LPGA—Congressional

[Ira Fishman]

Anyone been at the tournament this weekend? What is your opinion of the course?


Thanks.

[Ben Hollerbach]

My Brother was there yesterday with his daughters. He has played the course 4 or 5 times in the past, but this was his first time on the property since the redesign. This were his impressions:

Visually It was very impressive.  The views are something being able to view so many holes at once and tournament and crowds added to that feel.  I’m curious what it would feel like with just golfers.

I didn’t get to see that many holes up close, but for the ones I did, I was surprised as to the front to back slopes and ridges on them.  As an example, the kick Chun’s ball got on her last shot into 18 that sent it over the green.  She only hit about 15 ft from the flag, and if her ball had been a couple yards short or long in landing it would have ended up within 20 ft, and yet she was off the back.

The 15th:

15 was the worst though.  The hole is long (440 for them) but it was playing downwind, so they probably had about 150-160 in.  Second shot is a good bit uphill, and they certainly couldn’t see the putting surface (maybe could see the flag).  The pin was back left.  The back left of the green was at the bottom of another ridge that sloped away from the player.  It looked generally as well that the green also sloped away from the player toward the back, but it may have just been flat.  Right behind the green here is a steep drop off into a bunker.

I think the players knew the ball would release, because they almost all tried to land the ball on the very front of the green.  But it didn’t matter because the ball nearly always went over.  A few balls did hold and stayed up top on the front, but every ball that I saw that went down the ridge went off the back.

Maybe the worst part of this, was the players didn’t know it was happening.  Three straight shots from a group would land on the front, roll off the back, as nobody could see the green because of the hill, so nobody adjusted.  And many of the players seemed very disappointed when they walked up and didn’t see a ball on the green and had to get out a sand wedge and hit a bunker shot or chip back on.

Some people did land short of the green.  Some of those bounced on.  Others, grabbed quick and stayed short requiring a fairly long chip.

All in all the hole was clearly unfair, I’m sure these women are better than 99% of Congo’s member, so I’m not sure how an average player would have played this hole. My understanding is they were supposed to make this course feel like an Emmitt course.  From my experience the green was nothing like a golden aged long uphill par four green. 

Treeless:Now one of the reasons I watched that hole for so long is because it was one of the only places  you could watch actual golf from shade.  The Course is nearly treeless, and while it wasn’t close to being a really hot day here, it was hot enough.  And it got me wondering if you could safely hold a mid-summer men’s tournament on this course any longer.

40,000 or so people out there without any escape from the sun for 6+ hours in the worse kind of heat DC can get seems like a potential disaster in terms of spectator health.   Oakmont and Erin Hills are obviously similar in the treeless factor, but they are much further north, with lower typical temperatures and lower humidity. Think '64 open Venturi heat stroke tournament with no trees for any of the spectators. 

Even from a “playing golf” perspective I’m sure if I was a member, I would choose to play the Gold course on the hot afternoon days because it has plenty of trees on it.

This “treeless” trend in golf does lead to some pretty impressive visuals, but in the hotter parts of the country, I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do from an “enjoy golf” perspective.

[Brett Meyer]

I was there on Sunday. I'd only seen Congressional on TV but the new version looks absolutely nothing like I remember. And it looks great. It's a very good piece of land for a golf course; hilly, but never too hilly such that it's difficult to build a good hole. There are awkward spots on a few holes (blind layup on 6; no good place to lay up on 9), but most of the holes looked pretty good to me.

I disagree with Ben's brother about the 15th hole--I thought that the obligatory blind approach added variety to the course. There's plenty of room to land the ball short and run it onto the green. It's just that the course had become quite firm by Sunday and some of the ladies I saw didn't land it far enough short of the green given their low trajectories. The exception was Lexi; I was standing on the left side of the fairway halfway to the green and when she hit her shot, I could tell that the trajectory was high enough that even though it was going to carry closer to the green than her playing partners, it'd probably have enough bite on it to hold. It did.

So it's a hole where you really need to understand that if you don't put a lot of spin on the ball, you may have to land it well short of the green. But there's plenty of room to do that and I thought that it was one of the best holes out there.

Here's a photo from the left side of the green:



Overall, Congressional looked to me a lot like some of the new courses and renovations of recent years, but especially demanding. It's heavy on fairway bunkers, usually on both sides but almost always staggered. There are also a lot of bunkers around the greens.

But some of the most challenging shots around the greens are from the short grass hollows that surround them. There aren't as many as on some of the newer courses but they're especially difficult because (1) the shaping around the greens tends to be abrupt and you have to come up some pretty steep slopes and (2) these were the tightest fairways that I've ever seen, so you have less room for error. I wasn't surprised to see Lexi do what she did from where she was on 16. She and Hye-Jin also left their second shots in nasty spots short-right of the tenth green.

The hardest one of all is over the back of the 7th green. Lexi also hit it there and I thought did well to get her next shot about 15 feet from the hole. The shaping at the back of the 7th green bothered me because while it's a par 3 in the 140-160 range, it's uphill and the green is very shallow. Lexi hit what I thought was a good shot that landed near the front of the green, but it still kicked through the green. Regular golfers would have a hell of a time with that hole.

The approach to 10. Lexi and Hye-Jin were short and right of the greenside bunker. Not the best place for a front-right pin:



The back of the 7th green. Like a lot of the chipping area on new courses/restorations, this one would be better if it were half as deep:



My takeaway is that the course looks great and is very interesting, but it's very hard. There are a lot of places where you just can't miss it around these greens, but you should be able to avoid most of these if you're careful. And the course is designed to host major championships, so it should be difficult.

I thought that the shaping around the greens and bunkers was a bit abrupt and I would have preferred it to be a bit more rounded to match the broad, rolling style of the property a bit better. But that's more a personal aesthetic preference than anything wrong with the course.

[Ben Hollerbach]

I disagree with Ben's brother about the 15th hole--I thought that the obligatory blind approach added variety to the course. There's plenty of room to land the ball short and run it onto the green. It's just that the course had become quite firm by Sunday and some of the ladies I saw didn't land it far enough short of the green given their low trajectories. The exception was Lexi; I was standing on the left side of the fairway halfway to the green and when she hit her shot, I could tell that the trajectory was high enough that even though it was going to carry closer to the green than her playing partners, it'd probably have enough bite on it to hold. It did.

So it's a hole where you really need to understand that if you don't put a lot of spin on the ball, you may have to land it well short of the green. But there's plenty of room to do that and I thought that it was one of the best holes out there.

While I feel a little bit like the middle man here. I did notice the GIR rate on the 15th on Sunday was only 21%. That seems like a stark example of a hole playing out of norm compared to the rest of the round. Which makes me wonder if something else was going on and not just a miss understanding of the holes setup by the entire field.

Edit: Watching highlights of the final round, I noticed even Lexi didn't hold the green at the 15th.