COMPLAINTS? THEY’LL HAVE A FEW
Any time a tournament, especially a major golf championship, heads to a new venue, everybody holds their breath waiting to hear how the pros feel about the course. In some ways, that’s unfair, given players have their own biases and tend to like courses with few surprises — the kind of place where the ability to hit the ball like a robot at a clear target is always rewarded.
Those courses are often a fair test but can, at times, produce less-than-compelling theatre.
With blind shots and very few flat lies, Erin Hills should be anything but boring.
“I’m excited and nervous because, obviously, the first few days in particular — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday — the talk will be the golf course, and that’ll be the star,” said Dana Fry, one of three designers of Erin Hills. “Obviously, you want the pros to have positive reactions.”
We asked the course architects what gripes, if any, they expect to hear from the players.
“The bunkering is very unique because it’s very different from what they’ve ever had in a U.S. Open,” said Fry. “The bunkers aren’t all flat in the bottom, and you’re going to have sidehill, downhill, uphill lies in bunkers.”
Bunkers without flat bottoms mean players will rarely be able to get comfortable with their stance in the sand. Both men said it won’t bother them if the players don’t like the bunkers because they intended them to play as true hazards and believe they fit the land.
“We were taking this very naturalistic approach in that we wanted the bunkers to look as if they were formed by nature,” Michael Hurdzan said. “If you’re used to seeing conventional bunkers, you’re going to be a little bit shocked. If you get into these bunkers, you’re going to have to invent a golf shot.”
Another thing they expect to hear a few complaints about are the walks between holes at the sprawling course.
“That is a valid comment, very valid,” Fry said. “It’s just that most of the greens sit down in these incredible natural valley settings, and then we wanted the tees up on the next esker, the big hill, so that they hit downhill again. So you’ve got these walks, they’re not that long necessarily, but they always generally tend to be uphill.”