George Willis

George Willis

Golf

New course makes Pinehurst exciting

PINEHURST , NC — After Matt Kuchar started the first round of the 114th US Open on Thursday by making six pars, he had the kind of thought most golfers keep from entering their brains.

“I might go bogey-free around a US Open course,” Kuchar thought to himself.

Of course the golf gods and perhaps the USGA took exception to that because Kuchar proceeded to make back-to-back bogeys at the 16th and 17th holes at Pinehurst No. 2 to find himself in a battle to salvage his round. After starting on the 10th hole, he would shoot 3-under on the front side to settle for a 1-under par 69 to keep himself in contention at a US Open that is shaping up to be one of the most interesting majors played in recent memory.

A topic of interest coming into golf’s second major was how the redo of Pinehurst No. 2 would impact the US Open. The traditional rough outside the fairways has been replaced with what’s being called waste areas, a combination of hardpan sand, wiry grass and pine cones. It has already given this tournament a different feel compared to the US Opens played here in 1999 and 2005.

It’s requiring the players to think more and contemplate strategy on just about every shot. And guess what? It’s something they enjoy, which hasn’t been said at too many previous US Opens.

“There seems to be so much strategy and course management,” Kuchar said. “I enjoy figuring a course out that way. I enjoy figuring out where to attack, where you can be a little bit more aggressive, and still give yourself a great shot at getting up and down for par.”

Choosing when to be aggressive and when to play it safe is not uncommon in golf. But it has reached a new level at the US Open, where the choices can vary from golfer to golfer depending on talent, confidence and guts. Rory McIlroy, the 2011 US Open winner, was mostly aggressive, using driver off the tee. He was willing to take the risk of hitting it into the waste areas, hoping he draws a decent lie.

“The fairways are generous and you can get away with it and get a decent lie and still advance it,” he said. McIlroy finished 1-over par.

Meanwhile, his playing partner and countryman Graeme McDowell took the conservative approach and finished with a 2-under 68.

“You don’t have to strike it amazing around here,” said the 2010 US Open champion.

“You just have to position the ball correctly at all times because unless you’re Rory McIlroy, that’s about the only way you can attack this course.”

There’s no exact way to attack the course, which is the beauty of the new Pinehurst. Clearly, Donald Ross had it right with his original design that Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw recreated. Missing the fairway isn’t automatic death the way it has been in previous US Opens, where the rough became more penal the more off line the ball was hit.

Much of the appeal of professional golf is watching the world’s best players execute recovery shots. There was little of that when the ball was in knee-deep rough. Now the field has a chance to display its recovery skills if a fairway is missed. Or the players can enhance their chances of staying out of the waste areas by being more conservative. The decision-making should become even more fascinating as the weekend progresses and the stakes get higher.

Neither approach guarantees success because the crowned greens remain the biggest challenge. Bogey-free golf as Kuchar envisioned is highly unlikely.

“The golf course is difficult and good shots are going to finish in bad spots and you’ve just got to really, really grind hard,” McDowell said. “You’re just not going to get a pat on the back very often on this golf course.”

Coore and Crenshaw deserve a pat on the back for giving us what’s shaping up to be the most interesting US Open in years.