Olympic

[Cliff Hamm]

What am I missing?  The course looks claustrophobic even with hundreds of trees gone. The golf is far from exciting.  Any course can be difficult if fairways are narrow, trees hold balls, etc.  I also note there are not that many threads on the course.  I am underwhelmed.  Should it be ranked as highly as it is?  Is it really a great course?  Tough, penal, yes...but great?  I might add, I have never been there, never mind played it, so my observations are only based on what I see from the broadcast.

[David_Tepper]

Cliff,

If you are looking for "charm" and a little eye candy, you are not going to find it at Olympic.

it is just a tough, demanding course that requires one quality shot after another. In that sense it provides exactly the kind of test the USGA is looking for in a US Open venue.

DT

[Cliff Hamm]

David....no argument.  But does the 'tightness' of the course make it rather one dimensional?

[Chip Gaskins]

It is the beauty of the area that makes it a special place.  I used to live in SF and grew to love this hard, penal, beauty!

[David_Tepper]

Cliff -

I don't think the fairways are any narrower this year than at other US Opens of recent years. Hasn't the US Open historically been (for better or worse) pretty much a one-dimensional test?

No doubt the greens at Olympic are on the small side. It is nice to see that they have opened up the front of a number of greens so that players do have the option of using "the ground game" to bounce the ball on to those greens. That offers an additional dimension, as do the chipping areas around a number of the greens.

DT

[Terry Lavin]

It's a great course that the USGA is temporarily bastardizing. This too shall pass.

[Tim Passalacqua]

Isn't nice to see a course that you have to execute golf shots?  Many are saying it is the best venue for the US Open because you have to have all the shots in the bag.  I enjoy courses like this that test all facets of the game and let you know where your game stands.  Why don't more people enjoy a test on the golf course?  Olympic is great.  If someone played there all the time, they could travel and play any course with confidence.  Doesn't that say something about how great the course is?  Isn't part of the beauty of golf to have different courses with different challenges?  Does every course have to be super wide and 6500 yards long?  The place is majestic and one of a kind.....and great.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Cliff,
You are watching a far different tournament than what everyone else is watching.  The US Open is about the quality of golf, not page 88 of Golf Architecture.  The tee shots being hit on the 7th are extraordinary to terrible, being struck by the best players in the world.  We now have seen another double eagle, the resurgence of Tiger, and unbelievable grinding by Westwood when his driver was far from his friend.

[Terry Lavin]

Grinding is the operative term.  Don't misunderstand: I love the course but the setup doesn't do it justice, at least in the early going.

[Jason Thurman]

Isn't nice to see a course that you have to execute golf shots?  Many are saying it is the best venue for the US Open because you have to have all the shots in the bag.  I enjoy courses like this that test all facets of the game and let you know where your game stands.  Why don't more people enjoy a test on the golf course?  Olympic is great.  If someone played there all the time, they could travel and play any course with confidence.  Doesn't that say something about how great the course is?  Isn't part of the beauty of golf to have different courses with different challenges?  Does every course have to be super wide and 6500 yards long?  The place is majestic and one of a kind.....and great.

Exactly.

Not sure what everyone would rather see from our national championship, but it's an unbelievable display of golf to see a course with such a brutal setup and players still shooting 66s.

[Andy Shulman]

I've heard a few commentators suggest that Olympic is the best, but it seems like Pinehurst No. 2 and Pebble get considerably more votes as best Open venue.  I'm with Cliff.  The course may be a demanding test, but I've got almost zero desire to play there.

It also looks like a bear to walk.  I've walked Pasatiempo - which is quite hilly - twice.  Is Olympic about the same or even tougher?

[Mark Steffey]

it's been a few years since I played there, but it wasn't that tight.  what makes it appear that way is the height of the trees that surround you.  it was like being in a high ceiling cathedral...

[noonan]

The setup is goofy.....the fairways look like ribbons....the rough length around the bunkers is too tall....if you miss in a bunker it is an easy up and down vs. if you get caught up in the grass

Snore

[John Kavanaugh]

Olympic is one of a handful of courses i have played that on any given day can be the finest course in the world. I thought it was perfect.

[Carson Pilcher]

It is the beauty of the area that makes it a special place.  I used to live in SF and grew to love this hard, penal, beauty!

X1000!  Great great (yet tough) golf course.  I lived out there, and had access to all the local (and Monterey courses).  Cypress was my favorite, but Olympic was fantastic!

[Tommy Williamsen]

Assessing  course from TV is an extremely inexact science.  You can't tell slope, elevation, of the view from the players perspective.  Olympic is one of the courses I could play every day.  It is not nearly as penal for the club player from the normal tees.  Oakmont, Medinah, and Congressional are all tough slogs for everyone.  Olympic is very special.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

You are missing everything. It is wide open now compared to prior Opens. Frankly most of the holes have large corridors. The ones that do  like 12 or right side of 13 are few now.

[Eric_Terhorst]

It also looks like a bear to walk.  I've walked Pasatiempo - which is quite hilly - twice.  Is Olympic about the same or even tougher?

Both Pasatiempo and the Lake Course are a pleasure to play and walk.  The toughest part of both walks is the 50 yards or so up from the 18th greens to the clubhouses after a challenging day of golf, mostly because you know the round is over!

I am grateful for the half-dozen times I got to play Olympic Lake when I lived in the Bay Area, and for the two times I got to watch the US Open played there.  I loved the course long before they removed a bunch of trees and though I haven't played it since, it looks great.  Hole #4 is one of the great par 4s on the planet as far as I know, and that's just the tip of the iceberg of all that Olympic has to offer.  Like Pasatiempo and #11 there.

I think the leader board after 18 holes says it all about the setup--it's early , but it looks like Mike Davis may be headed for another win.

[Matthew Rose]

I'm okay with it. I think they've found a way to preserve the difficulty without making it a stupid, ridiculous slog like it used to be when a missed fairway was a chip out.

I think the new 8th was interesting to watch.... I don't know where it ended up on the difficulty rating but it was at least halfway through the round before someone made a birdie (and it was a chip-in). 16 and 17 are also very fascinating.... I like the back to back but completely different par-five experiment.

The golf has been superb, even though some big names are chopping. We had an albatross, we had Michael Allen, we had vintage Tiger. That low hook that Tiger hit on #4 was cool.

The US Open is different.... it's not bomb and gouge golf where -20 wins. Once a year is fine.

[mike_beene]

My big hd TV shows me it is hillier than I imagined.Is it hillier than Pasatiempo?How many level lies do you get?Is the overall hill like playing down some wide switchbacks on the beginner part of a ski mountain?Is the clubhouse perched as high as Belair for example?

[Mike Benham]

What am I missing?  The course looks claustrophobic even with hundreds of trees gone. The golf is far from exciting.  Any course can be difficult if fairways are narrow, trees hold balls, etc.  I also note there are not that many threads on the course.  I am underwhelmed.  Should it be ranked as highly as it is?  Is it really a great course?  Tough, penal, yes...but great?  I might add, I have never been there, never mind played it, so my observations are only based on what I see from the broadcast.

For most US Opens, the golf is far from exciting on Thursdays and Fridays ...

The course does look claustrophobic ... on TV ... they say TV adds 15 lbs, it works on trees too.

Olympic, from the ground, from behind the tee box, from behind golfers approach, does not photograph well.  The shadows exacerbate the contrast from the trees and with the last two closing holes will be into the sun for the late starting times on Saturday and Sunday, the TV crews are going to have a fun time getting those award winning camera angles.

The course as set-up for the Open, has little in common for every day member play, so a ranking based on this tournament is not appropriate (that is the same for any major tournament venue).

[Mike Benham]

How many level lies do you get?

18 ...

[mike_beene]

Mike,that is what I thought after watching today but I bet it takes work to even keep the tees level over time.

[Dan King]

I prefer the Cliffs Course, but do understand why they choose not to contest the U.S. Open there.

Cheers,
Dan King

I was horrified. Absolutely heartsick. All I could think of was that after 23 years together, I'd lost my faithful ally. I couldn't sleep, couldn't get the loss out of my mind. It was like discovering that someone in my family had died.
 --Ben Crenshaw (on the theft of his putter "Little Ben" in 1990)

[Keith Doleshel]

I know I'm going to be in the minority here, but Olympic doesn't really do it for me either.  I have played it, and was there for the Open today.  Great club, beautiful location in a fabulous city, tremendous history, a fantastic test for the US Open, all true.  But the course does seem to me to be repetitious, hemmed in by trees, and just lacking a whole lot of interest besides the difficulty factor.  I'm not here bashing Olympic, just sharing an opinion.