I'm at the keyboard early to try to provide a reasonable day's blogging for you, as the bride wants to head to Quaker Ridge to watch some of the Curtis Cup. It'll cost me a day at the gym, but I'm willing to pay any price, bear any burden....
The Shinny Skinny - We got your pairings here, and the USGA seems to have fallen for the SuperGroup thing. I'd say the bolded groups qualify:
Thursday (June 14), hole #1 / Friday (June 15), hole #10
7:18 a.m. / 1:03 p.m. – Jhonattan Vegas, Venezuela; Dylan Frittelli, South Africa; (a) Doug Ghim, Arlington Heights, Ill.
7:40 a.m. / 1:25 p.m. – Bubba Watson, Bagdad, Fla.; Jason Day, Australia; Brooks Koepka, West Palm Beach, Fla.
Thursday (June 14), hole #10 / Friday (June 15), hole #1
8:02 a.m. / 1:47 p.m. – Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland; Jordan Spieth, Dallas, Texas; Phil Mickelson, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
8:13 a.m. / 1:58 p.m. – Hideki Matsuyama, Japan; Marc Leishman, Australia; Rickie Fowler, Murrieta, Calif.
8:24 a.m. / 2:09 p.m. – Charles Howell, Orlando, Fla.; Bill Haas, Greenville, S.C.; Charley Hoffman, San Diego, Calif.
Thursday (June 14), hole #1 / Friday (June 15), hole #10
1:14 p.m. – 7:29 a.m. – Sergio Garcia, Spain; Jon Rahm, Spain; Rafa Cabrera Bello, Spain
1:25 p.m. / 7:40 a.m. – Tommy Fleetwood, England; Francesco Molinari, Italy; Alexander Noren, Sweden
1:47 p.m. / 8:02 a.m. – Justin Thomas, Goshen, Ky.; Dustin Johnson, Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Tiger Woods, Hobe Sound, Fla.
1:58 p.m. / 8:13 a.m. – Haotong Li, People's Republic of China; Si Woo Kim, Republic of Korea; Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Thailand
2:09 p.m. / 8:24 a.m. – Jason Dufner, Auburn, Ala.; (a) Braden Thornberry, Olive Branch, Miss.; Brandt Snedeker, Nashville, Tenn.
Thursday (June 14), hole #10 / Friday (June 15), hole #1
12:52 p.m. / 7:07 a.m. – Richy Werenski, West Palm Beach, Fla.; Roberto Castro, Atlanta, Ga.; Ollie Schniederjans, Alpharetta, Ga.
1:25 p.m. / 7:40 a.m. – Lucas Glover, Tequesta, Fla.; Webb Simpson, Charlotte, N.C.; Graeme McDowell, Northern Ireland
1:36 p.m. / 7:51 a.m. – Ernie Els, South Africa; Steve Stricker, Madison, Wis.; Jim Furyk, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
2:20 p.m. / 8:35 a.m. – Lucas Herbert, Australia; Brian Stuard, Jackson, Mich.; (a) Stewart Hagestad, Newport Beach, Calif.
Not sure I'm a fan of the all-Spaniard pairing. Is it the USGA's job to make these guys comfortable, or are they supposed to give them nightmares?
Jeff Ritter asks the three former Shinny winners what kind of player survives at the joint:
Ray Floyd: It doesn't suit any one game or any one kind of player. You've just gotta be well-rounded. The golf course, the way it's routed, is genius. If you look down fromabove, every hole goes in a different direction.
Corey Pavin: You have to control your ball very well, mostly because it's going to be windy. You have to be able to shape shots. And you have to be a very good short putter. Put all those things together and that's what you look for.
Retief Goosen: I don't think it's a specific player that it suits — at least not when I played there. You have to hit it straight and make a lot of putts.
Floyd: You're going to be challenged with every wind direction during your four-hour trip around there.
Apparently James Foulis (1896) was unavailable for comment. For thos ethat think there haven't been any distance gains, that second U.S. Open was played at 4,423 yards for a total purse of $330.
Lots of good stuff there, as well as in this My Shot by Ray Floyd.
Golf Digest architectural critic Ron Whitten has an item on Shinny's famed Redan green:
Take a typical coffee table, one that's about four feet wide and 16 inches tall, and saw aninch off the front left leg. Then saw two inches off the back left leg. The resulting table is pretty much what the surface of the Redan green at Shinnecock Hills—its par-3 seventh green—looks like from the tee. If you tried pitching pennies onto your sloping coffee table, you’d have a hard time keeping them from sliding off, given its right-to-left slant and front-to-back cant. It’s even harder trying to stop a golf ball on Shinnecock’s Redan green.
Particularly with a long deep bunker along its leading edge and a steep drop-off behind. The correct way to play this Redan, or any Redan, is by the side door, so to speak, aiming for the high back corner, bouncing the ball up the ramp leading to that corner and letting ground contours and gravity tug the ball onto the putting surface and down to the flag, ideally settling slightly beyond the hole so the ensuing putt is uphill. The incorrect way to play any Redan is to go flag-hunting off the tee.
The word itself refer to a fortress, though I didn't realize that the reference was to a specific one:
The original Redan, the par-3 15th at North Berwick in Scotland, was patterned after a Russian fortress built during the 1850s Crimean War along the Black Sea at Sevastopol. There had been similar Redan forts built as far back as the 16th century, but Sevastopol’s was world renown. American generals even visited the battlefield toward the end the war and studied the Redan. Six years later, when the South seceded from the Union, Redan fortresses were built by Confederates in places like Vicksburg, Mississippi, Fort Donelson, Tennessee and Petersburg, Virginia, where 13 Redans extended across a three-mile front guarding the city.
My understanding is also corrected by this bit:
One of the earliest Redans from Macdonald was the par-3 14th at Shinnecock Hills, a course he dramatically remodeled in 1917. However, that course was totally remodeled again in 1931 by architect William S. Flynn, with the present par-3 seventh, the Redan, now occupying the same spot as Macdonald’s earlier version. Many mistakenly think that Flynn merely retained Macdonald’s Redan, but as Wayne Morrison and Tom Paul point out in their magnificent, exhaustive biography of Flynn, "The Nature Faker" (2006), “…the original Macdonald green was a few feet lower than the redesigned Flynn green…The opening at the front of the green is narrow and the ground contoured so that only the most precisely-played ground approach would succeed in holding the green. Unlike the neighboring Redan fourth hole at National Golf Links of America [a Macdonald hole], there are fewer ways to play Flynn’s Redan at Shinnecock Hills.”
I thought it was the original Macdonald hole as well.... But the concept of a Redan is to encourage a lower, slinging shot that will take the slope and feed the ball towards the hole location. Which, I'm sure in 1896 is would... But today?
The whole notion of a fall-away putting surface runs contrary to the modern game of golf played by today’s professionals. Clubs are crafted to launch balls high and far. Swings are grooved to deliver shots that bounce twice, then stop with minimal backspin to achieve perfect distance control. Putting surfaces are covered in test-tube turf with uniform blades shaved closer than some players’ facial hair. The Redan was originally designed to be played with a low-trajectory long-iron or wood to encourage bounce. Today, at 189 yards for the U.S. Open, Shinnecock’s Redan is a lofted iron shot for most players, more tempting to hit directly at the pin. None of that fits comfortably atop a cockeyed coffee table.
So, nine-irons.... that's why wind will be key.
Phil made a second scouting trip to Southampton, and laid this marker down for Mike Davis:
“I think it's a great hole until the USGA gets ahold of it,” said Mickelson, who made par on the seventh hole during the final round in ’04. “I'm concerned every time they get ahold of it. But I think it's a great hole. I think it's one of the core design foundations of a great golf hole. I think that you see a lot of holes replicated off of No. 7 at Shinnecock that are spectacular.”
Yeah, we all remember, Phil, and I'm guessing we won't have a repeat of '04. That said, I'd say they're more modeled on North Berwick's original.
Time's Up - We're mobilizing to head over to Quaker. I'll just leave you with this selfie from Michelle Wie and the U.S. Curtis cup team:
Nice of her to hang with the youngsters. Go Red, White & Blue!
Check back Sunday, I might just surprise you with some bonus weekend content.
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