Erin Hills #10 biiiiiiiiarrrrrrrrritzzzzzzzz

[John Kavanaugh]

The only pin placement is on the tippy top of the t.  I hope this doesn't offend anyone but even the late great Mike Strantz must be rolling over in his grave at the site of that piece of crap.  Like I told my playing partners...It looks like a Strantz green, cept worse.

[John Kavanaugh]

Now that we are past the green, and it is hard to get past, I will say that I enjoyed the hole as we played it.  The drive is over another blind hill which I always enjoy to a generous rolling landing area that was cut improperly as half fairway/ half rough.  The rough is simple enough for a lay up shot where I hit a three iron to 50 yds out.  The hole plays much shorter than the yardage.  I will also say this is the first mistake I noticed in the yardage book where they recommend a right side lay up that makes zero sense.  It is a great hole to play, including the green.  It just is stupid in design and execution which always adds up to fun for me.  It is my favorite green on the course...the one I would want to show mother.

[CHrisB]

I've seen the pin on all three sections, with the front pins the most interesting in my opinion (really have to control the approach to keep the ball from running away to the middle of the green). The back section seems like a little much, especially for a hole that long--if the green were only the front and middle sections with a bunker or even grass behind, that might be more interesting. But hey, it's different, and certainly not boring, so I liked it.

Tee to green the hole had a slightly awkward feel (to me at least)--the area of grass right of the bunker at about 200 out seems superfluous and I don't know how a ball could end up there except by accident. A layup down the right could tumble over the hill into a blind area of high grass--weird, but only an issue on the first play.

[John Kavanaugh]

I find it interesting that the wide left rough is shown on the drawing in the yardage book.  I think this is one hole where we played too short of a tee.  Once again, the same guy who reached one in two reached this green..just slightly left.

[Brendan Dolan]

If you hit a crummy drive you may want to lay up to the right so that the approach shot isn't blind.  The hole location is cut about 50/50 on the front and middle areas. It is a birdie hole when the pin is in the middle, but when the pin is up front it is a different story.  

[K. Krahenbuhl]

#10 Green with a middle hole location.



I think it is obvious that this green needs work.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Kyle,
What work does it need?

[Mike Hendren]

All that square footage and only two legitimate default pins - front left and middle right.  

Rear tier is extremely shallow though it appeared in late August that they were expanding it.  

Funny but had they moved the green approximately 50 yards toward the tee there was a natural biarritz waiting to be grassed.  It could have been reachable in two to boot.  

This green is not very good in and of itself.  Its placement at the end of a lengthy uphill par five is ruinous.

Mike

[Jim Nugent]

Brendan, how many hole locations are there?  Also, how long is that green?  Looks huge.

[K. Krahenbuhl]

Mike:

When I played there was no chance for a back pin placement rendering the back 30-40% of the green all but useless.  The slope is quite severe, but quite fun as well...nothing needs to change there.  If they could extend the green a bit it would be great - it just looked like that could be difficult as there wasn't much room back there.

Jim:

The green is 78 yards deep yet the hole locations are VERY limited.

[Brendan Dolan]

Jim,
The green is 75 yards long give or take a few yards.  The middle section is all pinnable, as long as you don't get to close to the slopes.  The front tier is difficult, and you have to be careful not to set the pin to close to the edge.  I would say that there are 3 or so hole locations on the front tier.  A front, middle, and back.  The back hole location was only used once this past summer, as we were using it as a nursery.  There might be one pin back there, but it is close to unplayable.  

Brendan

[Tom_Doak]

John:

I agree with you about the green.

Interestingly, #10 and #11 are the only holes on the course where the routing was at all similar to my preliminary routing on the same land years before.  My hole in the #10 corridor was a short par four from the top of the ridge short of the first landing area, to a green about 100 yards short of the Biarritz, just up out of the bowl in the fairway.

[Ken Fry]

Beyond the Bye hole, which frankly doesn't count in my book anyway, this was the first hole I had issues with.

If you look at the yardage book picture, why is there rough between the 297 and 154 sprinkler markers?  I have no problems with providing interesting rough/fairway breaks that work with the contour of the land, but the location for all that rough seemed very odd.  It just "looked" like the majority of that area should be part of the fairway.  Why would that be left as rough yet the area above the tree and fairway bunkers would be maintained as a fairway no one in the right mind would try to hit to?

This green reminds me of the 5th green at Arcadia Bluffs, another "Biarritz" wannabe.  It seems like such a waste to create a vast putting green area with so few locations to place the hole.  Angel's Crossing did a nice recreation on their 6th hole.  This is not.

I was told the green site at Erin Hills was completely natural.  To really work and not be a maintenance burden, it needed the touch of man's hand.

Ken

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I found 10 to be the worst hole on the course with the green being a significant contributor to that thought. A huge green with a great concept for a 5 and very poorly executed. I do not get this hole at all.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Thanks Kyle.

Did this hole really need any bunkers?
The illustration doesn't look like it does.

Cheers