Let me preface this question with an explanation based upon recent events: Olympia Fields, like Baltusrol and others before it, may have far more going for it than meets the eye (well, this particular eye, anyway) on television. But for most of us, television is as close as we get to a major championship - and any architectural subtleties which don't translate well to television simply don't add to a sense of dramatic tension or make for good televisual entertainment. Some very good golf courses don't make for good television, and some lesser courses do. In my opinion, of course...
Anyway, to the question: you're sitting on your couch at home on a Wednesday evening when suddenly you discover that a major championship is beginning tomorrow. (For the sake of an argument, suppose you're coming out of a coma and don't know what month or year it is and don't know which tournament is about to start or where it's being played.) You're going to be watching lots of golf for the next four days; where do you hope the tournament is being played? One guideline: the network of choice is unimportant, i.e. don't exclude British Open venues from your list just because you don't like ABC, for example.
Anyway, here's one man's top five, in reverse order:
T5 - Carnoustie (with wind blowing and rough high, a la 1999). There's something dramatically satisfying about watching professional golfers really suffer on levels that they've never suffered before.
T5 - Pinehurst No. 2. The Sky Sports commentators in unison suggested that the 1999 Open was the most perfectly set up major championship in recent memory; normally I don't agree with them, but in this instance they make a good case.
4th - The Old Course (St. Andrews). The history, the drama of the Road Hole, the great (!!!) architecture, the way they get all of those camera cranes in position to highlight every possible view of the course...it's all great. Suffers slightly from repetitiveness - I love the course, but I'm not sure the Open has to go back there every five or six years.
3rd - Pebble Beach. Overrated in terms of its architecture (IMHO), but Tiger's cakewalk notwithstanding (the least dramatic golf tournament in my lifetime), has perhaps more potential drama and as much eye candy as any course in the world. Each of the 1972, 1982 and 1992 US Opens was absolutely compelling, and the next one surely offers every chance of being just as good as those ones were.
2nd - Augusta National. I don't like the metamorphosis of the golf course I watched in 1986 - wide fairways, no rough, etc. etc. - to the one I watched in 2003. But c'mon, it's Augusta, and it's still got Amen Corner, 15 and 16, 17 and 18, etc. etc. If the arrival of the Masters doesn't put a spring in your step, nothing will...
1st - Shinnecock Hills. Maybe a surprise pick to some, but I just think the world of the course, and for me the architecture DOES shine through the medium of television. I also think it is one of the most beautiful courses in the world, with the native grasses and the sweeping views and elevation changes, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, NBC's broadcast of the 1996 Open was absolutely first-rate in almost every department, and I simply cannot wait for the US Open to return there next year.
Your thoughts? (Seems like a more promising and general topic for discussion than anything to do with Olympia Fields as such - and many apologies to the OF member who has so graciously and gracefully entered those discussion topics. I'm sure OF is a wonderful course, but my point herein is to distinguish between wonderful architecture and wonderful television. Sometimes the two overlap, but they don't have to...)
Cheers,
Darren