Men's US Amateur Bandon Dunes

[William_G]

https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2020/u-s--amateur.html#!course-statistics


#11 Bandon Dunes playing 450 straight into a 20 MPH wind, tough


Aman Gupta 7 under at Trails with 7 birdies on the front in the morning


fun

[Ronald Montesano]

You put the hex on him. He finished with nine consecutive pars.

[Garland Bayley]

Gray had to put the hex on him to preserve his course record.

[Sven Nilsen]

It was blowing pretty good out there today.  That 64 on Bandon in the full brunt of it is even more impressive.

[William_G]

It was blowing pretty good out there today.  That 64 on Bandon in the full brunt of it is even more impressive.

yep, 9 birdies and 1 bogey,the poa greens are perfect, great round and birdied 16-18 after the bogey at 15


scoring average at 75.5 for both courses and went up significantly in the afternoon to get that average


should be blowing again today

[William_G]

Gray had to put the hex on him to preserve his course record.

all pars on the back is still very good!



LOL my 66 from 15 years ago was on Trails, but then it was an entirely different course


now it's poa greens and almost every hole has been significantly softened


records are made to be broken, fun!

[Will Lozier]

LOL my 66 from 15 years ago was on Trails, but then it was an entirely different course


now it's poa greens and almost every hole has been significantly softened


records are made to be broken, fun!

William, I think maybe you did a thread on this years ago, but can you briefly speak to the softening of Trails on each hole. I caddied there in 2009, and I would be curious to know more specifics other than the obvious "controversy" and subsequent changes at 14, and the tweaks to the landing area and green at 18. I am not sure I know of other changes, let alone at every hole. Would love to better acquaint myself with perhaps my favorite course at Bandon. Thanks!

[William_G]

LOL my 66 from 15 years ago was on Trails, but then it was an entirely different course


now it's poa greens and almost every hole has been significantly softened


records are made to be broken, fun!

William, I think maybe you did a thread on this years ago, but can you briefly speak to the softening of Trails on each hole. I caddied there in 2009, and I would be curious to know more specifics other than the obvious "controversy" and subsequent changes at 14, and the tweaks to the landing area and green at 18. I am not sure I know of other changes, let alone at every hole. Would love to better acquaint myself with perhaps my favorite course at Bandon. Thanks!

i of course can be wrong on a lot of this but...and all greens are poa now



#1 no real change except back tee was absorbed into the Preserve
#2 added turf to the right approach eliminating a bunch of waste area
#3 no change
#4 all trees on right side of fairway gone
#5 all trees framing green gone
#6-13 all bunker edges cleaned up
#14 left side of green approach redone many times, left side LZ widened, left trees removed, left side all cleaned up
#15 green was entirely flattened by turf cut and resanding
#16 green was raised by 3 feet front left
#17 no change
#18 entire LZ and approach to grren turf cut, LZ hump lowered by 6 feet and green turfcut and flattened


so some big changes on some holes and minor stuff everywhere


the Poa at the resort is fantastic and many of us out here think it makes it easier to make putts, and there are now ball marks which never existed before


thanks

[Sven Nilsen]

I wouldn't say the 15th green was flattened, as it still has plenty of slope.  What was a really cool, but pretty severe, three-tiered green now has a more gradual slope from back to front.  There's still a small back tier that is used for play, but its much easier to negotiate a put towards the front of the green these days.  Before being a tier above the hole was pretty much dead.


The site of the 15th green is one of my favorite spots on property.

[William_G]

+1 Sven


relatively flattened, it was insane before LOL

[Sven Nilsen]

A 62 on Trails today, with two bogeys.  Unreal.

[William_G]

A 62 on Trails today, with two bogeys.  Unreal.

yep unreal


he must love Trails

[Joe Zucker]

There are a lot of good scores out there, but I thought it was really interesting that most of the top 10 players missed match play


"With No. 9 Ogletree, No. 8 Pak and No. 7 Pierceson Coody out, that leaves just No. 4 Davis Thompson and No. 6 Sandy Scott as thee only top-10 WAGR players left at Bandon."

[/size]I have no idea if this says anything about top amateur golf or is just random chance, but it's interesting that only 2/10 of the best amateurs played well. Preston Summerhays has a comment about never playing this type of golf. 
[/color]


https://www.golfchannel.com/news/us-amateur-hopes-end-final-hole-cole-hammer-preston-summerhays

[Will Lozier]

Thanks for the summary William. It does look like they used that back tee on 1 though, no?


I was shocked that 6 is playing harder than 7, by close almost half a shot. Then I realized they put them on that way back tee on the hill near 16 green! Still, I've always felt 7 was substantially tougher than 6.


Did they use the back tee of 8 for the tee box on 11?


Lastly, I am surprised that they didn't take the tees further back on 18?


Cheers

[Sven Nilsen]

Will -


A lot of it had to do with the wind, and when players teed off on each course.  Monday was blowing more than yesterday, making those afternoon rounds on Bandon pretty tough.



6 into the wind from the way back box (resort players don't even realize there is a tee box back there) is a tough hole.  Way more trouble in play than on 7.


They cut a new tee box for 11 just off the back left corner of 7 green.

386 yards on 18 into the wind was a pretty good test.

Sven

[William_G]

Will,


not sure about #1 but was 390 from the old back tee



I wasn't there so whatever is happening will be streamed or on TV today


Sven is the best source for info, I'm merely a long time Bandonista and will be there again with 7 others in 2 weeks for 8+ rounds


surprised that #17 BT played as the most difficult during qualifying, not surprised about #11 BD

[Will Lozier]

Will,

not sure about #1 but was 390 from the old back tee

I wasn't there so whatever is happening will be streamed or on TV today

Sven is the best source for info, I'm merely a long time Bandonista and will be there again with 7 others in 2 weeks for 8+ rounds

surprised that #17 BT played as the most difficult during qualifying, not surprised about #11 BD

Sven,


Did you get a loop?


And both of you...yes, 11 at BD is a beast!!!!!


Cheers,
Will

[JLahrman]

There are a lot of good scores out there, but I thought it was really interesting that most of the top 10 players missed match play


"With No. 9 Ogletree, No. 8 Pak and No. 7 Pierceson Coody out, that leaves just No. 4 Davis Thompson and No. 6 Sandy Scott as thee only top-10 WAGR players left at Bandon."

I have no idea if this says anything about top amateur golf or is just random chance, but it's interesting that only 2/10 of the best amateurs played well. Preston Summerhays has a comment about never playing this type of golf. 


https://www.golfchannel.com/news/us-amateur-hopes-end-final-hole-cole-hammer-preston-summerhays

Not sure Joe, I guess we could look back at previous years to see how often the top ranked amateurs make match play. Although the article does say that two of the guys just barely missed out, if they'd both parred their last hole there could have been 4 of the top 10 make match play.


But I would suspect that the different style of golf at Bandon and the added variety of the weather conditions could also add some randomness to the results.

[William_G]

There are a lot of good scores out there, but I thought it was really interesting that most of the top 10 players missed match play


"With No. 9 Ogletree, No. 8 Pak and No. 7 Pierceson Coody out, that leaves just No. 4 Davis Thompson and No. 6 Sandy Scott as thee only top-10 WAGR players left at Bandon."

I have no idea if this says anything about top amateur golf or is just random chance, but it's interesting that only 2/10 of the best amateurs played well. Preston Summerhays has a comment about never playing this type of golf. 


https://www.golfchannel.com/news/us-amateur-hopes-end-final-hole-cole-hammer-preston-summerhays

Not sure Joe, I guess we could look back at previous years to see how often the top ranked amateurs make match play. Although the article does say that two of the guys just barely missed out, if they'd both parred their last hole there could have been 4 of the top 10 make match play.


But I would suspect that the different style of golf at Bandon and the added variety of the weather conditions could also add some randomness to the results.

there is something to said about having to "golf your ball" at a links course and Bandon in the wind comes to mind, certainly not resume golf, LOL


streaming on Peacock in a minute

[Joe Zucker]

There are a lot of good scores out there, but I thought it was really interesting that most of the top 10 players missed match play


"With No. 9 Ogletree, No. 8 Pak and No. 7 Pierceson Coody out, that leaves just No. 4 Davis Thompson and No. 6 Sandy Scott as thee only top-10 WAGR players left at Bandon."

I have no idea if this says anything about top amateur golf or is just random chance, but it's interesting that only 2/10 of the best amateurs played well. Preston Summerhays has a comment about never playing this type of golf. 


https://www.golfchannel.com/news/us-amateur-hopes-end-final-hole-cole-hammer-preston-summerhays

Not sure Joe, I guess we could look back at previous years to see how often the top ranked amateurs make match play. Although the article does say that two of the guys just barely missed out, if they'd both parred their last hole there could have been 4 of the top 10 make match play.


But I would suspect that the different style of golf at Bandon and the added variety of the weather conditions could also add some randomness to the results.

Having thought about it a bit more, I think you're right.  Young players are usually not as consistent, even if they are extremely good.  And I can't think of a good reason why the 100th player in the world would handle different conditions better than the top 10. All the guys in the field are playing the same type of game anyways.

[James Brown]

Wow, does Bandon Dunes look great for this event.  Really representing ideal conditions and great design well.

[William_G]

Summarized quote from Bones on the 16th hole at Bandon Dunes, "I would get on a plane and fly here just to play this hole", great coverage by Golf Channel and Peacock.

4 more days to see on Golf Channel and Peacock.

everyone enjoy

[Sven Nilsen]

Just a reminder that you're looking at Joe Hancock's work on all of the bunkers out here.

[Peter Pallotta]

Just a reminder that you're looking at Joe Hancock's work on all of the bunkers out here.

Thanks for noting that: I'd forgotten it, and Joe is a terrible self-promotor!

[William_G]

the bunkers are where you use the 60, but these over-coached kids have been taught something different or not LOL