain the hole to first time players or higher handicap types.

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