More Videos From Olympic Club: 16, 17 and 18

Hate to be the bearer of negative tidings, but I was not too keen on a few things I saw on the back nine holes I walked today at Olympic.

For rough aficionados, the grass is definitely thicker on the lower holes such as 16 or those like 18 fairway where a bowl setting exists and water tends to collect. Still, I find the rough to be mostly benign compared to previous U.S. Opens here.

Here are a view TwitVids from the course today, starting with the 17th green complex and what figures to be the most controversial element of the setup. For good reason. It's pretty extreme and has the potential to lead to strange lies against trees or recoveries through those same trees. And then there's the speed of play issue with players on 18 tee. 

Here I look at the lay-up area where a new bunker was added and I'm having trouble envisioning shots staying in the fairway as conditions firm up.

Here I survey the new back tee on 16 and the overall traffic congestion that will occur there. I'm not a fan of the tee for that reason alone, but I'm also skeptical that it will yield the old draw tee shot with driver that used to exist here when I played it in college golf or when players in the 87 and 98 Opens might have thought about drivers. Instead, the back tee chute seems more about just trying to not catch an overhanging tree.



And finally, a view of the 18th hole and why I'm not real wild about Mike Davis' fairway contour here.