Players new to Saucon Valley like Old Course
Bernard Langer and Vijay Singh probably never putted during a USGA event while a band played “BrownEyed Girl” behind them. Yet there they were, on the Old Course’s 15th green at Saucon Valley Country Club, practicing adjacent to a concert.
The U.S. Senior Open returned to Saucon Valley on Monday with sun and song, generating a relaxed vibe before the championship begins Thursday. The festival-like 19th Hole complex bloomed and boomed at the course’s epicenter while the field’s 156 players tended to their work. A few bobbed along to the music. Others, like threetime major champion Padraig Harrington, labored over 5-foot putts on the practice green.
And like most players new to Saucon Valley, Harrington liked what he saw of the Old Course.
“It’s a big, old-school, solid, traditional golf course,” Harrington said after playing 13 holes. “It looks like a very strong test. Yeah, I like it.”
Saucon Valley, hosting its third U.S. Senior Open, passed the initial eye test among the world’s over-50 set Monday. Bernhard Langer, who has won 11 senior majors, called the Old Course a “gem.”
Ernie Els, a four-time major winner, called it a “U.S. Open-type course.”
And Bob May, who dueled with Tiger Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship, likened it to the traditional PGA Tour courses he often played.
With a caveat.
“You’d better be on the right side of the pins and greens,” May said. “Otherwise, you’re going to have a long, tough day.”
The Old Course greens, so full of slope and sway, drew plenty of attention during Monday’s practice round. Langer putted arcs up and down many of the greens, walking off precise measurements and testing the turf. He and Singh, playing together in a popular practice grouping, putted every break possible.
“The course is right there in front of you, but the greens are severe,” the 64-year-old Langer said. “We have our work cut out for us.”
May already seemed wary at how the USGA might fidget with the Old Course’s greens. They ran fast but manageably on Monday and certainly won’t reach U.S. Open severity. But the USGA could turn the greens into the Old Course’s chief bit of defense.
“There are going to be putts that are going to make people look like fools, and it’s not going to be a very bad putt,” May said. “If they get the greens too fast, it can make the [championship] kind of rinky-dink, I think, because there’s slope on these greens that you don’t really see until you hit a putt and it just gets going.”
Els played nine holes at Saucon Valley on Sunday, then watched Matthew Fitzpatrick win the U.S. Open at Brookline. He returned Monday to play a second nine, calling the conditions “absolutely perfect.”
Els said he’s fond of playing in this part of the U.S., fitting for a player who won U.S. Opens at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh
and Congressional outside Washington, D.C.
“I just love playing up here in the Northeast,” said Els, who is looking for his first senior major title. “I love everything about it. It’s all-star golf, and this is all-star golf again.”
Like his fellow players, Els said he was “just trying to get my brain around” the Old Course’s greens. In fact, that’s where Els devoted much of his focus the first two days.
“They’re very slopy, very undulating greens, but in immaculate condition,” Els said. “You’ve got to find your spots where you can actually get to a two-putt or make a birdie. It’s just a wonderful layout.”
For Harrington, who turned 50 after the 2021 U.S. Senior Open, the lure of hitting driver made an impression. The Old Course will play to 7,028 yards as a par-71, more than 250 yards longer than it did for the championship in 2000. But as Harrington noted, today’s senior players are longer, too.
“This course is reminiscent of the courses we would have played [at a U.S. Open] 20 years ago,” Harrington said. “We all it farther than we did 20 years ago. There are plenty of big holes, so you get to hit driver, which is nice.”
But like everyone else, Harrington found himself keyed on the greens.
“First and foremost, you’d like to have a great week on the greens,” he said. “They’re fast, they’re sloped, and there’s undulations. But I like the layout in the sense that it suits my eye. I really liked what I saw.”