Mike Davis/US Open/Radio Interview

[David_Tepper]

Mike Davis was interviewed this morning about the US Open at the Olympic Club on KNBR 680-AM. No secrets were revealed, but I thought he gave a sense of how the USGA is approaching the event.

Click this link, scroll down to Murph & Mac Podcasts and click on Mike Davis:

http://knbr.com/ShowsSchedule/MurphandMac/tabid/584/Default.aspx

[Howard Riefs]

Some specifics on the course set-up for the U.S. Open from coverage of Monday's media day:


Layout:  Will play at a par-70, 7,170 yards — 373 yards longer than the last time it hosted the national championship in 1998. The front nine will play at a par 34 and the back nine a par 36. The USGA will flip par at the 1st and 17th holes for the 2012 event. Played as a par 4 in all four prior Olympic Opens dating back to 1955, the 17th will become a par-5 finishing hole for the first time, while the par-5 opening hole will become a par 4.

Starting holes:  "I am convinced that this will be the hardest start in a U.S. Open," Davis said after walking the course on a sun-soaked day along the California coast. "The first six holes are going to just be brutal. I would contend if you play the first six holes 2 over, I don't think you're giving up anything to the field."

Greens:  The greens are now all bentgrass as opposed to poa annua, which should allow for truer rolls on putts. While the greens will still be slippery, Davis predicts more putts will be made as a result.

Hole 8:  Once one of the easiest on the course, is entirely new from 1998 — with little room for error along the right-side trees.Played at 137 yards in 1998, it will be a 200-yard test now from the back tee, and turn one of the worst spectator holes into one of the best.

Hole 16:  The par-5 16th will become a legitimate monster on at least a couple of the days of play — 670 yards, which will make it the longest U.S. Open hole in history. On the days its plays at its maximum length, players will have to plan three legitimate shots to get to the green, and despite the massive length, will have to make decisions on accuracy versus distance. "You may actually see players hitting 3-woods off the tee," he said. "From the back, if you miss any one of your shots, it's awfully hard to catch it up. We won't play it (at 670 yards) there every day, but it will certainly play like it did when (Ben) Hogan and (Arnold) Palmer played it back in 1955 and 1966. It will be a big, big par-5, a true three-shotter."

Hole 17:  The 17th will be reachable in two shots and provide opportunities for more birdies and potential eagles, it also will be at the player's peril on a fairway and green that both slope dramatically from left to right. The key, said Davis, is providing a risk/reward option that the hole lacked as a par-4.

 
http://www.mercurynews.com/golf/ci_20057687

http://golfweek.com/news/2012/feb/27/usga-expect-us-open-olympic-be-tougher/

[Kalen Braley]

Interesting about 17...the furthest that tips out at is 510 yards...a very short par 5 by US Open standards indeed.

Although it is about 50 feet uphill.  A 5.5, followed by a 4.5, and then possibly a 3.5 at 18.  I like it!!

[David_Tepper]

Kalen -

I believe the area on the right side of #17 green (and down the slope) will be cut down to chipping height rather than grown in as rough, somewhat similar to how the area left of the green on #14 at Pebble Beach played in the last US Open. Anyone going for the green in two and missing right will have a difficult recovery shot.

DT
 

[JMEvensky]

Kalen -

I believe the area on the right side of #17 green (and down the slope) will be cut down to chipping height rather than grown in as rough, somewhat similar to how the area left of the green on #14 at Pebble Beach played in the last US Open. Anyone going for the green in two and missing right will have a difficult recovery shot.

DT
 

What about missing left?

[David_Tepper]

"What about missing left?"

There are bunkers on the left side of #17 green. At best, the bunkers are level (if not slightly above) the green surface. The green slopes downhill left to right and away from those bunkers. 

[Kalen Braley]

I recall that hole being an absolute beast during the Amateur there a few years back....as it relates to saving par.

I think playing it as a par 5 will cheer up the troops after getting destroyed on 16.  From those 670 yard tees with the rough and trees and canted fairway...I'm forseeing a bunch of 7s and snowmen on that hole during the open.

[David_Tepper]

SF Chronicle article on Mike Davis' comments:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/01/SPCQ1NE034.DTL

[Jim Nugent]

Interesting about 17...the furthest that tips out at is 510 yards...a very short par 5 by US Open standards indeed.

Although it is about 50 feet uphill.  A 5.5, followed by a 4.5, and then possibly a 3.5 at 18.  I like it!!

Kalen, the SF Gate article says, "No. 17, historically a daunting par-4, will become a risk-reward, 522-yard par-5."  So you were close, though they stretched it out a little bit more. 

The fairway was already real hard to hit, because it tilts so steeply from left to right.  That will be even harder in the Open: I read a while back here in GCA that they are moving the tee further left.  So the angle/tilt will be even more extreme.  Is there any way a fade can stay in the fairway?  Or even a straight t-shot? 

Back in 1966, I remember Arnie said the key to the course was the first six holes or so.  He smoked those holes.   But then he met his fate on the back nine.  What are the chances of fast and firm this year?   

[Tim Passalacqua]

The tee placed back left on seventeen shortens the hole, but the fairway will be harder to hit.  I am picturing a high draw.  Straight ball down the left side will probably stay in the fairway and a fade....good luck.  This will make the hole really exciting when the pros are hitting out the the short first cut with flier lies.  The right side of the green is shaved and any knuckle balls hit into that firm green will take off well below the putting surface.  Brutal, but it is only a 500 yards par five for the PROS!  It should be really firm.  SF typically doesn't get any rain in the summer.  Just cool and foggy.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

17 has a  brutal green complex. You need to be right of the pin. And if you miss by 3 or 4 feet you are all the way down the hill chipping of a tight lie and still need to keep it below the hole. I do not like the shaving the right side part but it will make the risk greater on a already tough green complex.

[Jim Nugent]

Tiger, in either the 1993 or 1995 Tour Championship, Nick Price was down that hill on the right side of the green, in three.  (Hit an awful third.)  I was waiting for him to chip his fourth into the hill and bounce it up onto the green.  Instead, he flopped a wedge through some small opening he saw in the branches overhead.  I never would have thought of that shot in a thousand years.  Still didn't quite reach the green: was on the apron, from where he chipped in for his routine par. 

This would have been late October or early November.  Not much rough then.  Does OL play a lot differently in June? 

[Brett Morris]

Mike Davis gave a session this morning with Bill Coore, Brad Klein and the Super from Pinehurst about the Open in 2014 at the GIS in LAs Vegas.

Ears pricked when he mentioned there may be 'one or two' areas on Pinehurst #2 which may have to 'come in a little' for the tournament.

It was nice to hear him speak.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Jim Yes it will because the area you are describing will be shaved to the base of the trees. One of the Sf guys will have to tell you when the ground gets real wet. I do not see a huge rough thickness difference seasonally.

[Kirk Moon]

Jim Yes it will because the area you are describing will be shaved to the base of the trees. One of the Sf guys will have to tell you when the ground gets real wet. I do not see a huge rough thickness difference seasonally.

I am only a recent new member at the O Club so I haven't had a chance to see the course through the various seasons, but I have lived within five miles of the course for the past 30 years and am very familiar with the weather patterns in the area.

The fabled fog that shrouds the Western part of the City during the Summer usually makes its first hard core appearance in early July and can be heavy and persistent (or not, varies quite a bit from year to year) until early September.  Sometimes the fog comes in early so it is possible that the Open will be played in foggy conditions.  But it is equally possible that it will be beautiful for some or all of the tournament.

The rain in the area usually falls between October and May. In most years it stops raining in late March.  We virtually never get rain in June so rain is extremely unlikely and it is highly probably that there won't have been rain in the area for a month or two.

I don't know how "wet" the course gets in heavy fog.  In my experience at Harding and other local courses, the fog doesn't make the course wet in the same sense that rain does.  The grass can get somewhat heavy (particularly heavy rough) when the fog is thick, but the fairways remain firm and the ground does not get soggy. 

One phenomenon that occurs when the fog is particularly heavy is that the fog is combed out of the sky by the trees and then dropped back to the ground in the form of rain drops under the trees.  If the fog is heavy for days on end this can translate to somewhat soggy conditions under the big trees.

The cool fog also definitely cuts down the distance that the ball will travel in the air and if it is heavy it will make the course play significantly longer than it would on a warm, clear day.  Fog in the area is also usually associated with onshore winds, sometime pronounced.  The Lake course is somewhat protected from the onshore winds by virtue of lying on the leeward side of the hill that it sits on, but I imagine that it can get pretty breezy there when things really kick up. 

[David_Tepper]

Remembering the last 2 US Opens on the Lake Course, my guess is the USGA will try to have the course (especially the fairways) playing very firm this June. The challenge off the tee will be keeping the ball from catching the slopes in the fairways and running into the rough. Having the fairways firm makes that challenge that much tougher.l 

[Howard Riefs]

The USGA this week posted on Twitter a handful of photos of Olympic as it gets ready for the US Open. The course is looking good. The tee shot from the back tee box on #16 (playing up to 670 yds) makes #18 ANGC look spacious.


#7




#11




#16 back tee




#18 with trophy




#18 green




Clubhouse scaffolding going up