The US Women’s Open starts this Thursday at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. As a former member of the teaching staff, current member, and this week, caddy, I wanted to share some thoughts about what to expect from the course and players this week.
Much of the conversation this week is about the rough, which is as thick as I’ve seen it at the club (2012 US Open included), and the “reverse cambered” fairways that players will find on holes like 2, 4, 5, 9, and 17. While those are the prominent features, the wind that is expected to blow a steady 15 mph all week is what will give the players fits this week.
Normally a one to two club wind isn’t too big of a deal, but the routing of the holes along the hillside combined with this prevailing wind will make hitting into these reverse cambered fairways very challenging. Players will rarely be faced with shots straight into or down wind, and instead will constantly have the wind blowing down the hill and across their line of play as the holes run back and forth along the hillside.
Here are some examples.
Hole #5, Par 4, 432 yards
The 5th hole is one of the toughest on the course. It does play downhill off the tee, but that almost adds to the difficulty, as the ball will stay in the air longer and be subjected to the wind longer. The fairway bends to the right, but as the term “reverse camber” suggests, the fairway actually slopes to the left. Not only that, but the players will find that the prevailing wind out of the southwest is also blowing from right to left as players stand on the tee.
So while the length of the hole will tempt players to hit a driver up the right side (right of the crooked tree through the fairway), any ball that doesn’t land in the extreme right side of the fairway with a driver will likely run through the fairway into the left rough. With the rough as high as it is this week, there is a much higher premium on hitting fairways. Players will have a much better chance of hitting the fairway if they can play to the corner, and leave themselves 170-200 yards in for their second shot. While this is a long approach shot to leave into the green, the green at the fifth, and most of the other greens, allow for shots to bounce in from short of the green if necessary.
Hole #17, Par 5, 485 yards
The 17th is another very difficult fairway to hit, and an even tougher green to hit for players that are looking to reach the green in two shots.
This time the players are playing in the opposite direction of the fifth, and have the fairway sloping from left to right, with the wind also coming off the left. A tee ball that has any fade is very unlikely to hold the fairway. There is an up tee box that will likely be used at least one day, and while the hole will play shorter, the tee box also sits farther to the left, making the angle to the fairway even tougher to hit. Players who try to draw one into the fairway and overdue it will be left with a very difficult layup situation as the rough is heavy and a large tree guards the left side. Keeping your layup in the fairway from the left rough will be a challenge as most players will be forced to play to the right of the tree on the left, essentially straight down the slope of the fairway.
Players that do manage to hit the fairway will be tempted to go for the green off of a hanging lie with the ball well below their feet (for a right hander). Again the wind will be off the left and shots missed out to the right will either find a very deep front right bunker, or worse, the false edge that guards the right side of the green and funnels balls into a low area that leaves a very challenging pitch shot off a tight lie or thick rough. Players thinking about bailing out left on their approach will be left with a rude awakening as the 17th is one of the most severe greens on the course, sloping dramatically from front to back and left to right. From long or left, it is extremely difficult to keep the ball on the green, let alone close to the hole.
While this is one of the few good birdie opportunities for the players on the course, players that don’t hit the fairway should be happy to leave the hole with a par.
Hole #18, Par 4, 326 yards
It sounds easy enough on the card, but the home hole is proof that a hard hole doesn’t have to be long. The prevailing wind comes off the left again as players play back to the clubhouse, and the 22 yard wide fairway slopes slightly left to right as well. A controlled right to left shot off the tee to hold the fairway will give players an opportunity to score, but a player who lets the wind push their ball into the right rough will have a difficult time reaching the green on their second shot. A large tree guards the right side of the green, and players in the right rough will likely not have the opportunity to hit over the tree. This means they’ll either have to lay up short and left of the greenside bunkers to a tiny strip of fairway, or trust that the wind off the left will keep their ball from flying into the left bunker.
Even with a short iron from the fairway, finding the green is no gimme. Players will need to trust the wind that is difficult to feel from the low point of the hole where a good tee shot will finish. Players will be wise to observe the flags on top of the hill on the left by the clubhouse and play their shot accordingly. The green is narrow enough that players who don’t respect the prevailing wind and aim straight at it will likely find the right bunker that guards the green. The green is surrounded by bunkers and thick rough so anyone that misses the green will do well to get their approach shot close to the hole.
These are just a couple of the many holes that run along the hillside and feature fairways that slope away from the players with the wind blowing down the hill. On the 2nd and 4th holes, the players even have an obscured view of the fairway off the tee in addition to it sloping in the same direction as the prevailing wind toward the deep rough.
It will be a great test for the players this week and the player who wins will surely be a worthy champion who was able to control their ball. In the five times the US Open has been held at Olympic only four players have broken par over all four rounds (Scott Simpson and Tom Watson in ‘87, and Billy Casper and Arnold Palmer in ‘66). Unless the wind lies down, or the rough gets trimmed down, I would not expect that number to change this week in the first edition of the US Women’s Open to be played at the Olympic Club. If the course gets much firmer and the USGA lets the rough go, we could see scores like we saw in the 1955 US Open, when Ben Hogan and Jack Fleck finished the week at +7 before Fleck won in a playoff.
Enjoying every shot will be at a premium this week as the course loves to frustrate even the best players.