Rickie Fowler hits a shot on the fifth hole during a practice round for the 2012 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. (AP/David J. Phillip)
The greens and bunkers at the Lake Course will not shock players. The bunkers are deep, but these elite players shouldn’t have a problem with them.
The greens will play fast, but the slopes are fairly benign.
The fairways are another story. They are narrow, and most holes are on side slopes. In fact, many holes are what golf architects refer to as “reverse camber,” where the hole fights the terrain.
Nos. 4 and 5 are the best example. Hole 4 moves hard from right to left while the hill pushes balls hard left to right. Hole 5 is the opposite. To find the fairways, players need to pick a line that accounts for the ball running out across the slope, or they need to shape the shot to follow the bends in the fairways.
Tall cypress trees flank both sides of Nos. 4 and 5, so missing a fairway not only means thick rough but trees as well. Players who miss tee shots on the inside of the doglegs are likely to punch out. Players who miss to the outside of the dogleg may have a shot toward the green but from a long way. Understanding what type of shot is called for and what the best miss is off the tee should help players score over the week.
