LengthIn almost every sport, display of strength is an integral part of competition. What would be baseball without home runs or basketball without dunks? Football is self-explanatory, and everyone marvels at velocity generated by Andy Roddick’s serve and Federer’s forehand.
In golf, it is all about length, and it is not just for show. There is a very high correlation between how high a player is ranked and how long that player is. Tiger dominated during his prime due to his long drives and mastery of long irons. Length matters. Length is an important part of golf.
Length is also very important for golf course architecture. Length is the easiest way to separate wheat from chaff, easiest way to identify extraordinary from ordinary.
So, is it any wonder that holes are getting longer and longer every year?
Tee Shot
This is a long hole from normal tees. This hole is practically a par 5 from the tournament tees (540 yards!!!). However, the added length adds a lot of interest for the hole.
The 11th fairway is dominated by the large mound (C) that is located in the middle of the fairway about 250 yards from the green. From the normal tees, you can carry this mound without too much trouble (~200 yards carry from blues), so it mostly serves as a visual intimidation. From the US Open tees, the mound is in the middle of the preferred landing zone about 280 to 300 yards away. This will force the player to choose a side, left or right, around the mound.
There is a shorter tournament tee about 30 to 40 yards short of the very back tees (and about 15 feet lower), but I believe this tee will only be used if there is significant wind from the north.
While I would love to say choosing a side (A or B) has unique risk/reward scenarios, but it does not. Approaching the green is more favorable from the left side (A) as you can use the sideboard (M and N) to your advantage more. If the pin is in the very back, you might have an easier time from the right, but the difference in difficulties is not great enough to overcome the fact that the left side fairway is about twice as wide as the right of the mound (B).
The only risk you are incurring when driving to the left side of the mound is that you may hit the rough ridge that intrudes into the fairway more than 300 yards away (F). If you drive into this ridge, you may have a very difficult second shot as the lie will be dicey at best. Your tee shot must be either short of this ridge, or aim more right (risking landing in the mound) to give yourself more room.
Driving to the right side of the mound (B) is more difficult as not only is it narrow, if you hit it long or right (D), the ball will run into some of the thickest rough on the course. Getting your ball to the green from this position will be impossible.
Approach Shot
The severe green site dictates everything you do with your second shot at the 11th. The green sits on a side slope, with a sideboard (M and N) coming down sharply from the right/back and the fairway rising up sharply (K) to meet the green from the left. Anything short or left of the green will kick down the side slope about 40 to 50 yards away from the green (J). Anything right of the green will kick hard from the sideboard and end up in the same place.
You are also hitting a very long iron shot. Most players will be hitting from about 200 yards to 250 yards away. Even with how long tour players are hitting these days, this is still a very difficult approach shot.
The ideal approach is a high fade that lands somewhere in the middle of the green and roll up the sideboard and gently ride it down back towards the middle of the green. This will give you the most margin for error even though the green is angled left to right. This approach works from both left and right side of the fairway.
The only variation is if the ball is place in the very front or very back of the green. If the pin is in the front edge, you can hit a lower trajectory draw that lands about 15 to 20 yards short of the green (L) and run uphill to the green. If the pin is in the back (especially back left), this shot can also work by landing somewhere in the front half of the green and letting the ball roll. This would be slightly easier to pull off from the right side of the fairway.
If you are in the mound or right side of the fairway, your best bet is to try to leave it under the green on the left side (J) where there is plenty of fairway. The chip shot from here is not the hardest shot to pull off. If you go directly at the green you may end up in the fairway bunker (G or I) about 30 yards short of the fairway.
One thing you CANNOT do under any circumstance is to miss to the right in the dunes (P). Not only will you have a very bad lie, the green is far below you and chances of you holding it is not good.
Around the Green
Most misses will end up on the fairway left of the green about 10 to 20 feet below the green, 20 to 40 yards away (J). This is not the hardest shot to pull off as your lie will be excellent (uphill, level) and there is a backstop. I believe most pros will be hitting a flop shot from here. You can hit a bump and run into the slope, but due to distance and how high up the green is, I don’t think this will be a popular choice. This will make any pins tucked to the left side very difficult.
The easiest shot is short/right of the green where there is an area about 10 yards wide and 20 yards long (L) that is almost level with the green. A chip shot from here will be very straight forward, though back pins will be difficult to gauge the true weight due to a ridge that bisects the green back and front.
Anything in the back or right of the green will be a crapshoot. Ending up in the mounds surrounding the green right (P) and long will mean you have a severe downslope lie where you probably won’t get a clean ball contact. To hold the green, you MUST hit a high flop shot out of this lie that lands just inside the green. I don’t think I am going out of line when I say, pulling this off is not likely.
Putting
There are three ridges; two that goes left to right that creates three sections and one center ridge that divides the middle section into two, creating four sections. From the highest point (middle back and right), everything runs away. The front section runs sharply back to front and slightly right to left. The middle right also runs back to front but is fairly level right to left. The left middle has a bit more left to right slope and slightly less back to front. The back section runs slightly front to back and significantly right to left.
These ridges means that it is very difficult to make a birdie across them. Your ball must be in the same section as the pin for you to have a reasonable chance of making the putt. The front half putts (3) are easier as the back to front slope is dominant and as long as you are below the hole, you can make some putts of length.
The back right (4) has two side slope to content with, from right side slope and left ridge. Even if you are below the hole, you may have to deal with a double breaking putt here.
The back left (2 and 1) is a very difficult putt to read. Depending on where you are, there are slopes to all four directions. The right to left is more severe than it looks, but closer you get to the left side, there is some slope that comes back. The front to back slope is also more severe than it looks and many will miss their putts long here.
There will be very few birdies made on this hole due to length and the difficulties with reading putts. However, I do not expect any big numbers here either as most chip shots around the green are relatively simple (if all you are trying to do is to get it on the green). This is a hole where you just survive and move on.