The Official Site of Hunter Mahan

Sun, Sep 14th 2008, 20:04

Caddie's Corner: The Course..and where are my red ruby slippers?

Wow, am I glad we didn’t play golf today. I went out to walk the
course and due to the outer edges of Ike, it was blowing 35 miles an
hour with gusts over 50 mph. There were at least 3 large trees uprooted
and thrashed to the ground, including one completely laying across the 15th fairway, as well as at least two tv towers blown over and demolished. I feel bad for the greens crew…they have a busy couple of days ahead of them getting those trees up, clearing the course of debris, reworking the bunkers (which had most of the sand blown out of them), and generally returning the course to the shape it was in 24 hours ago. They should have plenty of time, though, and the rest of the week looks real fantastic as far as the weather goes. And by the way and coincidentally, I mentioned earlier the Outer Edges of Ike…that is the name of my new band…I’ll have t-shirts out to everyone soon. Can’t you hear it now? “Ladies and Gentlemen, from
Louisville, Kentucky, The Outer Edges of Ike.” Sends shivers down
the spine…

Anyway, about the course. It is set up exactly like Captain Azinger
said he was going to set it up. Fairly generous fairways, even more
generous first cuts (10-12 yards each), and a bit of rough outside of
that and around the greens. There are quite a few holes that feature
a fairway that’s, say, 18 yards wide at 280 yards, and at 300 expands
to 25-30. Bombers Central indeed. Guys like Anthony Kim, Phil, and
J.B. Holmes should be licking their chops. In theory this kind of
setup should favor us. Add to this the fact that the greens should be
running pretty fast and firm by the time Friday rolls around, and we
couldn’t ask for more as far as course setup goes…You won’t see a
lot of holes won with pars this week, as Match Play should be, if you
ask me. I can actually see a lot of birdies halving holes or even
losing holes in the cases of the par 5’s. Only three of them but all
very reachable.

Some key holes…13. At this point in the match you will see some
action here. A short par 4, dogleg left that for all intents and
purposes features an island green. Most likely a 3 iron or hybrid off
the tee followed by a sand or L wedge, so birdies galore. BUT, I could
easily see someone getting a little cute with a wedge or gusted by a
wind change and see a birdie opportunity go straight into the soup.
There is rumor that they are going to move the tees up here a couple
of times and give the guys a chance to drive the green. I think this
would be wonderful. There’s nothing better or more exciting than a
drivable par 4 in match play. Your hand can totally be forced if your
opponent goes first and drives the green. You are then compelled to
follow suit. Conversely, if they do it first and soup it, you are up
there now just trying not to screw up, which is not the best way to
play golf. A great great hole if they make it drivable…16…the
exception to the rule. A 511 yard par 4 dogleg right. You may
remember this hole as the “Tiger jogs in and points at the hole and of
course the ball lips in” playoff against Bob May. Well, that green
doesn’t exist anymore. They have totally reworked that green complex, so that putt is no more. But it is a hole where a par will win many times throughout the week. It is long and tighter than most holes on the course, and in a tight match a par will be a VERY good score there…and if your match should go to 18, hang on to your hats. A very reachable par 5 with water running all up the right side of the fairway. It’s this simple: hit a good drive in the fairway, and you will make a birdie or eagle. Miss the fairway right, you are dead. Miss it left, you have a chance.. You will see everything here. Birdies, Eagles, Bogeys, seemingly bad drives into the left bunker where guys will still be able to go for the green in two. You will see an eagle holed out of the front bunker (these things always happen at The Ryder Cup), mark my words. And if it gets a little downwind, you will see J.B. Holmes CARRY the fairway bunker on the left, which is 342 yards away, and hit a 9 iron or a wedge into this hole for his second shot to the 547 yard par 5. It will happen. Birdies will halve this hole quite a few times this week, and you may even see a match that is halved with eagles. A perfect finishing hole for match play should your match get this far.

The weather for the rest of the week looks good. 70-80 the rest of
the week with little chance for rain, so Zinger should be able to
brown out the course, firm up the greens, and get it playing hard and fast…right where it should be by Friday.

Most of the guys are coming in tonight and tomorrow, and our first
practice round is all set for Tuesday morning. So, tomorrow I’ll
probably head back out to the course and check out the last 4 greens
again…they evacuated the course and I couldn’t get as much detail as
I needed to today. And after that, probably a twin museum day.
Within a mile of our hotel is the Hillerich and Bradsby Baseball Bat
Museum, as well as The Ali Center. Add to those a sentimental trip
for me to Cherokee Park and Atherton High School (old haunts of my
favorite author, Hunter S. Thompson), and I will have had a full day
of Louisville history.

Probably won’t have anything tomorrow night, but definitely Tuesday
after our first practice round…

All for now,

John