TOUGH OPENING HOLES TEST COMPETITORS
LEADING UP TO THE 2012 U.S. OPEN much of the focus was on the course setup at Olympic Club’s Lake Course, particularly the opening six holes. Even though this was the fifth time the San Francisco club had hosted golf ’s toughest test, never before had the first one-third of the course been viewed with such great trepidation. “This absolutely is going to be
the hardest start for any U.S. Open I can think of,” said USGA Execu- tive Director Mike Davis prior to the event. “The first six holes in particular, if you can get through those 1- or 2-over par, I can prom- ise you you’re going to be beating most of the field.” Tiger Woods knew this coming in to the week, stating that “if you play them for four straight days even par, you’re going to be picking up a boatload of shots. They’re just that difficult.” The 36-hole leader’s clairvoyance proved to be spot on, as he went even par over the first six holes after two days of play, but nine over par the final two, which included his six over massacre from Sunday. Part of the reason for the horror of the opening six was a change in par, making the normally par-5 first hole into a 520-yard beast of a par 4, the longest par 4 in U.S. Open history. But the other four par 4s in that stretch were nothing to slouch at, as they averaged more than 463 yards, with the shortest being the par-4 second, playing 428 yards uphill. Throw in a 247-yard par 3 and there was nothing that allowed players to catch their breath. The toughest of the bunch
wasn’t the obvious choice of the downhill first hole, with a fairway that slopes left-to-right and a pre-
vailing left-to-right ocean breeze. That ended the week ranked as the second-toughest hole with a 4.49 average. Instead it was the 489-yard sixth hole, where the average score was 4.54. A contributing factor to its toughness was an added tee that stretched the hole some 50 extra yards, putting a fairway bunker in play that Davis believes was never in play during the previous four Opens. The sixth was playing so tough that it yielded twice as many double bogeys (30) as birdies (15) over four days of play. Additionally, only 20 more pars were made than bogeys (214-194). Eventual winner Webb Simp-
son made one of the two birdies the sixth hole relinquished Sunday, and played the hole to an excep- tional one under total for the championship, which ultimately proved to be the difference. Simp- son changed his strategy for the hole, deciding to take driver off the tee instead of 3-wood. Even if it meant flirting with the fairway bunker, he felt it was worth the risk to have a shorter club to hit into the green. “[I wasn’t] trying to hit it close, I was trying to hit it left of the hole, but it ended up about five feet and I made birdie,” he said. “That hole, all I wanted to do was make par. The birdie was an added bonus.” As big of a role as the open- ing six holes played in the 2012 U.S. Open, they didn’t supplant the other 12. Simpson played the holes to four over par, while Jim Furyk, who owned the 54-hole lead played the stretch to an impressive two over par for the week. But he struggled down the stretch and the final words of his press conference say it all: “I didn’t close it out.”
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT LEADS THE OPEN Mission Viejo’s Beau Hossler had quite a week at the 2012 U.S. Open. Not only did he gain a cult-like following from the gallery on the weekend, the 17-year-old also made history when he grabbed the brief lead for 15 minutes on Friday afternoon. After birdieing the first hole, the 11th hole of his round, Hossler was atop the leaderboard at two under par, one stroke ahead of Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods. The feat was rare as the last time a 17-year-old led the U.S. Open was in the tournament’s third year,
Beau Hossler
1897, by a golfer named Willie Anderson.
Hossler continued to
impress on Saturday with an even-par 70, which put him only four shots off the lead going into Sunday. His one misstep, though, arguably came after Saturday’s round when he divulged that he had modified his goal of earning low amateur honors. “I still have the goal to be low amateur, but my goal now is to win the tournament,” said Hossler. Unfortunately for him a final-round 76 quashed both those goals as Hossler dropped below Jordan Spieth for low amateur honors and finished tied for 29th. Still, Hossler’s play over the four days at Olympic Club will leave an indel- ible mark in the fabric of the 2012 Open.
SUMMER 2012 /
NCGA.ORG / 29
PHOTOS: JOANN DOST
PHOTO: JOANN DOST
PHOTO: JOANN DOST
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