Quirky No. 9 at Erin Hills ready for star turn at Open

The par-3 ninth hole at Erin Hills may be as short as 135 yards during the U.S. Open, which begins today. For the world’s best golfers, making par from that distance would usually be as challenging as an uncontested layup for an NBA player.

The diminutive ninth hole, in fact, was not part of the original 18-hole golf course when Erin Hills opened in 2006 in Erin, Wis., about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee. At the time, it was designed to be a quirky extra hole, or a bonus hole, and was often called a “bye” hole that could perhaps be used to settle recreational golf matches tied after 18 holes.

But the elimination of one hole several years later, and the rearranging of other holes, brought the extra hole into the 18-hole layout.

Despite its puny length for a par 3 that has no water hazard, the ninth hole will most likely take a star turn and be a featured element of the television broadcast this week when Erin Hills hosts its first major championship.

With a sloping green, crosswinds and seven deep, irregular and vexing bunkers, the ninth hole has turned out to be a tiny terror.

As any Erin Hills caddie will tell you, the hardest par 5 on the course is the ninth hole if you miss the green.

Or as Gil Hanse, a leading golf course architect and an analyst for Fox Sports, which will broadcast the tournament, said, “The ninth hole will undoubtedly have the players’ complete attention for all of the 135 yards that the ball is in the air.”

The ninth hole, which requires a tee shot over tall fescue grass to a green that sprawls very close to the edges of the seven harrowing bunkers, could easily be the most entertaining, or demoralizing, 10 minutes of every competitor’s round.

“It’s going to be fun to watch,” said Darin Bevard, the U.S. Golf Association’s championship agronomist. “I bet the grandstand alongside the ninth hole will be plenty full during the championship.”

Not bad for a hole that was once an afterthought.

It took nearly three years for the former extra hole to become Erin Hills’ ninth hole. Zach Reineking, the course’s superintendent and director of course maintenance, was happy to see the novel hole brought into the fold in 2009.

“Aesthetically, it’s just a really attractive hole with all the bunkering and the way the green sits in the midst of it all,” Reineking said.

He has been at Erin Hills since its inception, and he has heard scores of golfers talking about the ninth hole after their rounds.

“It’s not an easy up and down from any of the bunkers around that green,” Reineking said. “And while you should be able to advance the ball toward the green, there are definitely situations where you are not going to be able to advance the ball toward certain pin positions. You’re going to have to hit to another part of the green.”

Playing the hole also requires some mental fortitude and strategic planning. The prevailing wind is right to left. Perhaps by devilish design, the most penal bunkers are the ones left of the green.

“If the wind is blowing more than 10 miles an hour, you see a lot of hesitation on that tee,” Reineking said. “You can see people thinking and wondering, ‘Where am I going to get this ball to land?’ ”

PGA Tour veteran Steve Stricker, who calls Wisconsin home and has played at Erin Hills several times, said the crosswind was not overpowering, “but there’s just enough of it to make a big difference.”

Short but highly challenging par-3 holes are commonplace throughout golf, and some of those holes are criticized for being tricked up or unfair. But Hanse said the ninth hole at Erin Hills was not gimmicky.

“The hole is based on sound principles of design,” he said. “The green is receptive to a short iron from an elevated tee, which theoretically should make the hole even shorter.”

He conceded, however, that missing the green from the tee could lead to a random outcome, as some lies and some spots in the asymmetrical bunkers are worse than others.

“I think that’s a positive,” Hanse said. “The potential for a random outcome is certainly an attention-getter on a short hole like that.”