The post A hole I love: Erin Hills’ 2nd is a masterclass in driveable par-4s appeared first on Golf.

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The team of Fry, Hurdzan and Whitten have gently laid 18 holes into 652 acres of heaving crests and troughs created by ancient glaciers.

Picture Erin Hills, host of the 2017 U.S. Open, as the love child between Shinnecock Hills, Sand Hills and Prairie Dunes: rough and smooth, sophisticated and rustic. Like many of my favorite holes, the 359-yard 2nd strays from the “it’s all right there in front of you” cliché.

From a tee box that bleeds into a spectacular wetland meadow, the assignment on No. 2 is an uphill, blind, drivable par-4 with, by far, the course’s smallest green rising elegantly to a pedestal from a natural basin. This corridor of fun has options galore, rewarding the player for successfully challenging physical and mental hazards, like driving it confidently over a fescue-covered slope and punching a fully committed pitch to a tight target with falloff on all sides.

A shorter hitter should rotate his turret right of the aiming tree in the long grass, encouraged by the inviting flash of fairway in view, set off by the scraggly bunkers capping the mound above. The longest of bombs carrying the left side of those scabs will bound down a hill with the momentum to fight its way up the pronounced slope to the green.

Only after taking the walk up and around the natural curves is the array of bump or loft wedge options revealed, along with the hole’s full character.

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Buckle up, folks, and welcome to the first installment of America’s Best Golf Road Trips, a six-part GOLF.com series in which our well-traveled writers will guide you through some of the most thrilling itineraries for golfers with a nose for the open road. Each journey will be built around golf but we’ll also sprinkle in a few other sights and stops along the way. Bon voyage!

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One of the most underrated — and scenic — public-golf tours in the country is the little-traversed Lake Michigan Loop. Beginning in Milwaukee, stopping in Green Bay (and yes, of course, at Lambeau Field!), touching off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and working your way south toward the Windy City, you’ll enjoy plenty of epic golf, and a taste of Midwest delicacies, all in one week. We’re talking beer, cheese curds, walleye and deep-dish pizza. Bring your golf game, and an appetite.

Start point: Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport

End point: Lou Malnati’s Pizza, in Chicago  

Days: 7-8

Courses: 6

Miles: 1,081

Day 1: Erin Hills (Wisconsin)

Milepost: 43

Some golf trips you ease into — maybe a round at a local muni or another course that won’t beat you up to make sure your swing traveled with you. Not this trip! We get you stared with a beast: Erin Hills. The only course to host a men’s U.S. Open in the Badger State can stretch to more than 8,000 hilly yards and is one helluva walk. It is Erin Hills, after all. If you can fly into Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport in the morning, you’ll have no problem making it to Erin (less than an hour’s drive northwest) for an afternoon tee time. 

The grand finale 18th at Erin Hills, a 675-yard par-5 from the tips, is worth the many steps, on the first 17 holes, it will take you to get there. Can you make par on one of the longest holes professional golf has ever seen? Can you make a bogey? An oft-used caddie trick is to present a foursome with the best-ball over/under of 6.5 and see if anyone can beat it. If not, the caddie wins and takes home a little extra dough on top of their gratuity. If so, the entire group wins, and you can head off to enjoy some of the best 19th-hole cheese curds on the planet. Before bed, a mandatory stop at The Drumlin putting course is in order. Three-putts after three drinks is the only way to end your day.

Day 2: Whistling Straits (Wisconsin)

Milepost: 115

Wisconsin’s other major championship host course, Whistling Straits, is just an 80-minute drive from Erin Hills and introduces you (in a bold, beautiful way) to golf on Lake Michigan. This being the Lake Michigan Loop, you’ll be properly acquainted at Whistling, where half the holes run alongside the lakefront. If it’s breezy, you’re in for one incredible test.

The 2021 Ryder Cup host has one of the best finishing stretches in golf, with a par-5, a par-3 and a brutally tough par-4 to close out the Wisconsin portion of your trip. Card an aggregate 12 through those holes and you can feel free to write home about it. As for lodging, book a hotel up in Green Bay (just an hour north) near Lambeau Field and take a tour of one of football’s most hallowed grounds. They’ll even let you onto the field, where if you listen closely you’ll hear Coach Lombardi berating you for that double-bogey on 18.

Day 3: Greywalls (Michigan)

Milepost: 350

The second-longest leg of your trip is one of the more gorgeous stretches of land-meeting-water in the Midwest (and there’s plenty to choose from). Highway 35 runs along the Bay of Green Bay as it blends into Lake Michigan just north of the Wisconsin-Michigan border. Follow it north and you’ll eventually reach Marquette Golf Club and its Greywalls Golf Course.

Rest assured, you have never played a course like this one. Greywalls winds up and down a rocky hill, in which the fairways are carved out among boulders, embankments and rock walls. Some holes call for daunting carries while others simply ask that you make contact and watch your tee shot roll forever. But if your game is locked in, you’ll make some of the most rewarding pars in the land.

Day 4: Mackinac Island

Milepost: 518

Time for a break, eh? It’s coming! Another three-hour drive east, across the northern reaches of Wisconsin, will lead you to the ultimate spot to unwind: Mackinac Island, in Michigan. Life moves a little slower once you cross onto Mackinac Island, where cars are not permitted (so you’ll get a break from the road, too!). Bikes rule here, so take a day off from the golf and enjoy the scenery of a quaint tourist town with a population of 471 and dreamy lake views. If you’re jonesing for more golf, play the 9-holer Wawashkamo Golf Club and recharge your golf batteries with an easy-breezy loop. This trip is just reaching its halfway point.

Day 5: Forest Dunes (Michigan)

Milepost: 620

Every good golf trip has variety, which is where Forest Dunes — 90 minutes south of Mackinac — shines. It has … everything. There’s the main course, called Forest Dunes, and also The Loop, a truly reversible 18-hole track designed by Tom Doak, which has earned wide acclaim. It will change the way you think about golf course design, and it begs for multiple rounds. So, perhaps consider spending days 5 and 6 here, and take in The Loop the way it was designed to be experienced.

Forest Dunes also has a short course and putting course on-site, and plenty of lodging. We won’t stop you from staying here longer than anywhere else, and playing until sundown.

Day 6: Arcadia Bluffs (Michigan)

Milepost: 727

When you’re able to pull yourself from Forest Dunes, head back toward Lake Michigan and drive two hours west to Arcadia Bluffs, which also features multiple tracks. The crown jewel is the Bluffs course, which looks and feels a bit like Whistling Straits, with fairways weaving in and out of the dunes. Playing it in the afternoon will offer a sunset over that gigantic water hazard called Lake Michigan. That’s what you’ll take in over a post-round pint and the freshest walleye you’ll ever taste. Midwestern bliss!

Day 7: Cog Hill (Illinois)

Milepost: 1,081

Ready your jerky and Mountain Dew: the last day of the trip brings with it the longest stretch behind the wheel, but thankfully the end is in sight! First stop, four hours south, is Notre Dame. Check out the iconic stadium, snag a selfie with Touchdown Jesus and keep moving! Soon you’ll be looping around the base of Lake Michigan and in no time the Chicago skyline will be in view.

A short detour inland will land you at Cog Hill, widely regarded as the best public track in the Chicago area. Cog Hill was the site of Matt Kuchar’s 1997 U.S. Amateur win and has also played host to many BMW Championships. Tiger Woods has won here five times, and you’ll do well to match his course record (62). 

When that final putt drops at Cog Hill, you’ll have played six Midwestern gems. Hungry? You’ve earned the right to fill up on one last Midwest delicacy: deep-dish Chicago pizza. Lou Malnati’s is a local favorite that has been doing it for more than 75 years. We guarantee it’ll be the most memorable slice of your trip.

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The post Scratch golfer vs. 8,000-yard U.S. Open course: Just how hard is Erin Hills X? appeared first on Golf.

The post Scratch golfer vs. 8,000-yard U.S. Open course: Just how hard is Erin Hills X? appeared first on Golf.

There’s a plaque on the 18th fairway at Erin Hills to mark the spot where Justin Thomas did something stupid.

Not stupid like a washed-up golf writer venturing to tackle an 8,000-yard U.S. Open venue — that’s a plaque The Committee would have to consider on my behalf. Nay, Thomas’ performance on 18 was only stupid because of the way it made us mortals feel. A 667-yard monster par-5 should not be reached in two shots, period. It especially should not be reached in two shots when a player “lays back” with 3-wood off the tee.

But the plaque is there and the video exists and if you make the trek to Erin Hills you should feel free to visit said plaque and picture yourself striping a 3-wood from that spot, 299 yards from the pin, and leaving yourself a four-foot putt for eagle, which you’d drain to finish off a round of 63.

Here’s hoping you’ve got an active imagination.

Thomas — and eventual tournament winner Brooks Koepka — showed up to Wisconsin and made Erin Hills look easy. I arrived with the exact opposite objective. Just how hard is a U.S. Open venue from the tips — or in this case, even longer? I was here to find out.

For context, I’m a reformed mini-tour pro who peaked as a decidedly below-average member of the Canadian Tour (I wrote more than enough about this here). These days, I spend a lot of time sitting and typing and not nearly enough playing golf. Still, I can still score, and carry a +3 handicap that’s probably inflated. Realistically I’m a shade better than scratch.

Here’s the thing about the U.S. Open course at Erin Hills: it could have been longer! The course those pros played was somewhere in the realm of 7700 yards. Here are the yardages the good folks at Erin Hills laid out for me:

ERIN HILLS X

FRONT NINE: 3960-yard par-36

BACK NINE: 4076-yard par-36

TOTAL: 8036-yard par-72

That is a whole ton of golf course.

By the time I walked up the 18th fairway, my dogs were barking. On the day Thomas capped off that absurd round with that particularly absurd 3-wood, he had “a little help, left-to-right,” according to then-Fox broadcaster Paul Azinger. The wind was a little into my face now, making the uphill approach look all that much more uphill. (Colleague and Wisconsinite Sean Zak was playing a far more reasonable set of tees but had joined for the 675-yard finale, which our caddies estimated was playing 800+ into the breeze.) I teed a ball up next to the plaque and pulled out driver, just to see. I rifled it towards the green. It came up well short.

How’d the rest of the day go? Well, the shot felt representative of my overall experience. Erin Hills was a brutish test from that yardage, but it allowed — nay, demanded! — heroism from untold distances. Take one stretch: I pulled driver into the wind on No. 6, which was 250 dead into the wind. I hit driver off the tee on the next hole, a 619-yard par-5, and then hit driver again from the fairway in an effort to get home. On No. 8, a par-4, I ripped driver straight into the wind, only to leave myself with driver — again — off the deck for my second. Five full swings in a row, all with the big stick.

The vastness of Erin’s 652-acre property encourages swinging away, as do the wide fairways and (relatively) playable greensides. It’s a massive, inviting expanse of Midwest farmland with a dash of Irish linksland mixed in. Swing away you must. Just don’t expect 63.

How’d the round finish up? Check out the video below to find out. It was a day I won’t soon forget.

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Dylan Dethier takes on Erin Hills from tee boxes that make this U.S. Open venue more than 8,000 yards long.

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Published in 1976, The World Atlas of Golf should be a cornerstone of any golf architecture library, and maybe its finest feature is contributing editor Pat Ward-Thomas’s article, “Elements of Greatness: A Classic Course.”

Remaining true to each actual hole number (a No. 1 had to stay a No. 1, a No. 2 a No. 2 and so on), Ward-Thomas created an ideal 18, picking one hole from famous courses worldwide.

“Many may disagree with the composition of the course,” he wrote, “but nobody could fairly dispute that it would call upon a golfer to demonstrate skill in every part of the game; that it embraces the quality of exceptional design, and much of the beauty with which golf is blessed; that it would command respect from the mighty and be a great deal of fun for anyone to play.”

Mission accomplished, and brilliantly so: Ward-Thomas rightly focused on the quality of each hole as well as how those holes would relate to one another. It was an eye-opening read the first time and remains just as entertaining the hundredth time. Still, the book was published back in 1976—what about all the brilliant layouts built since?

Many people, myself included, believe that we’re living in a second Golden Age of course design, so it seemed only fitting that my homage to “Elements of Greatness” stick to places built post-World Atlas of Golf. As it’s meant to be a celebration of modern design, this list is restricted to one entry per architect, to acknowledge as many leaders in the field as possible. Also worth noting: 14 of these 18 holes are accessible to the paying public, a telling sign of progress.

Hole No. 1: Wolf Point

Port Lavaca, Texas — Par 4, 320 Yards

Architects: Mike Nuzzo with Don Mahaffey

Why it’s great: A wide but strategic fairway provides the perfect getaway for an opening hole.

Overview: Ask four golfers why they like a hole and you’ll often get four different answers, but every (sane) golfer agrees that a wide fairway is the ideal way to start a round. Old Tom Morris taught us this lesson at St. Andrews; at Royal Melbourne, Alister MacKenzie perfected the notion of gaining advantage from a particular spot in a sea of short grass.

America’s widest first fairway, and one of its smartest, resides at Wolf Point, a course originally built for one man on his East Texas ranch that has developed a cult following among design aficionados since its 2007 opening.

A lake sits off to the left, the rest of Texas is to the right and the golfer finds himself staring at a fairway 240 yards wide. To miss it would bring shame, and yet, sure enough, the more you position the drive toward the trouble left, the better the angle of approach to most hole locations given the green’s predominant right-to-left cant.

Hole No. 2: Kingsley Club

Kingsley, Mich. — Par 3, 150 Yards

Architect: Mike DeVries

Why it’s great: An ultra-precise par-3 shot is the perfect follow-up to a wide-open starter.

Overview: People who study golf’s pace of play—yes, there are such people—pooh-pooh the idea of a reachable par-5 or a par-3 early on either side, holding forth that such holes cause play to back up. My experience says that the opposite holds true, that both hole types invariably spread out play.

Regardless, Mike DeVries routed this one-shotter along the top of a ridge, with the narrow green naturally falling off on both sides toward either deep bunkers or, worse still, thick fescue grass. The green, at 38 yards, is much deeper than it is wide (just nine yards at the front).

Yard for yard, this may well be the hardest hole on this entire Dream Course. More important, the juxtaposition of its intense call for precision against the freewheeling, spacious opening hole is simply too delicious to pass up.  

Hole No. 3: Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island, S.C. — Par 4, 365 Yards

Architect: Pete Dye

Why it’s great: Green complexes this good don’t need bunkering.

Overview: Pete Dye did the game a huge favor when he reestablished the popularity of the short par-4. A 1963 trip to Scotland cemented his fondness for such holes, and this one might well be his finest. The fairway offers plenty of width; when the pin is front-left, the golfer aims right off the tee and vice versa. The merciless, bunkerless green is nothing more than a knuckle perched some five to seven feet above its surroundings, and its relative flatness provides no help in stopping approach shots.

Notably, when the breeze is off the Atlantic and into the player, the 3rd plays easier than when the wind blows offshore and the hole is downwind, as the already small, 3,920-square-foot green becomes even more elusive. Golf is more interesting to more people when accuracy and finesse trump brute strength, and it’s fascinating how a short hole with a tame putting surface can do just that.

Hole No. 4: Tobacco Road

Sanford, N.C. — Par 5, 535 Yards

Architect: Mike Strantz

Why it’s great: A great hazard you can challenge but recover from if you miss.

Overview: The dearly, too-early departed Mike Strantz left behind a small portfolio of nine original works that range from intimate to muscular. His designs resisted stereotyping except for one feature: He adored the button-hook par 5, meaning a hole that swings around a great hazard. Tobacco Road in fact features two such holes, this one and No. 11.

The latter plays around the deepest hazard in North Carolina, but the 4th was chosen for the grace with which the fairway tumbles and connects to the green. Also, the great hazard being more human in scale, at six feet deep, tempts golfers into greedier tactics than the hazard at 11, which is three times deeper. Hazards from which you can recover are more enticing, and therefore interesting, to challenge than water features like lakes and ponds, which are overly penal with no hope of recovery.

Hole No. 5: The Cove Club at Cabo Del Sol

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico — Par 4, 470 Yards

Architect: Jack Nicklaus

Why it’s great: A study in keeping the foreground “quiet” so the background can sing.

Overview: Standing on this elevated tee, with the distant flag flapping against the Sea of Cortez, it’s easy to understand why Jack Nicklaus maintains that golf is best appreciated played downhill. A lateral hazard runs the length of the hole along the right, while a shoulder from the hill protrudes in from the left. The closer the golfer hugs the lateral hazard, the better the optics for the approach shot to a green intensely connected to the sea. The putting surface starts off glued to the ground front left but gradually rises as it angles away to the right. Brave is the player who chases after back-right flags, as the short grass surrounding the green is only too happy to whisk balls away. No bunkers required, and at high tide the water can get as close as 15 yards from the green—the light touch of salt spray can make even the most concentrated golfer back away from a putt.

No. 6: South Cape Owners Club

Namhae Island, South Korea — Par 3, 235 Yards

Architect: Kyle Phillips

Why it’s great: Every course needs a “heroic” moment.

Overview: One sacrosanct rule in architecture: There are no rules. It’s easy to wax poetic about the ground game, as witness our prior hole; sometimes, though, it’s mighty rewarding when the architect demands that the player simply hit the damn shot needed. Such exemplars—think, No. 12 at Augusta National or No. 16 at Cypress Point—create the sport’s most thrilling, indelible memories.

This South Korean beauty replicates the latter’s heart-pounding excitement of launching a long iron off a cliff and over the pounding surf. The jagged cliff-line proved ideal for Kyle Phillips, who routed three of the course’s one-shot holes along it. He artfully arranged the tees here to make the shot palatable for as many skill sets as possible, but most players can’t help but have a crack from the tips, so compelling is the heroic carry. Though the setting steals the show, the rolling green itself is also full of character.

Hole No. 7: Ardfin

Isle of Jura, Scotland — Par 4, 460 Yards

Architect: Bob Harrison

Why it’s great: There’s an obvious shortcut off the tee—but is it the right answer?

Overview: Should there be a set way to master a hole or many? The 7th at Ardfin, opened in 2016 and criminally under the radar, is an example of posing a conundrum not easily solved. The straight line from tee to green traverses broken ground; the crescent-shaped fairway is an inverted C to the right. Logic suggests hugging the inside of the curve to reduce the distance for the approach…yet that route often yields a blind shot. From the outside of the fairway, more is revealed but the shot is longer.

One rub for the downhill approach: The green follows the slope of the surrounding land, i.e., the putting surface cascades from front to back. Trying to get the ball to behave and stop on the correct part of the green—even on a rare calm day in the Inner Hebrides—is among the more exasperating yet thrilling tests this Dream Course poses.

Hole No. 8: Congaree

Ridgeland, S.C. — Par 5, 545 Yards

Architect: Tom Fazio

Why it’s great: An old-school nod to “using the ground.”

Overview: For golf architects as for rock bands, the early work often remains the most original. To Tom Fazio’s credit, three decades after his designs at Wild Dunes and Wade Hampton reestablished that the sport should be about fun, he was producing top-notch courses like Congaree and Gozzer Ranch.

Much of Congaree’s playing season occurs when its Bermuda fairways are dormant—and blazingly quick. This golf-for-golfers club doesn’t color or overseed the fairways: Ownership appreciates the ground game and understands that the new Bermuda grasses aid this approach. Fazio imbued this design with numerous cases whereby you hit to X to end up at Y, none so dramatic as here, where the thrilling challenge is to hit left of the green, avoiding all the trouble on the right and allow the 30-yard-long kicker slope to feed the ball down and onto the open green—a shot to savor for the thinking golfer. 

Hole No. 9: Askernish

Askernish, Scotland — Par 4, 340 Yards

Architect: Martin Ebert

Why it’s great: It proves that super greens don’t have to be superfast.

Overview: Situated in the Outer Hebrides, Askernish has the distinction of being built this century over ground once occupied by a 19th-century course designed by titans Old Tom Morris and Horace Hutchinson. Course owner Ralph Thompson got the idea in 2005 to maximize the wondrous dunescape here on the Isle of South Uist and called in architect Martin Ebert and greenkeeper Gordon Irvine to carry out his vision.

The course has only four formalized bunkers, and that’s plenty given the rollicking land. Just four people maintain the course, and the greens don’t play as intended if they Stimp much above 8. Never mind: As a set, the green complexes represent one of the game’s finest collections, headlined by the 9th, where the putting surface is set at a 45-degree angle to play. A deep depression in front and a deeper one in back confound the golfer, making this wee two-shotter a position hole with teeth.
Old Tom and Horace would be proud.

Hole No. 10: Gamble Sands

Brewster, Wash. — Par 3, 140 Yards

Architect: David McLay Kidd

Why it’s great: Challenges the notion that the target must fit the shot.

Overview: You hear it all the time: The target should fit the shot. A short hole? The green should be small. While that can be true, a small target has the sometimes unwanted effect of focusing a golfer’s concentration. As Nos. 9 and 10 at The Old Course have demonstrated forever, large greens at short holes make getting a pitch close bizarrely vexing.

Leave it to the Scotsman David McLay Kidd to pick up on such a design cue. Though the green measures a whopping 13,119 square feet, its interior contours are superb and the desired birdie often proves elusive. Even more maddening is when a bogey surfaces because the golfer got out of position on this position hole. For such a short hole, the massive green provides an uncommon amount of hole locations, be it back left atop a plateau or to the right in a bowl guarded by a bunker. That’s called flexibility, people.

Hole No. 11: Cabot Links

Inverness, Nova Scotia — Par 5, 540 Yards

Architect: Rod Whitman

Why it’s great: A par-5 that keeps its foot on the pedal.

Overview: Too many par-5s lack merit by tolerating loose play. Either the drive or layup is a nonevent, or the pitch to the green uninteresting. Here, each shot builds off the prior’s success. Finding the sloping fairway off the tee is paramount as Rod Whitman routed the hole such that the second shot must scale a 30-foot bank or else you’re likely headed for a regrettable sequence of events.

The 72-yard-wide, thought-provoking landing area for the second is actually wider than the driving zone, debunking the myth that a classic three-shotter must progressively narrow. As the hole is uphill and generally into the wind, Whitman extends an olive branch with the high left side of the green complex maintained as tight fescue, so that players can deaden their approach and watch the ball trickle off the slope and drift toward the hole. Both Mike Keiser and Ben Crenshaw consider this among the best par 5s they’ve seen. Enough said.

Hole No. 12: Erin Hills

Erin, Wis. — Par 4, 435 Yards

Architects: Dana Fry, Michael Hurdzan and Ron Whitten

Why it’s great: The glories of natural topography.

Overview: Recent restoration work at several Golden Age designs, including Eastward Ho!, Moraine and West Bend, has highlighted how thrilling golf over glacial landforms can be. Same here with the 12th at Erin Hills, which captures the sensation of playing across tumbling landforms even when more than 1,000 miles from the nearest coastline. Its fairway heaves and plunges, and architects Dana Fry, Michael Hurdzan and Ron Whitten did well to leave the landforms alone and keep the machinery away. The world’s most distinctive holes are the ones that follow nature’s lead, as unlike man, nature doesn’t repeat herself.

I once wrote of No. 12, “This is a prime example of what people mean when they write about a well-routed hole over great land. Courses over more mundane land can’t compete with drama so deeply rooted in nature.”

Dare I say, those words still hold true.

Hole No. 13: Pacific Dunes

Bandon, Ore. — Par 4, 444 Yards

Architect: Tom Doak

Why it’s great: Aesthetic pleasure is a key part of golf’s appeal.

Overview: This hole was a no-brainer selection: Just look at the thing! With the coastline left, a stunning blowout dune right and skyline green ahead, it epitomizes the allure of golf at Bandon Dunes Resort. Really, what more do you want? What most players don’t realize, though, is that this picture-perfect hole was a late addition to Tom Doak’s routing. As he explains in his new book on routing courses, Getting to 18, Doak originally had several holes routed on land that ultimately was used by David McLay Kidd for the Bandon Dunes layout. Thankfully, owner Mike Keiser kept gobbling up land to the north and presented Doak with the opportunity to include the parcel that houses the 13th into the final Pacific Dunes routing. 

Unlucky 13

Built in 1988 in Northern Michigan, Tom Doak’s first design, High Pointe, now lies fallow, but those lucky enough to play it won’t forget the experience. The 430-yard, par-4 13th was as good as it gets: a downhill two-shotter to a green that fell away to the back left. Capping off a grand hole with a bland green in the name of “fairness” proved flawed thinking whose time would soon pass, thanks in part to Doak, who went on to earn fabulous sites and build even better courses but arguably has yet to build a hole that clearly surpasses this marvel.

Hole No. 14: Chambers Bay

University Place, Wash. — Par 4, 495 Yards

Architects: Robert Trent Jones Jr. with Bruce Charlton and Jay Blasi

Why it’s great: A dogleg that tempts — as it should.

Overview: At the heart of great architecture lies the temptation to attempt something to gain an advantage for the next shot. The dogleg is among the most time-honored of the myriad ways to present such a puzzle, and this one is among the best.

From an elevated tee, the golfer can readily grasp the risks and rewards of hugging or even cutting off the dogleg by carrying as much of the sandy waste as possible. A small central hazard of the sort far too infrequently found in modern architecture must be avoided as the hole elbows from right to left. The golfer then faces a hugely appealing approach thanks to the fescue fairways, whereby a low bullet draw can run forever toward a bank along the green’s right that helps feed the ball toward the hole. A sprawling bunker complex runs tee to green along the left and exemplifies Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s artistry—no surprise from a man who takes pride in composing poetry.

Hole No. 15: Bandon Trails

Bandon, Ore. — Par 4, 405 yards

Architects: Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw

Why it’s great: A truly sublime and thoughtful green complex.

Overview: Every course has a shortfall, and so does every Dream Course. Yes, it’s criminal that no hole from Sand Hills nor Friar’s Head appears in this compilation. Blame Coore & Crenshaw, not me: They’ve provided too many dazzlers from which to choose!

A diagonal cross bunker 130 yards from the green makes this a nervy drive; getting your drive close to, but not in, is a simple objective—except for the uncertainty of stopping a ball on these fescue fairways. What truly makes the hole is its fabulous found green site. Nestled in an amphitheater of dunes, the green appears as an extension of the fairway, climbing a false front and then rising to the rear: a postcard-perfect green complex with handsome bunkers carefully teased from the surrounding dunescape. Many people judge a course by the strength of its two-shotters, and one thing is without question—you have just played four straight sterling ones.  

Hole No. 16: Ballybunion Cashen

Ballybunion, Ireland — Par 3, 160 yards

Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr.

Why it’s great: A short par-3 with never-ending shot demands.

Overview: The Jones family patriarch, Robert Trent Jones Sr., acted as a bridge between the Golden Age and modern architecture. His reach of more than 500 courses is staggering considering his career mostly unfolded before air travel became routine. Many of his works were built on heavier-soil sites, so what a thrill it must have been to receive this commission in the early 1980s.

Not reliant on length, the 16th is prickly. Depending on the wind’s strength and direction, the tee shot may well have to be shaped and the trajectory definitely controlled. That’s what great golf is about, prompting better players to display the full arsenal of their shot repertoire. In this case, that takes place in one of the game’s most magical settings, with southwest Ireland’s fabulously massive sand dunes stretching up the coast and the sight and roar of the Atlantic just left adding to the drama.

Hole No. 17: Carnegie Links at Skibo Castle

Dornoch, Scotland — Par 4, 305 yards

Architects: Donald Steel with Tom Mackenzie

Why it’s great: An impactful, drivable par-4.

Overview: In the first Masters, the nines were reversed, so the current Nos. 12, 13 and 15 lived on the first nine. Unimaginable! Where a hole falls in a round impacts its influence. Many thrilling short two-shotters come so early (including No. 3 at Augusta) as to limit their sway, but such is lay-of-the-land design.

Drivable short par 4s are the darling of modern architecture, and among the best late-round versions lives at Skibo. Situated at the end of a peninsula that juts into the Dornoch Firth, the 17th’s setting is impossibly gorgeous. Four deep pot bunkers litter the fairway; an angled green best accepts shots from the left, meaning that a tee shot needs to be aimed toward the firth and danger in order to open up the spine of the green for one’s approach. This teaser sealed the fate of the 1996 Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match between Fred Couples (birdie) and Greg Norman (bogey).

Hole No. 18: Castle Stuart

Inverness, Scotland — Par 5, 595 Yards

Architects: Gil Hanse and Mike Parsinen

Why it’s great: An exciting closer that makes you want to return to No. 1.

Overview: A home hole has two prerequisite duties: pose interesting questions to suitably conclude a match, and make you itch to play again. Plenty of long par-4s do that (Harbour Town, Winged Foot’s West), but a half-par hole to the easier side (Pebble Beach, St. Andrews) does a better job drawing a player back.

Few perform their functions as well as the closer at Castle Stuart. Watching Scottish Opens here have been fascinating. One day, this hole is driver, wood, mid-iron; the next day, driver, mid-iron! Such elasticity doesn’t come by chance. The fairway cascades downhill, and its artful contours make a huge difference in where a tee ball finally ends. Under favorable conditions, golfers relish a crack at the green in two over broken ground and past bunkers. Otherwise, the fairway left of such trouble provides the safe passage—and lends the hole the coveted virtue of playing well for all players in all conditions.

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The post I played Wisconsin’s two U.S. Open courses — here’s what I learned appeared first on Golf.

The post I played Wisconsin’s two U.S. Open courses — here’s what I learned appeared first on Golf.

There’s a plaque on the 18th fairway at Erin Hills to mark the spot where Justin Thomas did something stupid.

Not stupid like a washed-up golf writer venturing to tackle an 8,000-yard U.S. Open venue — that’s a plaque The Committee would have to consider on my behalf. Nay, Thomas’ performance on 18 was only stupid because of the way it made us mortals feel. A 667-yard monster par-5 should not be reached in two shots, period. It especially should not be reached in two shots when a player “lays back” with 3-wood off the tee. But the plaque is there and the video exists and if you make the trek to Erin Hills you should feel free to visit said plaque and picture yourself striping a 3-wood from that spot, 299 yards from the pin, and leaving yourself a four-foot putt for eagle, which you’d drain to finish off a round of 63. Here’s hoping you’ve got an active imagination.

That spot in the 18th fairway was the first of two shots that effectively encapsulated the entire experience of playing Wisconsin’s two U.S. Open venues, Erin Hills (site of the 2017 U.S. Open) and Blackwolf Run (site of the 1998 and 2012 U.S. Women’s Opens).

Thomas’ 3-wood finisher seared off the clubface and directly into golf’s history books. His putt secured a record-tying U.S. Open round of 63. If you watched his performance that day, you may remember some mixed commentary about what the shot meant. Johnny Miller — whose scoring record Thomas tied — implied that Erin Hills wasn’t a U.S. Open-worthy venue, saying it “isn’t exactly Oakmont.” Others decried the fact that Thomas could get home in two at all on such a long hole. Surely this was a sign of the ball flying too far; how could any golf course be long enough?

My in-person impression was distinctly different. I’d spent the day battling Erin Hills from the tips of the tips (just over 8,000 yards, actually slightly longer than they played that week, but more on that later) and my dogs were barking as I walked up the 18th fairway. On that day, Thomas had “a little help, left-to-right,” according to then-Fox broadcaster Paul Azinger. The wind was a little into my face now, making the uphill approach look all that much more uphill. (Colleague and Wisconsinite Sean Zak was playing a far more reasonable set of tees but had joined for the 675-yard finale, which our caddies estimated was playing 800 into the breeze.) I teed a ball up next to the plaque and pulled out driver, just to see. I rifled it towards the green. It came up well short.

Bigger picture, the shot felt representative of my experience all day. Erin Hills was a brutish test from that yardage, but it allowed — nay, demanded! — heroism from untold distances. I pulled driver into the wind on the 255-yard par-3 6th. I hit driver off the tee on the next hole, a beefy par-5, and then hit driver again from the fairway in an effort to get home. On No. 8, a par-4, I ripped driver straight into the wind, only to leave myself with driver — again — off the deck for my second. Five full swings in a row, all with the big stick.

The vastness of Erin’s 652-acre property encourages swinging away, as do the wide fairways and (relatively) playable greensides. It’s a massive, inviting expanse of Midwest farmland with a dash of Irish linksland mixed in. Swing away you must. Just don’t expect 63.

After a night spent dining, putting (under the lights!) and lodging at Erin Hills, we set off for Kohler, some 70 minutes away. There’s a ton of good golf in Kohler, and while Whistling Straits is the site of the next Ryder Cup, it’s Blackwolf Run that has served as host for two U.S. Women’s Opens. Blackwolf is the sister course to nearby Whistling Straits, but looks and feels completely different — not to mention an entire universe away from Erin Hills. Sightlines changed; they tightened. Finesse and imagination replaced brawn and bravery.

That’s not to say Blackwolf wasn’t a brute in its own right. The two most iconic images from the 1998 event came from the 18th hole. The first was the trio of Jane Geddes, Meg Mallon and Nancy Lopez waving their towels as white flags of surrender as they finished up their second rounds on Friday.

The second was Se Ri Pak standing knee-deep in the water left of the fairway on No. 18. Pak and amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn had finished regulation tied atop the leaderboard at six-over 290. On the 18th hole of the Monday playoff, Pak would chop the ball out from her stance in the water and go on to win the event with a birdie putt two holes later.

The moment that did it for me came standing on the 5th tee at Blackwolf Run. (That’s the 5th tee of the original championship course, which was used for the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open, although No. 5 now more commonly plays as No. 14 on the Meadow Valleys course.) It’s a par-4 and plays like one of the shorter holes from the back tees at 423 yards. But the way it presents is particularly special.

The 5th fairway stretches out in front of you from the tee. It’s an uncomfortable shot. Your landing area isn’t quite visible and a line of trees guards the left side an ambiguous distance away. But from the tee your gaze is drawn to the right instead, where the Sheboygan River runs along the entirety of the hole. Follow the river with your eyes and you’ll see the ultimate target: The green! It’s framed neatly by a gap in the trees. So the target is to the right, but the only way to get there is around to the left. What a riddle!

How to get there? Forget entirely about the green and fire a tee shot down the fairway to your left. If it’s driver, your target will tighten, but if you lay back you risk a lengthy approach into a green surrounded by the aforementioned Sheboygan.

“CAUTION,” the signs read around the green. “SEVERE DROP OFF.” No kidding. The Sheboygan is nice to look at, but your round will be decidedly improved by keeping your ball (and your two feet) on dry land. The latter, at least, should be inside your control.

We made a video showcasing our time playing Wisconsin’s U.S. Open duo. Enjoy, below.

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The post Top 100 Resort of the Week: Erin Hills appeared first on Golf.

The post Top 100 Resort of the Week: Erin Hills appeared first on Golf.

Kick up your feet and indulge in GOLF.com’s Top 100 Resort of the Week, where we’re celebrating the best places in golf to stay and play. Heavenly accommodations. Delectable food. Stunning scenery. Oh, and, of course … world-class golf. These luxurious golf getaways are the best of the best. To browse our complete Top 100 Resorts list, click here.

Resort of the Week: Erin Hills (Erin, Wisc.)

Set on a bucolic swath of land — 653 acres of rolling prairie contoured over time by the movement of ancient glaciers — Erin Hills is a stunner in every sense. Located a mere 37 miles northwest of Milwaukee, the brutish course — site of the 2017 U.S. Open won by Brooks Koepka — is worth the trip alone. At more than 7,700 yards from the tips, the course plays much shorter than it looks on paper, thanks to the fast-running fairways. Pick the right tees for your game and you’ll love every minute of it.

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If you’re up to the test, most of Erin Hills’ stay-and-play packages offer a complimentary second round — the ultimate two-for-one deal. Match finish in a tie? No worries. Settle your bets on the 18-hole, 63,000 square-foot Drumlin putting course, which opened in 2019 and is lit for evening showdowns. (That means meaningful nine-footers can still be made at 9 p.m.) If Mother Nature obliges, your best night will be spent outdoors around a fire pit, Guinness in hand, as the sun sets over the rolling course. Rest up in the Irish country-inn-style main Lodge or in one of the property’s quaint cottages, which include fireplaces, wet bars and luxe Egyptian linens.

Visit Erin Hills’ Top 100 Resorts page here.

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The post Erin Hills 101: Rookie caddies are learning the course on a video game (and it’s a hit) appeared first on Golf.

The post Erin Hills 101: Rookie caddies are learning the course on a video game (and it’s a hit) appeared first on Golf.

HARTFORD, Wis. — Her AP Psychology exam was just hours away, but high school senior Chloe Gruszynski was worried about something other than the human brain. There she was last week, in Erin Hill’s deluxe caddie barn, being shamed for her 83-80 start to the Erin Hills Caddie Open.

Gruszynski is one of 42 newly hired caddies at EHGC, and she was making progress, no doubt. But her 163 two-round total placed her 27 strokes behind clubhouse leader and fellow caddie-in-training, Lukas Heckman, who was letting her know about it. This isn’t exactly the scene caddiemaster Justin Kordus dreamed up, but it can’t be far off. The Erin Hills Caddie Open, played exclusively on smartphones, was his idea, and one that has blossomed into an important piece of caddie training in the Covid-19 world. Erin Hills’ incoming class of caddies are learning their way around the course by tapping, swiping and flicking their fingertips — long before they even set foot on the property.

Erin Hills, in what can only be described as the weirdest year in its history, opened its doors on May 18, a full 24 days after Wisconsin’s state-imposed Opening Day. During March, when caddies might normally have preview loops or at least on-course training, the spread of the coronavirus rendered the course inaccessible. But thanks to the World Golf Tour video game (WGT), Erin Hills caddies have been looping the course for months. Heckman, who has become a solid virtual stick, had his freshman season cut short at the University of New Orleans. Weeks later he was back home in Wisconsin, pegging it online as @Lukas3272. “It’s kind of fun, honestly,” he says. He’s not wrong.

Kordus, who has worked at Erin Hills since its inception, sent the caddies drone footage of every hole, archival footage of Brooks Koepka’s 2017 U.S. Open victory, even 360-degree videos of most of the property. He then created the private “Erin Hills Caddie Country Club” within the game and WGT donated an endless stream of online credits. In a world where dozens of young caddies were already learning virtually in their respective schools, why not enroll them in Erin Hills 101?

“We felt it was so realistic,” Kordus says, “because we could put them in the positions that your average golfer is going to see.” Spots like the treacherous bunkers short of the 3rd green (pictured below), in the fescue that tormented Rory McIlroy, or up on the exposed 9th tee, which on a windy day makes even the best players in the world look like amateurs.

At the virtual country club, Kordus plays the role of Golf God, surveilling the caddies in the same way teachers and principals are across the country, monitoring their progress and scores. During the online tournaments, he decides which tees they play from, the firmness of the course and the weather conditions. During one virtual round Erin Hills is gettable on a mild, summer morning, and the next it’s the windy beast the USGA hoped for back in 2017. (The Sean Zak Invitational that Kordus set up was played on varying tees in high winds with easy pins. In five attempts, I broke par once.)

As with any virtual learning, it’s all good and fun as long as it leads to something positive. “[Normally] you’re spending five or six training sessions with them to try to get them up to a level that you are comfortable putting out with a guest,” Kordus says. “We saw that [level] on the first session out of our first eight guys. We were like, ‘Wow, why haven’t we been doing this all along?'”

Which brings us back to Gruszynski. Despite not necessarily pegging it well on WGT, she’s been memorizing hole descriptions, yardages to bunkers and preferred lines off the tee. Now, hours after that Psychology exam, her new boss puts her on the spot: How many yards to that fairway bunker on the first hole? “Two-ninety,” she said, confidently. “And the target line is the left edge of that bunker.” Suddenly, her 163 doesn’t look so bad.

As the caddies played the course later that day, their virtual learnings were a natural topic. “On WGT, that’s the hardest shot in the world,” Heckman said, describing the pitch shot from below the 14th green. “It’s impossible.” Naturally, multiple attempts ensued and only one held the green. “It is the toughest shot in the world,” Kordus said. (Feedback has been so positive a handful of veteran caddies have even joined in playing the game.)

Now that the real Erin Hills is open, Kordus expects WGT play to slow down, but he’s thrilled to have a blueprint for virtual learning in place. He plans to get the game in the hands of next year’s crop of caddies even earlier. Though he’s hesitant to admit it, Kordus will be looking for fresh competition by then. Over the course of six tournaments this spring, none of the 42 recruits have beaten him.

“We had to teach the kids, ‘You’re doing good, but keep trying.’ We sit there and wait to the last day of the tournament and let them post a 65,” he says. “Then you go play once or twice just to post a 63 and take their soul.”

He plays under the username @ErinHillsCaddie, if you’re looking for a match.

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The post Field guide: Demanding and picturesque, Wisconsin public gem Erin Hills is worth the trek appeared first on Golf.

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Ed. note: As GOLF’s chief photographer and visual editor, Christian Hafer visits some of the most gorgeous and exclusive golf courses and properties in the world. Here, in his Field Guide, he’ll take you along for the ride. Lucky for us, Christian never leaves home without his camera. Follow Christian Hafer on Instagram here.

It’s true, Wisconsin is certainly known for things like Kringle, cold winters and football, but what it seems to do better than just about anyone is building amazing modern golf courses. Oh, and cheese curds.

Case in point is Erin Hills, just 35 miles north of Milwaukee and home to the 2017 U.S. Open. I wasn’t sure what to expect driving up from Chicago. Knowing it was a big, burly course that would probably chew up and swallow every golf ball in my quiver was a little daunting. And when you pull into the property — which is literally in the middle of nowhere (always a good sign) — and start seeing these massive and sprawling bunkers, your confidence is not at all-time levels. Yet I couldn’t wait to get out of the car and go play.

Erin Hills, put bluntly, is one of the most beautiful courses I have ever seen. (Even better, it’s public.) In the two days I was on property, I took more mind-blowing photographs than I can count (and ate as many cheese curds). The course is so photogenic it’s almost laughable. My only gripe is there isn’t more golf on that rolling green and orange landscape.

The Drumlin putting course had recently opened when I visited, which was also a ball. The massive putting green is 63,000 square feet and boasts head-spinning breaks. You’ll want to putt all night long. Luckily you can, since it has lights. We couldn’t get enough.

Of course, you can tip it out at 7,735 yards and have the stretcher come for you on 18, but our group decided to play the friendlier combo tees. The fairways are wide and flow through the land, although you seem to surf around these fairways more than anything. It all reminded me of the west coast of Ireland. The par-3 9th hole, while gorgeous, is the toughest par-3 I’ve ever played, and the par-4 12th has one of the coolest blind tee shots I’ve come across. Each tee box opens an entirely new golf course, and that’s sort of the theme at Erin Hills. While it is big and bad, it’s also so pretty and calm out there that you can’t help but love it.

Just two hours from Chicago, or 40 minutes from the closest airport, and you’ll be in the middle of some of the best modern golf in America. Stay on property and enjoy the dunes, bunkers, sunsets and the Drumlin. Oh, and please order some cheese curds for me.

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The post How one company is using artificial intelligence to combat slow play appeared first on Golf.

The post How one company is using artificial intelligence to combat slow play appeared first on Golf.

From the PGA Tour to your local municipal course, pace of play is one of golf’s most pressing issues. The European Tour felt strongly enough about it to implement new rules to combat slow play, while the PGA Tour recently updated its pace of play policy.

It’s great that the pro ranks are doing their part to speed up the action, but changes at the top are hardly affecting weekend warriors like myself. Far too often my Saturday round takes up the majority of my day off. Sure, when I’m free from the office, the course is where I want to be. But for five-to-six hours? No thank you. In terms of enjoyment, waiting on every single shot is up there with my boss assigning me something at four o’clock on a Friday.

Days on the course are precious. Free time is precious. Neither is meant to be wasted due to slow play and now, neither has to be thanks to the Tagmarshal golf course intelligence system.

Tagmarshal offers an app that improves pace of play and provides golf course operation teams with real-time oversight and historical data. Its software uses data from more than 10 million rounds to provide tailored information to 250 partner courses. A whos-who logo collection—Carnoustie, Whistling Straits, Baltusrol, Kiawah Island, Bandon Dunes, Pinehurst and Erin Hills—are just a handful of the GOLF Top 100 Courses that currently use Tagmarshal.

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Once a course implements Tagmarshal, transmitters which track every golfer are placed on carts or given to caddies. Information is then collected in the cloud and real-time data is available to course management. Should a problem arise, you won’t need to flag down a marshal to alert them, they’ll already know. For example, if a golfer were to fall behind on the third hole, the situation can be handled immediately, rather than waiting for a prolonged backup to reach back to the first tee.

No one likes being yelled at by a ranger, and truth be told, no good really comes from it. Targmarshal’s system isn’t all AI. It also has features that train staff to remain positive and encouraging. It’s all part of improving the overall experience to keep golfers happier and more willing to do their part to help pace of play efforts. If a ranger opts for a conversational approach with data points rather than a confrontational scolding, Tagmarshal feels a course will be better suited for success.

Additionally, once the Tagmarshal system is in place, courses can use data to better understand cause and effect. A course may use this information to recognize trends of specific locations that consistently become problem areas, or find routing or design flaws contributing pace of play issues. If there’s a private club member who’s regularly a slow-play issue, Tagmarshal will give course management factual data to present to the member.

Tagmarshal information is related through a cloud management system to a course operations team.

Tagmarshal

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Several private courses using Tagmarshal reward golfers who abide by pace of play rules with ideal tee times, keeping regular offenders from clogging play during busy hours. Baltusrol went as far as to install real-time monitors throughout their facility for staff and members to keep close tabs on the course. The management team, outside services and locker room attendants know what’s happening at any given time. How’s that for transparency?

“There’s nothing better than walking into the office and knowing exactly what’s happening on your golf course,” said Ryan Fountaine, Director of Golf at Baltusrol. “It’s fantastic knowledge and peace of mind.”

If a course can get more groups playing rounds in reasonable times, there’s more leeway for additional groups to get on the course, which opens up revenue potential. Instead of rushing to get home after a long round, your members might be able to spend time in the clubhouse with their golf buddies over food and drinks.

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The PGA Tour is changing its Pace of Play Policy. Here’s everything you need to know

Just like Tagmarshal’s slow play data, it’s hard to argue with results. In only a month, Carnoustie claims that rounds played within their desired timeframe rose from 29 percent to 53 percent. Erin Hills says it brought in an additional $140,000 in revenue from greens fees in a season and credits Tagmarshal’s tee sheet optimization and live management system.

“It paid for itself a hundred times over,” Jim Lombardo, Head Golf Professional at Erin Hills, said.

There’s no way of knowing if Tagmarshal is the silver bullet to the slow-play dilemma, but Tagmarshal has stepped up to the plate to speed up the game. That’s a start, and it appears to be a strong start. Now all I need are my local courses to make similar efforts to keep things moving. It’s good for the game and more importantly, my Saturdays.

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