09what’s next for olympic?
in the wake of a u.s. open, especially when the host is a private venue such as
olympic club, the immediate question by members always has the same ra-
bid tone: when do we get our course back? the short answer is friday. that’s
when the usga will return the keys to the lake course. when the final putt
drops, they’ll break down the grandstands and tents, cut down rough and water
baked fairways and greens. (the ocean course, which closed in mid-march and
hosted most of the open’s infrastructure, is scheduled to reopen sept. 8.) the
next question is: which open features will remain? for now, all of them. for the
next 60 to 90 days the roughly 1,000 golf members will play a similar course the
pros played. during that time, olympic’s greens committee will solicit informal
feedback and make a recommendation to the board on which features should
stay and which should go. they include the narrowing of fairways, a bigger and
deeper fairway bunker on the sixth hole and “low-mow” areas around seven of
the greens. the most significant change was the fairway bunker on the 17th hole
(foreground), which usga executive director mike davis added weeks before
the start of the open. the club might widen the fairways a bit, and the low-mow
areas might not be so low, however davis is hearing the rest of the changes,
including the new bunker on 17, will stay. —Matt Ginella (@Matt_Ginella)
dom furore
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