10 U.S. Open-Worthy Public Courses

[Michael Mimran]

Found this piece quite amusing.  http://www.golf.com/courses-and-travel/10-us-open-worthy-public-courses

Please discuss...

1. Pound Ridge, Pound Ridge, N.Y.
This brutal beauty from Pete and Perry Dye is loaded with wetlands, rock outcroppings, fescue-topped mounds and devilish greens. I played dang well from the 6,261-yard, 140-slope tees -- and still lost five balls!

WHY NO OPEN: Too much regional competition from Winged Foot, Bethpage and Shinnecock.

2. French Lick Resort (Pete Dye), French Lick, Ind.
No joke: The 16th is a 300-yard par-3 with water -- part of an 8,101-yard Pete Dye creation. Yanked drives leave you silly sidehill shots from the rough.

WHY NO OPEN: French Lick is too remote for the USGA's tastes.

3. Wolf Creek, Mesquite, Nev.
It serves up a 154 slope, thanks to more vertigo-inducing plunges than a Hitchcock movie. Each claustrophobic hole is hemmed in by sandstone canyon walls. A Jackson Pollock splatter of bunkers and water makes this course a wild work of art.

WHY NO OPEN: June temperatures can hit 110 degrees.

4. Ko'olau, Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii
Ko'olau must mean "forced carry" in Hawaiian, because you'll face an endless supply on this Dick Nugent design, which plays every inch of its 7,310 yards.

WHY NO OPEN: Jungle-filled ravines and the USGA go together like lei necklaces and blue blazers.

5. Doral (Jim McLean), Doral, Fla.
Three "USGA-friendly" (translation: spirit-crushing) par 4s open this 2009 Jim McLean redesign of the Silver course. Beware the island-green par-3 14th.

WHY NO OPEN: Miami in June. LeBron's team is called the Heat for a reason.

6. Trump National Los Angeles, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
The ocean views impress while Trump's 7,242-yard track brutalizes, with ball-swallowing environmental areas and smack-down par 4s.

WHY NO OPEN: If the Donald ever lands a major, it'll be his New Jersey course.

7. Grand Traverse Resort (The Bear), Acme, Mich.
Scotland meets PGA National at this Jack Nicklaus test (148 slope, 76.3 rating) featuring terraced fairways, mounds, pot bunkers and 10 holes with water.

WHY NO OPEN: Oakland Hills will nab any Open coming Michigan's way.

8. The Prince Course at Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii
The par-4 opener -- a jungle carry on the first hole! -- starts a bevy of gorgeous ripsnorters mixing slender fairways and ocean gusts. No way this tropical RTJ II. tour de fouce is only a 140 slope.

WHY NO OPEN: Entire galleries would vanish in the jungle-strewn canyons

9. Tobacco Road, Sanford, N.C.
The puny yardage (6,554 yards) and skyscraper 150 slope is explained by blind shots and freakish greens, courtesy of the late, great Mike Strantz. Yet this shotmaker's paradise is playable.

WHY NO OPEN: Pinehurst No. 2 is less than an hour away.

10. Broadmoor (Mountain), Colorado Springs, Colo.
The 7,637 yardage seems manageable at 6,000 feet -- until it literally takes your breath away. This 2006 Nicklaus creation offers long carries, pinched fairways and majoy-caliber greens.

WHY NO OPEN: The more walkable East course would get the USGA nod.

[Ronald Montesano]

Someone drew the short straw and ...

[A.G._Crockett]

I've seen only Tobacco Road of the 10, and I dearly, dearly love the place. 

But I must say that the idea of a US Open at TR is way, way beyond laughable.  The Tour guys would shoot the lights out there, and not really because of the yardage.  It is an easy golf course if you can hit it where you aim, which is why it has one of the biggest gaps between course rating and slope rating that I've seen.

There are a lot better reasons that the proximity of #2 for TR not to host the US Open, I'm afraid.  That alone calls the whole article into question, IMO.

[Mark Saltzman]

 

[John Kavanaugh]

Pete Dye deserves a US Open. French Lick is the Indy marketplace which just hosted the Super Bowl.  I think they may even have 300,000 at a car race this weekend. They can sell the tickets.

[Bill Gayne]

The real reason none of these courses will host a US Open is that there are probably 25 better courses (public and private) out there. i'm not sold on Chambers Bay but obviously the USGA is so there may be one more. Are any of these courses better than Torrey Pines for a US Open? I don't think so.

[Phil McDade]

Pete Dye deserves a US Open. French Lick is the Indy marketplace which just hosted the Super Bowl.  I think they may even have 300,000 at a car race this weekend. They can sell the tickets.

Dye got very close to getting one at Whistling Straits, but Herb Kohler got impatient and took two PGAs and a Ryder Cup instead.

[Andy Troeger]

I usually enjoy Joe's articles, but his choices here are really pretty laughable. Trump LA is not even a good golf course let alone US Open worthy--the site is just too severe on the side of the hill. French Lick is probably my least favorite design from Dye given the site he had to work with, Tobacco Road is tons of fun but everything A.G. said is correct regarding its feasibility for a US Open. Ditto Wolf Creek--it would need a lot of wind to keep the pros from eating it alive. Its not long from the tips. Broadmoor Mountain is not as good as the East Course at the same resort!

Perhaps the other choices are better, but from what I've heard about them I don't really believe it. Just kind of odd to equate these courses to the US Open.

[Ronald Montesano]

As they call it "Open Season," Joe can't lead with his best pieces. Ergo, he leads with this. Perhaps he draws the attention of folks who have played these courses (know any of them?) whose reaction is "Dude, he's SOOOOO right, the pros couldn't handle Flatulent Anteater's North Course!" ... or he garners the attention of others who react as some of us have. Either way, he has readers. Better to have readers than no readers ... did anyone read this?

[Mark Johnson]

Even without discussing architectural merits,  all of the courses you name miss due to one of the following

1) Proximity of hotel, transportation.   biggest miss here and why it is hard for a course outside a major metro to host a open

2) Room for corporate boxes,staging, etc.

3) Availability of local volunteers for planning and executiion.   another issue for the more remote courses

[Mark Johnson]

Pete Dye deserves a US Open. French Lick is the Indy marketplace which just hosted the Super Bowl.  I think they may even have 300,000 at a car race this weekend. They can sell the tickets.

If you think French Lick is in the Indy market, then you've never been there...  Around 4 hours away.

[John Kavanaugh]

Pete Dye deserves a US Open. French Lick is the Indy marketplace which just hosted the Super Bowl.  I think they may even have 300,000 at a car race this weekend. They can sell the tickets.

If you think French Lick is in the Indy market, then you've never been there...  Around 4 hours away.

Mark,

I stayed at French Lick when I attended the Super Bowl. It is two hours in bad traffic.

[Will Peterson]

The McLean Course at Doral is absolutely awful.  I'm not sure what was there before McLean redid it, but this could not be an improvement. 

[Chris Clouser]

John,

If you can get from French Lick to Indy in two hours in bad traffic, then you should talk to Governor Daniels and map out the route for I-69 to Evansville.  Because there is no way that you could do that driving anything near the speed limit unless you have paved your own road from there to the Circle City.  My guess is you could sew up a pretty big contract...

 

[Jason Thurman]

Really Chris? Even Google Maps only puts the drive at 2:13 from downtown, and Google Maps tends to be pretty conservative on such projections...

It's also only a little over an hour from Louisville and under 4 from Cincinnati and St. Louis. It's hard to see how Erin Hills can be considered close enough to Milwaukee/Chicago to hold an Open but French Lick is too far away from Louisville/Indy to host one.

Now, if Louisville/Indy just isn't big enough, then that's a different and more reasonable explanation.

[David_Elvins]

Even without discussing architectural merits,  all of the courses you name miss due to one of the following

1) Proximity of hotel, transportation.   biggest miss here and why it is hard for a course outside a major metro to host a open

2) Room for corporate boxes,staging, etc.

3) Availability of local volunteers for planning and executiion.   another issue for the more remote courses

I think you have nailed it there, Mark.

Architectural merit is not a must have feature for a US Open course.  there must be 200-300 courses in the US that have architecture suitable for a US Open. 

[Ronald Montesano]

I shudder at the quote "Scotland meets PGA National" concerning Grand Traverse. That's like breeding a sheep with an alligator and expecting something beautiful to come out.

Please let me know to whom this mating would be appealing...

[Sam Morrow]

I thought Cobbs Creek was most Open worthy.

[Bill Seitz]

I shudder at the quote "Scotland meets PGA National" concerning Grand Traverse. That's like breeding a sheep with an alligator and expecting something beautiful to come out.

Please let me know to whom this mating would be appealing...

People who want to sell wool suits AND alligator shoes?

Also, are all of these really better suited for an Open than Cog Hill?

[Tom_Doak]

That was a truly awful article.  I kept thinking, Why It Won't Get The Open:  because this course sucks!

John K., if you see Joe P. at Thanksgiving dinner this year, whap him upside the head for me, please.

[Adam Clayman]

WHY NO OPEN;

Two words. Torrey Pines.

What has happened there, is a microcosm of not only what's wrong with golf, but with most government run entities.

[Joe Stansell]

Adam, I'm not sure that I get your point. I think Torrey Pines proved to be a very successful venue for a US Open, and the "playoff" match that it produced was epic. I would consider it to have been a success, not a failure.

Now, I completely agree with your implied assessment of Torrey Pines (South) as a golf course, but that course was as mediocre before it was subjected to the "Open doctor" as it was after. So what do you mean when you say, "What has happened there ...."

[Adam Clayman]

Joe, it wasn't about the courses ability to hold an open, the quality of that open or anything to do with the event. BUT, it all has to do with what the facility was, and what it has become. A $35 course that now costs $175.

Leave our public courses alone USGA.

We don't want you fucking up our venues, all for the purposes of a PR campaign. Trying to be something you are not. An Everyman's organization. You are ripe with nothing but elitists and your governance is at best questionable.

Erin Hills is another example where the USGA's involvement ruined one guy, and made it unaffordable for the regular guy.

Go with Trump/ He's more in keeping with your DNA make-up.

[Joe Stansell]

A $35 course that now costs $175.

Very hard to argue with that.

[Phil McDade]

Erin Hills is another example where the USGA's involvement ruined one guy, and made it unaffordable for the regular guy.

Adam:

The story of Erin Hills, Bob Lang, the USGA, and the Hurdzan/Fry/Whitten team is a bit more complicated than that. See:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/golf/128134403.html

and esp.:

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2010-01/golf_erin_hills_ginella_0125

I don't know -- at $200 a pop -- whether Erin Hills is affordable for the average guy. But it's about half the cost of Whistling Straits.