Olympic Club Changing 7th and 8th Holes

I'm glad I played them when I did and I'm even more pleased to say I witnessed some wonderful tournament moments on both because the new and improved 7th and 8th holes at Olympic Club (Lake) will have a hard time capturing the character of the current.

Here's Ron Kroichick's story on Olympic's decision to rebuild all 18 greens to USGA specs:

"If the greens were fine, we wouldn't be doing this work," said Pat Murphy, chairman of Olympic's green committee. "But since we're doing this work, we think it will be a better course."

No. 18 created lively debate in '98, before Lee Janzen surged past Stewart to win the Open. USGA officials chose such a precarious pin placement for the second round, one of Stewart's putts inched past the hole and slid 20 feet downhill. He was not happy.

Olympic Club officials later flattened the green, but many members thought the new green had become too tame for a short par-4. Murphy said the next version will have more slope than it does now, though it won't be quite as severe as it was for the 1998 Open.

That sounded fine to Mike Davis, the USGA's senior director of rules and competition. Davis expects no problem finding suitable hole locations on No. 18, so he can avoid an encore of the '98 mess.

"Even if they were to move the green back to exactly what it used to be, we could do it," Davis said Wednesday. "I think the USGA just made a mistake in '98, putting the hole there. ... If we meet somewhere in the middle (on the slope), we can have that green the same speed as the others."

Ouch! Oh that ought to bring out the Tom Meeks fan club members.

This is also interesting considering that the USGA structures their contracts to prevent redesign work so close to a U.S. Open.

Davis knew the Olympic Club was contemplating changes, but he said he learned of last week's board approval only when On Golf called. He echoed Murphy's statement that the changes were member-driven, not demanded by the USGA.

Here's the depressing part:

The other striking wrinkle in this project: moving No. 8 to the right of its present location. That will turn a 137-yard par-3 into a much longer hole - with championship tees at 200 to 210 yards - with a different angle. It also allows Olympic officials to push back the green on No. 7.

"One short par-3 is fine," Murphy said, knowing No. 15 measures only 149 yards, "but two short par-3s just doesn't work in this day and age."

How many times have we heard PGA Tour players talk recently about the beauty and difficulty of short par 3s and 4s? You can have more than one, Mr. Murphy. The beauty of Olympic Club is that the Lake course follows no formulas. Well, not anymore.

And as much as I'm not a fan of Robert Trent Jones architecture or three tiered greens, his 7th green at Olympic works beautifully. I watched it trip up players last year at the U.S. Amateur, and even recall Davis telling me he had to move the tees up a couple of days to make it more driveable (dispelling any notion that the hole was too short for today's game). But it's getting moved in the redo by Bill Love:

There will be other tweaks to the Lake Course, including lengthening a few holes and re-contouring the greens on Nos. 7 and 15. The work will begin Nov. 4 and last until approximately June 1, 2009.