U.S. Open at Bethpage Black:
Big hitters, start your muscles
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Newport Country Club, Brookline, Philadelphia Cricket, Shinnecock Hills, Oakmont … ahh, the sound of old and big money. These were the clubs where the U.S. Open grew, nourished by tradition and wealth, and people of proper wardrobe and sometimes manners. Now the U.S. Open comes to Bethpage Black for the second time, having been the first genuinely public course where the national championship has been held. True, Pebble Beach is a public course, if $495 (plus cart if you’re not at the $695/day lodge) is your idea of public. But Bethpage Black is one of five courses at Bethpage State Park on Long Island, east of Manhattan, and as such is a municipal course – or “muni,” as they’re commonly known – which means that as soon as the U.S. Open leaves after this playing, the local mechanics, bakers, and such, can clean the stuff out from underneath their fingernails and line up at dawn or thereabouts to get on with their regular foursome, $60 a head, walking only.
There’s a sign out front that says “WARNING – The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Golf Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.” Not that it ever verged on being the gates of hell that Dante mentioned, but it was all Tiger Woods could do to shoot 1-under the first time, in 2002, and that was just enough to win.
There should be another sign out front this week: Short hitters make your plans for the weekend. This will be a certified power U.S. Open, which, the sign should say, “… We Recommend For Long Hitters Only.”
The Black doesn’t figure to be quite so formidable this time, after the U.S. Golf Association sent in Rees Jones, the noted architect, supposedly to take a tuck here, a trim there. Actually, it was more of a redo, though who would admit that of an A.W. Tillinghast course?
There are a few tipoffs as to how this U.S. Open will go.
Some fairways have been widened. That is, widened. In addition, the rough will be a little less dense than the jungles the USGA dreams about, and graduated, from about 3 inches high and less dense in the first cut on either side, stepping up to 4, then higher. In other words, a guy has a better chance of getting out. All of which sounds as though the USGA, formerly believed to be in league with the devil, must have got some religion.
Not so fast. The course is longer – 224 yards longer than in 2002, thanks to some new tees. Another grace note:
“We will not play the golf course at 7,438 [yards] on any given day,” said Jim Hyler, chairman of the USGA Championship Committee, the man responsible for all this. “We’ll play it shorter. Every day, we’ll be using shorter teeing grounds.”
So the field won’t be playing from the tips, but maybe just the tips on some holes, on some days. Is the USGA relenting? Is this going to be – to quote a cliché – a kinder, gentler U.S. Open?
Well, there’s this other thing. It’s been rainy on Long Island. The fairways are wet. The balls are not rolling very far. And the greens are soft and receptive. This is good news. Most any shot will hold – for those who can reach them.
The Black has only one par-4 under 400 yards, and that’s at 389. The Black has three par-4 holes of over 500 yards, which used to be par-5 country. And awkwardly enough, the par-four 7th is longer than the par-5 4th, 525 to 517 yards.
Blunt question to Mike Davis, USGA senior director of rules and competitions (the man responsible for setting up the course):
“Is this the definitive long-hitters’ U.S. Open?”
Blunt answer: “Yes.”
Expanded: “But it would be that if it were dry. You still have to get the ball up over those bunkers. You have to hit the ball high, even if it were dry.”
But more rain is expected.
So the longer hitters are hitting to wider fairways, and so they can bomb away. And even if they catch the first cut of rough, they still have a good crack at reaching the greens. The shorter hitter can keep it in the fairway and still has a good chance of missing the green, or ending up with a huge putt.
This is not a British Open course. They can’t keep it low, and bump it and run it up on the green, even if the fairways were running. This is an aerial course. They’ll have to fly it in on many of the holes, to get over the bunkers. So take an average hitter at, say, the par-4 10th, 508 yards. He drives the ball, say, 275, 280. He’s still got some 230 yards left. Some may be hitting 2-irons, 3-irons or hybrids. The big hitters are hitting medium irons. Golf’s cruel truth: The shorter the club, the greater the accuracy.
The Black was always tough, a product of the legendary Tillinghast, and it’s treasured the way people treasure Tiffany, Strads and the like. Tillinghast’s work was being discussed.
“Is this still a Tillinghast course?” came the question to Rees Jones.
Jones paused and grinned.
“If the U.S. Open had never come here,” he said, “it would be a Tillinghast course.”
NOTES -- OFF TO THE FUTURE – Oakmont Country Club, near Pittsburgh has been selected by the U.S. Golf Association to host the 2016 U.S. Open Championship, its record ninth U.S. Open … the eighth was in 2007, won by Angel Cabrera; Oakmont will also be the site of the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open, July 5-11 … Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore., will host the 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and the 2011 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship; This will be the first time that both public links championships are conducted jointly … At least five golfers are age 20, making them among the youngest in Open history; among them is Tyson Alexander, son of Buddy, who won the U.S. Amateur in 1986, and grandson of Skip, who played in several U.S. Opens and the Ryder Cup… David Erdy, 19, who got in as an alternate, is the youngest in the field; “It’s pretty insane just coming out here and bumping shoulders with these guys,” Erdy said … 22 countries are represented in this Open; there are 90 Americans and 66 foreign golfers in the field.
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