PINEHURST, NC — Pebble Beach has the Pacific Ocean. Oakmont is the brute with its pew bunkers. Pinehurst No. 2 has the cereal upside down.
The greens of Pinehurst No. 2 are the hallmark of this Donald Ross course that will host the 124th US Open on Thursday. They have all kinds of names: upside-down cereals, upside-down saucers, turtles or domes.
Whatever they are called, they are widely regarded as daunting, especially for a US Open already known as the toughest test in golf.
“You hit it on the green, the hole isn’t ready yet,” said defending champion Wyndham Clark.
He played when he arrived on Monday and was amazed at how sturdy and fast they already were, calling them “borderline” in terms of fairness. And this was still three days away from the opening tee shot on Thursday.
Perhaps that is why in the three previous US Opens at Pinehurst No. 2, a total of four players finished the championship under par. One of these was Payne Stewart, thanks to that famous 15-foot par putt on the final hole that saw him beat Phil Mickelson at 1 under par in 1999.
Martin Kaymer took advantage of the mild rain conditions and brilliant golf to win at 9 under in 2014, with Rickie Fowler and Erik Compton eight shots behind and the only other players in the red for the week.
“In general, I think the best players play aggressive off the tee and conservative on the greens. I think this course is basically that strategy – only on steroids,” said Viktor Hovland. “I think it is very important to have a smaller club. But on the greens you have to play very, very conservatively. I think just hitting the greens itself is of great value.”
There have been plenty of illustrations of that.
Jordan Spieth practiced right of the par-3 ninth green Wednesday afternoon, aiming for a roller coaster the size of a golf hole on the left. He threw it hard, far beyond the hole to the top of a small ridge, so that it would roll back to its target. And that’s exactly what he did, but it was a foot too far to the left and was soon completely off the green.
“This is one you have to putt,” Spieth told Sam Burns. Instead of walking to his bag for a putter, Spieth used alternate Josh Radcliff’s left-handed putter and whacked him.
It can be difficult to keep track of golf balls, especially if a practice group consists of four players, with the balls rolling in all directions, some of them coming off the green.
That’s the nature of Pinehurst No. 2. And while the course is more than a decade removed from the restoration project that returned sandy areas with native plans in place of thick rough areas, it’s the greens that give the course its character.
And then it’s up to the USGA to make the conditions so demanding that only the most skilled players can handle them. That is the essence of the US Open.
John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer responsible for setting up the course, said 2014 data showed 70% of players hit the fairway, but only 56% of them hit the green.
“It’s all about these beautiful upside-down cereal putting greens,” Bodenhamer said. “They are hard to hit and we have to create the right, firm and fast conditions around them.”
And when players miss the greens – from the fairways, sometimes from putts that roll off the crowned edges – there are options.
“I was joking with my caddy, ‘We should probably get our putter checked.’ I’ve never swung my putter so hard for nine holes just trying to get up and down the hills,” said PGA Champion Xander Schauffele. ‘There are certain places where you feel like you have to hit it really hard. too hard, you put it on the other side of the green.
“Leaving yourself in a really good position is A-1,” he said. “But even if you leave yourself in a good position, the gap is not closed. It’s kind of half the battle.”
Clark won last year at Los Angeles Country Club with a score of 10-under 270. That week also started with Schauffele and Rickie Fowler setting a US Open record of 62 in the opening round, about 10 minutes apart.
Nobody expects such a goal this week. Bryson DeChambeau, who studied physics at SMU, quoted Boo Weekley, who barely studied during his short time at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College.
“Pinehurst is no joke. This is a ball striker’s paradise,” DeChambeau said. “You have to hit the middle of the greens. And this is a quote from Boo Weekley, but the center of the green never moves. So that’s what I’m going to try to focus on this week.”
There are more problems than just the greens. In the sandy areas – they are called ‘sand landscapes’ in these parts – wire grass bushes the size of basketballs are speckled across the terrain. Come in and hope – it may be a pure lie, it may be trouble.
“It’s a walk down that fairway with a little bit of fear because they don’t know what they’re going to get,” Bodenhamer said. “The randomness… it’s not just 5-inch, green, lush rough. It could be something gnarly, wire grass, or it could be a perfect sandy lie. I think you’ll see some players walk up to their golf ball and be unhappy, while others will be excited.
“We think that’s pretty cool, and we think that’s exactly what Donald Ross meant.”
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