The Olympic Club’s Lake Course—this year’s venue for the U.S. Open—is no picnic. Subtle changes have made a hard course even harder. Take Holes 12 (430 yards, par 4), where groundskeepers tacked on 30 yards to a hole that already required a tough tee shot through a narrow set of tees. Or, Hole 8 (200 yards, par 3), where groundskeepers added 60 yards to a hole that features a long narrow fairway leading to a well-bunkered green with a false front. With holes like these, Open players must hit accurate drives, pinpoint irons, and good pitches to stand any chance of winning. They’ll also have to putt well—really well.
Narrow Fairways
The Lake Course’s key feature is its narrowness. Fairways average about 28-30 yards wide. Hole 5 (498 yards, par 4), for example, has a fairway that’s only 31-yards wide. But that’s two yards wider than the fairway on Hole 1 (520 yards, par 4), which is only 29 yards wide, and 4 yards wider than the fairway on Hole 9 (449 yards, par 4), which is only 27 yards wide, which is narrow even by Tour players’ standards. Below is a drill we use in our golf instruction sessions to teach golfers to hit narrow fairways consistently:
Next time you’re at a driving range choose an area in front of you about 35 to 40 yards wide and designate it as an imaginary fairway. Take five balls and hit them. Keep track of how many make the fairway. Set a goal for yourself before hitting the balls. Maybe it’s hitting two of five shots in your imaginary fairway. Keep track of how many balls land in the fairway and compare them to your goal. Competing against goals helps boost accuracy.
Pinpoint Approach Shots
Another key feature of the Lake Course is its sloped greens. Many of them slope from back to front—some severely. Hole 4 (430 yards, par 4) and Hole 6 (490 yards, par 4) are typical of the holes at this course. This Open’s winner must stay below the hole with his approach shots, leaving him plenty of uphill putts. This strategy requires hitting pinpoint irons consistently. Here’s a drill we use in our golf lessons to teach students to hit on-target irons:
Press a tee into the ground about an inch from the ball and outside your target line. Hit several shots with your 7-iron. Check your divot after each shot. If you make ball-first contact, the divot will be on the target side of the tee. If the divot starts slightly behind the tee, you hit it a little fat and sacrificed distance and accuracy. If the entire divot is behind the tee, you chunked it.
Fast Downhill Sliders
The Lake Course has more than its share of sloped greens. Eventually, someone will end up on the back of one of these greens, leaving them with a fast downhill slider. These putts are among the toughest in the game. Likely spots for downhill sliders are on Hole 17 (505 yards, par 5), which features a green that slopes back to front rather steeply, or on Hole 2 (428 yards, par 4), where the green slopes severely from back right to front left. Open players can’t afford to miss these putts. Below are some golf tips on playing them.
Start by determining your target line. Look at the putt from the front and back as well as the sides. Do this as quickly as you can. You don’t want to hold up play. Your goal: find the point where the ball starts sliding toward the hole. Aim for this point. In addition, imagine the hole closer to you—maybe two thirds of the way down the line. Try to find a spot where you think slope and gravity will take control of the ball the rest of the way. Putt to this spot.
The Lake Course, with its narrow, tree-lined fairways and small, well-bunkered greens, challenges tournament players to play well. Changes made to the course make it harder than in 1998, the last time the Open was played there, and place a premium on accurate shotmaking and good putting. If you’re serious about lowering your golf handicap, these are good skills to acquire.
