Well, I never go to the range, so let’s go straight to the 1st tee.
#1 – 626 Yards Black – 560 Blue – 542 White – Par 5 - That’s a pretty long hole from the Championship tees, I usually play the Blue tees, 560 is plenty for me right out of the car. Good time to check the big flag on top of the clock tower to get a sense of wind direction and velocity.
The railroad tracks, which are shared by the Metra Electric Commuter, Amtrak, and all kinds of freight trains, run hard up against the left side of this hole all the way to the green. The Metra lines start in downtown Chicago just under Millennium Park, and run sort of under the Art Institute and then on past Soldier Field south through Hyde Park, and a dozen other Southside neighborhoods and suburbs. It takes about 45 minutes to travel from Millennium Park to the Olympia Fields station. A quick duck through the tunnel, a buzz at the door, and you’re in. This is how thousands of Olympia Fields members and visitors entered the club in the early days. I’ve taken the train down a few times. It’s pretty cool and really easy, and not having to fight Chicago traffic makes for a relaxed and leisurely arrival. Very civilized.
The Metra folks insist on having a recoded message playing a little bit too loudly on the station platform that announces the arrival of trains. It sounds like their loudspeaker is ON the tee. The announcement goes something like…”…attention Metra commuters, an out bound Metra train will be approaching the station in approximately…4 minutes…please stand behind the yellow line” Thanks Metra, I was just getting ready to stripe one, but now that I know there’s a train coming in four minutes, I’ll just slash one into those trees over there short of the right fairway bunker.
The drive, like many on the course is framed by big and deep fairway bunkers. There are three on this hole, one left, and two right. None of them is a good place from which to hit your second shot.
As part of the recent bunker work, a little island has been placed inside the first right side bunker. Apparently, Park had a huge one there in the original design, so the bunker redesign incorporated this feature. It’s a bitch of an island, as it sets up some ungodly bad lies and awkward stances. I don’t think the grounds crew likes to cut that grass on the island either, because it’s usually about six inches long.
I can’t hit it far enough to get into the second bunker on the right, so I don’t worry about that one too much, although I suspect there will be a fair number of US Amateur participants who visit that one, right in the 280-320 driver wheelhouse for those guys.
The left bunker, which is plenty deep, and likes to let the balls roll right up under the face, is a bunker that can be carried, and just off its right edge is the preferred driving line. A ball which just carries this bunker will also catch a nice little downhill run adding a free 20-30 yards to ones drive. If I’ve hit a good ball, I’m usually someplace just in the middle of these three bunkers with a nice level lie. Hit one a little short of that, or if the wind is out of the North, and you’ll find a nice uphill launch pad from which to hit your second.
If you get left into the bushes, you can see what remains of a small creek that used to cross the 1st fairway, run over across the 9th and 18th fairways, and join up with Butterfield Creek as it bends around the on the east side of the 17th hole. This creek was buried long ago in a pipe that now runs into the pond on the right side of 18. I would love to see this get unburied someday, adding a new hazard to the drives on 1 and 10. Probably never happen though.
The Approach – If your drive has avoided the bunkers the next shot is framed by a pair of bunkers set on either side of the fairway about 120-130 yards from the green. A fairway wood or hybrid between or over these set up a wedge into this very large green.
If you’ve killed your drive, or it’s downwind, a solid second will easily carry the second set of fairway bunkers and run the last 80 yards to the green down a lovely incline that helps the ball closer to the green. If your ball stops in this area from about 30-75 yards out, the pitch to the green gets slightly more tricky off the tight downhill lie, so sometimes it pays to lay just a bit back on this second shot.
The green has a bunker left, and a giant deep one on the front right. The left bunker is not that difficult, but the front right one is a bad place to be, I always try to take this bunker out of play. At the bottom of this bunker, the green is over your head, so getting close to a front pin is nearly impossible. The rest of the green is currently surrounded by really thick rough, so unless you’re used to that kind of stuff, the bunkers might actually be a better place.
The course setup for the US Amateur will feature a generous helping of long thick rough throughout the course. Which is tough enough from out in the fairway, but with hard fast greens, I find these little pitches and chips from around the greens out of really long stuff a bit of a chore. Maybe those US Am’s will handle it ok, for me, those little shots make an already tough course just that much more unmanageable.
The Green – For the most part, this very large green slopes gently back to front and maybe just slightly right to left. There are a few pin spots, like the far back right where the break gets somewhat more severe, but generally this is a fairly tame green and a good place to make a birdie. This green, like most on Olympia Fields North, are generally straightforward, and good US Amateur players will rarely be faced with what might be called a difficult two-putt. There is a bit of subtlety to the breaks, so making the first putt is a challenge, but I don’t think too many of these good amateur players will be concerned with three putting all that often.