Oak Hill Roundup: Perfect Fairways, Thick Rough & That 15th

Joe Passov files a spot-on assessment of Oak Hill's architecture (thanks reader Patrick). I can wholeheartedly endorse his views after having walked most of the East course today. The number of different design styles and the complete lack of any attempt by the chiselers who've carved away at Donald Ross' original should be studied by aspiring architects to better understand how not to practice the profession.

It's a pity, as this is a fantastic club with the best conditioned fairways I've ever seen. Many players have offered a similar endorsement of the conditions. Unlike Merion's sustainable, anti-roll 1/2 inch fairways, these are like carpet, allowing the ball to run.Tip of the cap to Oak Hill grounds manager Jeff Corcoran for a job well done in a tough growing season.

Back to the architecture.

I have to disagree with one thing Passov wrote:

Still, it was the major surgery undertaken by George and Tom Fazio in 1976 that alienated pros and critics alike. They eliminated the well-regarded 5th and 6th holes to help with gallery flow. Bunker styles changed, as did green contours. The Fazios also created a new green at the par-3 15th, with an attractive pond positioned front-right. Later, a stone wall was built to edge the lake. The good news? The 15th is now a more beautiful hole. The bad news? It doesn't resemble a Donald Ross original.

I would propose in lieu of the PGA of America's pin placement selection poll that a dynamite placement contest be held to determine how best to detonate the 15th.

After coming off the beautiful, uphill and distinctly Rossian looking par-14th, this disaster awaits. And to think the green contours have been softened!

Not only is the 15th so horribly out of character with this understated, rolling property, but everything about the feature-set is dreadfully forced. And with the rough as thick as it is this year, we may see someone just miss the green and be faced with a lie that causes them to hit a ball into the pond. Silly stuff.

The beautiful 14th with Oak Hill's half-and-half fairway cut (Clck to enlarge)In the remarks of Tiger Woods Tuesday, he made an interesting point about the half-and-half fairway cut employed here while also adding a new word to the Woods lexicon "sections."

It's playing quick. These fairways, especially on the left side, they obviously cut it downgrain on the left side so you can get a lot of chase to it. Some of the holes, you run out of room quick. It's playing, even though it's a little bit longer than what it was in '03, it might be playing a little bit shorter because it is drier. The balls are really running out there.

How I'm going to attack is I I'm just going to play to my little sections and go from there. I just think that depends on wind and some of the holes, how far I decide to go down on some of these fairways. Obviously sometimes I may lay back with a 5 wood or 3 wood on some of these tees.

Woods also said he will be hitting between 2-5 drivers depending on how much things firm up.

13th hole graduated rough that will collect plenty of balls because of the fairway tilt (click to enlarge)Phil Mickelson told the assembled scribblers that the vulnerability of the course will come down to the greens and how much faster they get, if they speed up.

Comparing this year to 2003:

I feel like the graduated rough was cut in places that did not overly penalize shots that were well struck but just missed its target.  I feel like if you play well, you can score lower than maybe '03.  But if you hit wayward shots, I feel like the rough is a little bit thicker, and taller, longer, making it harder to salvage pars.

So all in all, I thought it was a great test.  I'm curious to see how quick the greens will be, because they are a lot quicker today than they were when I was here a week ago, and the challenge of this golf course is the severity of the back to front pitch of most of the greens.  That to me is one of the biggest challenges that Oak Hill provides, because if you do miss it long, getting that chip shot to stop close, especially out of difficult rough where it's hard to control the ball chipping, that's the big challenge.  It forces you to want to leave every shot underneath the hole so you can get up and down.

If the greens stay under 12, under 11 and 1/2, 12, you can get the ball close to the hole.  You can get the ball from behind the greens close.  So I think the biggest X factor or unknown is just how quick the greens are rolling.

The one point where I would question Mickelson's assessment is with the graduated rough. Every time I saw a wider swath of the mid-length stuff it gave the impression of a mistake, as if the areas really should have been fairway but it was too late to cut the grass to fairway height and this was the compromise made.

As for the man doing the setup, the normally reserved Kerry Haigh kindly took Morning Drive's Gary Williams through the holes in some exclusive looks at the Oak Hill setup. You can view them here:.