Eye On Design: The U.S. Open On Modern Links Courses
Enthusiasm for this U.S. Open isn’t exactly off the charts and I’m guilty of having shared that sensibility given a new venue and a major championship return to this market in less than two years. However, on Sunday (we hope…) the U.S. Open Trophy will be awarded along with the Jack Nicklaus Gold Medal and the history books will not remember this was played at 13-year-old inland, Irish-inspired, treeless, 350-acre course.
For all of the fun holes, beautiful bunkering and other cool features, Erin Hills has much going against it due in large part to just how browned out and bizarre Chambers Bay looked in 2015. That’s it's Tacoma, Washington counterpart in what was, at one time, the USGA’s effort to introduce new (public) venues into their unofficial rota.
I’ve heard much consternation about these non-traditional U.S. Open venues and the awarding of this championship to such relatively untested layouts for a variety of reasons. They all have some merit but also ignore the need to work in new venues too. Whether it’s their lack of history, architectural scale or minimalist brand name cache, the concern is understandable. But as we know, so many venues that once hosted U.S. Open's can no longer do so because today's players are linebackers, tri-athletes and overall mega-jocks armed with equipment that the USGA and R&A say hasn't done a thing for them over the last decade!
I digress.
There is also the legitimate concern that within the Grand Slam scheme of things, an Erin Hills or Chambers Bay skews things toward the creative links-lover and away from the U.S. Open’s test as one of supreme patience and precision.
So before I get a post up with some images and things to look for this week, consider this Eye On Design where I bat around these issues in the grand scheme of things with the U.S.G.A. bringing America’s national championship 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee. Hopefully I offer a few thoughts for your inevitable 19th Hole debates this week. (PS - here is the list of future U.S. Open venues noted in the piece.)
Monday, June 12, 2017 at 02:22 AM
Reader Comments (16)
I suspect that the Open will be s smash successful, the USGA will make a boatload of money, EH will be part of the unofficial rota and eventually will be ranked in the top 20 in Golf Digest. So the best I can hope for is at least a few disgruntled pros chirping about how bad the routing is.
However, as a Scottish Golfer I am generally very disappointed with not just the design but the preparation and worse still the on-going maintenance regime . Yes, the courses look beautiful, they are nearly chocolate box quality but then that’s the problem – well in my eyes, golf course – I believe- should not be super engineered, super manicured, nor should the Fairways and Greens be billiard table smooth, for just where is the challenge within the design through to finished Course. Where is that element that defines the course as a golf course, that special invitation that encourages the golfer to test himself against the elements as well as the course.
Have we not in our pursuit to generate beauty and not forgetting a low score, forgotten the prime directive that is essentially in the game of golf, that of testing oneself against the elements, the course and the designers skill using just one’s mind and body. The thrill of encountering a new course that still has a genuine rough, penal traps and aggressive bunkers for those wayward shots. Is the design not encompassing his cunning within the course, the terrain and the environment to test and even purge the golfer of his weakness in the skill department.
A golf course today is defined more for its looks than it is for its ability to challenge and I feel not only does the game suffer but so does the golfer for not being able to commit himself fully to the Game of Golf - the whole purpose of the venture in the first place.
Next time in the UK or Ireland seek out the older less know courses and try them to see if they test you and in doing so has it enhanced your game in the process?
Suits this aged player just fine and what I've contended with ever since making my first swing. Divorce yourself from any vested self-interest and watch the show because it's not about us. It's about them.
I think its a target course that was conditioned like a link's course.
Will there be a ground game at Erin Hills?