Oakland Hills' greens bedeviled pros such as Mickelson. Photo by Stephen Szurlej
Rees Jones, whose first major-site redesign was played 20 years ago, when the U.S. Open was staged at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., might not have gotten a chance to follow in his father's bulldozers if Oakland Hills hadn't been the scene of the 2002 U.S. Amateur. It had only been six years since Steve Jones won the 1996 U.S. Open on a 6,974-yard Monster at two-under 278 (edging Tom Lehman and Davis Love III, who botched the 72nd hole, Lehman with a bad drive, Love by three-putting), but the game had seen the arrival of thin-covered, solid-core golf balls and large-headed metal drivers with a trampoline effect.
The collegians in the 2002 Amateur tore up the South course in qualifying, averaging 71.5 strokes. Bill Haas, an All-American at Wake Forest at the time, drove it so far on the 462-yard 18th hole that he had a 9-iron to the green in his qualifying round, which he hit to four feet and made the birdie putt to be the medalist at five-under 135. Haas shot a front-nine 28 in his quarterfinal match, and Oakland Hills members and USGA officials--who said they had set up the course as a U.S. Open and believed 12- to 15-under would have won--were aghast. "It's very frustrating," Tom Meeks, then the USGA senior director of rules and competitions, told Golf World amid the birdie barrage. "All we can do is narrow the fairways and add fairway bunkers." The 2002 Amateur was to Oakland Hills what Phil Mickelson's driver-and-flip sand wedge to the 11th hole at Augusta National in 2001 was to Hootie Johnson--a clarion call to counteract equipment advances by making a course longer and meaner.
Some pros got a taste of the revamped South course last summer in a 36-hole qualifier for the British Open. J.B. Holmes, who would lead the PGA through 36 holes before melting down with a final-round 81, found out about the rigors of the touched-up 16th hole when he hit three balls in the water and made a 10, shooting a 79 and failing to qualify by seven shots. Architect Pete Dye, who spectated a couple of days during the PGA, said one Oakland Hills member told him his handicap had gone up seven strokes since Rees' revisions. "The Monster has its teeth back, and they're sharp," club general manager Rick Bayliss bragged to USA Today last week.
Rees Jones removed his blue cap with "The Monster" logo on the crown and sat down to talk in the media center late Friday afternoon, the 36-hole cut heading toward eight-over 148, with the leader, Holmes, at one-under 139. "I'm pleased, I think the members are pleased, and I think the players that are around par are pleased," Jones said. "Certain players play well in more difficult conditions. They have a better chance to win on a course that is really an examination."
The test Jones described had irritated many of the players. If it wasn't the baked-out greens, it was the fluffed-up three- to four-inch-thick rough, actually raked from green to tee so it would stand up uniformly. The examination was turning into a walk over hot coals. "What Oakland Hills is doing, because the green complexes are so challenging, is putting the driver in their hands because they have to get as close to the green [as they can] to access the hole location," Jones said. "They know if they lay up off the tee and they have a 40-foot putt, there is a good chance they are going to three-putt. It's putting a little more pressure on them off the tee. The fairways are probably averaging 25 or 26 yards wide. For the Ryder Cup [in 2004], they averaged 32 yards wide. They're trying to reward accuracy and take away the bombers' advantage."
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