Mike Davis has been setting up U.S. Open courses since 2006 and kindly shares his thoughts on this year's venue, Congressional CC. The Washington, D.C.-area course is a Devereux Emmet original since overhauled by Robert Trent Jones and later, Rees Jones. Known for taking advantage of design features to give players a variety of setup twists, Davis will have his work cut out on a penal-style design. Still, without revealing too many of the tricks up his sleeve, Davis gives us an exclusive preview of this year's Open.
No. 1 402 Yards, Par 4
The Hole: "A slight dogleg par-4 and for most of the guys it will be less than a driver. For the second shot they're going to be hitting very short approaches, probably 9-irons to sand wedges into one of Congressional's biggest, flattest greens."
Setup Tweak: "The fairway cut has been pushed right up against the fairway bunkers which were surrounded by rough before."
Takeaway: "A big time birdie hole but they will need it because hold on, the next three holes are very difficult."
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- Keywords:
- golf,
- U.S. Open,
- Congressional,
- course,
- hole-by-hole,
- Mike Davis,
- Geoff Shackelford
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