Olympia Fields North - Non Photo Tour

[Paul OConnor]

 With the US Amateur starting next week, I thought this might be a good time to start a sister thread to the popular Olympia Fields South Course – Non Photo Tour.  I tried to get Sven to do it, but he is apparently too busy with something else.
 
The North Course was the last of the four original courses constructed at Olympia Fields, in 1923.  The great Willie Park is the original architect.  Mark Mungeam has done the consulting on recent changes, both prior to the US Open in 2003, and most recently last year as the course was treated to a bunker refresh, the addition/subtraction of a few bunkers, re-alignment and rebuilding of nearly every tee box, and some fairly minor adjustments to fairway width.   These fairway adjustments were accompanied by the installation of all new first cut rough grass throughout the entire course.  This addition really frames the fairways now as the new first cut grass is a somewhat darker green than that of the fairway.  I think it looks pretty good.
 
The bunkers were all emptied, reshaped, lined and then refilled with new sand.  The sand that was replaced had turned to dust in many bunkers and had really run its course.  The new sand is great; consistent, firm, and generally a lot more playable.  I like it.
 
There have been only a few real changes to the course since the Open in 2003, and we shall discuss these in detail as we work our way around the course.  Most involve the addition or movement of a single bunker.  The length of most of the holes is identical to the Open yardage, with the exception of numbers 1, 8, 9, 14, and 17.  The US Open yardage was 7205.  From the back of the back tees I think the course can now stretch to 7360 or so.  Most of the gain was captured on the 1^st, 46 yards longer, the 8^th, which can now play from around 294, 47 yards longer than in 2003, the 9^th, is about 30 yards longer, the 14^th is only like 10 yards more, and the 17^th is 22 yards more.   We can talk about these changes in more detail as we progress through the course.
 
I’m not sure how the USGA is going to route the participants around the course for the US Amateur; for the US Open they started on 1 and then went to 11 to play the rest of the back nine, played 10 and then finished the round on the 9^th.  I don’t really like this routing, I think it messes with the natural flow of the round and disrupts what I think is one of the greatest parkland routings that I have played.  The 1-11-12-13… routing puts four of the easiest holes on the course all at the beginning of the round.  The elegant ebb and flow of the normal routing is lost, to the detriment of the experience, in my opinion. 
 
So, before we get to the first tee, of course, we must drive into the course.  There is a guard house to stop at, and as this is the South Side, yes the guard has a pistol, so you better stop.   When the gate rises, take a quick glance out the passenger window and you will see the 17^th green, a perfect time to check the hole location there, and as you accelerate up the slight incline to cross Butterfield Creek for the first of many times, the course unfolds before you.  The 17^th tee is right there, mere steps from the road, and then the 18^th green sits beneath the road, quietly framed by a few tall trees.  Another opportunity to check a hole location you’ll be visiting in a few hours.  This drive never fails to thrill me, and I’ve made it hundreds of times.  There it is, Olympia Fields North, just waiting for you.  Hope you’re ready. 
 


 

[Paul OConnor]

 Well, I never go to the range, so let’s go straight to the 1^st 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 1^st fairway, run over across the 9^th and 18^th fairways, and join up with Butterfield Creek as it bends around the on the east side of the 17^th 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. 
 
 

[Jeff Goldman]

Paul,  thanks for doing this. I’ve been gone for a long while, but I’m back in Chicago, hanging out at my favorite golf place in the world, and in hopes of rejoining the playhouse I thought I would do a post with more general background on the Amateur and the courses to follow on Paul’s posts. We are very happy to be hosting this event, as we have never had an Am before. After a wet June the weather had been very good until we got 1.3 inches of rain on Monday in about a half hour. I was at the club last weekend, and the courses were very, very firm. Though the dry recent weather burned off some of the rough, it seems pretty healthy generally, and the greens seemed…..ready-and-a-half. A number of kids playing in the Am have been on the courses over the past few weeks, and a few came down from the Western Am to play (and a tour pro named Dan Berger stopped by on his way to Kohler and shot 71, I think). A few weeks after the Am most of the top players will be back for the Fighting Illini Invitational.

The South course is set up to play about 7040 yards, par 70. I think the goal is to get 156 players around it as expeditiously as possible, so they are not doing anything crazy, and unless there is wind there should be some very good scores. We held the Fighting Illini tourney on South a few years ago and Patrick Rodgers won by 5 shots at -3. I think the greens on South will be about 12 but could go faster. The North Course will be the match play course, and is set up at around 7240 yards on the Championship card. They will use the US Open routing, which means that they will play 1 and 11-18 as the front nine, and 10, 2-9 as the back. I expect that holes 5 (14 in the event) and 11 (2 in the event) may be set up drivable during the match play. I think the greens will start out around 13 (whatever that means) or maybe a little less, and will get zippier as the week goes on. Not to disagree with Paul about the greens, but if you have ever been to the Fighting Illini, you have seen the kids spend inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out 3-4 foot putts on 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, the site of the infamous David Graham 5-putt during the 1997 Senior Open (with a total of about 40 putt-feet).

As Paul notes, there have been some recent changes to the North course. Beginning in 2012, DOG Sam MacKenzie and Grounds Chairman Andy Revell engaged our North Course architect Mark Mungeam in a restoration project to put back some bunkers and other features that have been lost over the years. A very cool large bunker with a turf island put in the right side fairway on the first hole. Fairway bunkers were put back in on the right of 15 and left of 18 (6 and 9 for the event). Centerline fairway bunkers within 25-35 yards of the green were put back on holes 5 and 17 (14, and 8 in the event), and the greenside bunker on 5 cut back to restore the open entrance once over the bunker. On 8 (17 in the Am), the long par 3, a centerline bunker was restored about 20 yards in front of the green, and the right greenside bunker cut back to restore the wide entrance to the green (they dug down to find the location of the original center bunker). FYI, the hole played at 220 in the 1928 US Open, and up to 250 for the 1961 PGA, which would be, what, 320 today? Also, after the 1961 PGA Championship the then grounds chairman took some of the money and put in the pond on the right of 18 which jutted halfway into the fairway. While we couldn’t get rid of the pond, we did fill in the part that pushed into the fairway to restore this long par 4 to the style of the rest of the course. I’ll try to get some pictures up. 

I may do a separate post about his, but as part of the run-up for the Amateur, we held a two-day get together with our architects Mark Mungeam and Steve Smyers, golf writers, aficionados etc., including GCA-er Adam Lawrence, who not only brought the house down during a panel discussion with the architects and Ron Whitten, but also helped close the 73rd hole. Twice. It was great to meet Adam and some other GCA folks in person. Best line of the event may have been on the first tee of the North when Mr. Whitten spotted Brad Klein and called out, affectionately, “Hey Genius!”

I am really looking forward to reconnecting, and I hope anyone coming out will give me a shout so we can meet up. I might be able to rustle up a clubhouse pass or two as well.

Best,
Jeff Goldman

[Adam Lawrence]

I may do a separate post about his, but as part of the run-up for the Amateur, we held a two-day get together with our architects Mark Mungeam and Steve Smyers, golf writers, aficionados etc., including GCA-er Adam Lawrence, who not only brought the house down during a panel discussion with the architects and Ron Whitten, but also helped close the 73rd hole. Twice. It was great to meet Adam and some other GCA folks in person.

Are you calling me a lush? <hangsheadinshame>

[Jeff Goldman]

Hey, I was there too!  And, btw, I forgot to mention that Adam wrote a terrific, very thoughtful article in Golf Course Architecture on the work, so it's probably me who is the lush. 

[Adam Lawrence]

It was Smyers' fault.

[Jeff Goldman]

Knocked us all on our ass

[Jeff Shelman]

I think for normal people, part of what makes OF North somewhat challenging is that it is hard to make up ground. You're going to make some bogeys (and maybe even double bogeys) and there aren't many natural spots where you say, "I can make birdie here."

Like most people, I look at par 5s as a place to make up ground. You often have a short iron or something from the wedge family into a green and you hope to hit it close enough.

At OF North, there are only two par 5s and neither is a pushover. One is right out of the shoot and the first tee ball of the day is never easy for me. If I haven't hit balls, it's always something of a guess. And even if I have warmed up, you never really know. On No. 1, I think you really have to hit a decent tee ball to have a chance to score. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be OK.

If you block one a little bit into the right rough or yank one into the left bunker or the rough near that bunker, you suddenly have work to do just to hit the green in regulation and when I'm in that situation, I'm just trying to hold on and make par.

Now I'm sure the guys in the Am won't have these same problem. There will probably be a bunch of birdies here, but for the average guy....

[Scott Wintersteen]

#1  I think this is a great hole to start your round off to.  It kind of eases you into the round.  The drive is fairly straightforward; just make sure you don't miss left with the train tracks.  For the second shot my goal is to come up short of the fairway bunker on the right and then have a nice little 140 yard shot to the green.  The bunkers surrounding the green are deep but not too difficult to come out of.  The green has some movement to it but it is one of the easier greens to read on the course.  This hole is much easier than the other Par 5, 15th hole so you need to take advantage of it. 

[Paul OConnor]

 #2 – 471 US Open tee – 446 Blue – 430 White – Par 4. 
 
This long par 4 doglegs slightly to the right over a trio of fairway bunkers.  The furthest of which was extended slightly in the recent work, to make it something like a 310 yard carry from the back tee.  There is a marshy water hazard up the left side which I rarely get close to, but is certainly within reach of the longer hitters.   
 
The Drive - As this hole generally plays with a helping wind, I suspect the US Am’s will take dead aim for the left corner of this last bunker and blast away.   Me, well I’ll be trying to hit a slight cut off the left side of the fairway that follows the dogleg, and avoids the bunkers.  The rough on the left side of this hole tends to be exceptionally thick for some reason, but I prefer that side than to either in or right of those bunkers. 
 
When I end up in the right bunkers, I’m usually just grabbing a 7 or 8 iron and knocking it down short of the cross bunker and trying my luck getting up and down.  I learned long ago that trying to hit long irons out of Olympia Fields fairway bunkers is generally a bad idea, and inevitably leads to big numbers.  I’ll take my chances getting up and down from 80 yards most times. 
 
The Approach – If you’ve found the fairway, really from any distance, this is one of the more accessible greens on the North Course.  I’ve hit this green plenty of times from 200+ yards running up hybrids or long irons, as the front is unguarded by bunkers and usually fairly firm.  A low runner to the right half of the green will generally run back and to the center of this very long green. 
 
There is a cross bunker some 30 yards short and left of the green here, and four bunkers, two each side, surrounding the green.  While not exceptionally deep, if you’ve short sided yourself in one of these, the sand shot can be tricky as the green slopes from both sides to the center.  I particularly dislike the back right bunker for this reason. 
 
The US Am’s who hit the fairway will be hitting 7-8-9 in to this green, and probably won’t have much trouble as long as they go for the middle of the green. 
 
The Green – A longish, somewhat narrow green, it slopes from back to front, more severely as one gets further back on the green.   The green is folded about a small valley on about the left third, with balls breaking towards that fold from both edges.  A small flattish area at the front right is a favorite pin spot.  You can get pretty long putts on this green if the pin is back and you are not, and by the time the ball gets all the way back the break can be 3-4 feet. 
 
 
 

[Paul OConnor]

 #3 – 461 US Open – 439 Blue – 409 White – Par 4
 
One of the very best long par 4’s in golf.  From the 2^nd green one walks back a hundred yards to the back tees of this gorgeous hole, which from the tee looks like nothing more than a barren shot to nothing in particular.  It is only after the drive, and a walk up to the edge of the ridge that the greatness of this hole appears.   No fairway bunkers, just the slightly canted fairway below, trees and fence left, deep rough with a few medium sized trees right, and the green perched upon the very end of the other ridge on the far side of Butterfield Creek. 
 
The Drive – I guess you could call it a skyline drive, except the backdrop is a sea of indistinguishable green tree leaves rather than the continuous blue of the sky.  The upper fairway, which runs for 70-80 yards on the top side of the ridge gives clues as to where the fairway will appear below.  There just isn’t really anything all that great at which to aim.   A huge stand of oaks on the ridge right of the fairway always seems to have a fair bit of activity as players avoid the OB left, this is a really bad spot which can lead to lost balls and big numbers.   I prefer a drive in the left half of the fairway, or even left rough, as it gives a slightly more advantageous entry through the tight greenside bunkers  guarding the green. 
 
I’ve had plenty of balls end up on the slope between the upper and lower fairways, which is not too fun, as I grab my wedge and pitch it down the fairway towards the creek.  Into the wind from the back tees I’ve had a few balls not even make it over the edge and hang up on the top fairway.  Now, that leaves a pretty tough shot too, but lots more fun. 
 
The Approach – Depending on the tee and the wind, the approach can be made with a hybrid or long iron, maybe even a little cut three wood into the rare east wind, or as little as a 8 or 9 iron.  The US Am boys will all hit 9’s and wedges. 
 
The green is protected by three bunkers, one on the left, and two which stair step up the front right half of the green.  The left bunker is not too bad a spot with a right pin, and is usually my target when I try slashing something out of the right rough to clear the creek.  Of the two right bunkers, the one furthest down the hill is to be avoided at all costs.  It’s probably 15 feet below the green surface, the pin is never visible, and you have to carry the second bunker to get to the green.  The bunker further up the hill is somewhat more manageable, but I’d rather just steer clear of these two.
 
The Green – Because of its hill top location, this green tends to be a bit firmer than most, and somewhat faster as well.  There is a severe slope on the left side of the green about halfway back that separates that side of the green into two pieces.  Putts back down to a left front pin are extremely fast, and getting to the front pin from the right side of the green requires perfect pace and delicate touch.   The right half of the green is less severe, generally falls right to left and back to front. 
 
So why is this such a great hole?  Well first, it’s a hard hole, requiring a long well placed drive, the green is tough to hit and hold, and can be slick and treacherous.  There are plenty of hazards with OB left, huge stand of oaks blocking the right, and the creek and bunkers waiting for poorly struck shots.  It is the difficulty, and the heroic nature of the shots required to succeed that make this hole great.  Plus it is just a tremendous greensite.