The Olympic Club - Lake Course

I was in San Francisco last week and got the opportunity of a lifetime...to play the Lake course at the Olympic Club. The Lake course has been the home of 3 US Amateur Championships, 4 US Open Championships and the upcoming 2012 US Open. We played it from the blue tee boxes, which are marked at 6,530 yards, and this is all the golf course you could ever want. The course was in fantastic shape and is extremely challenging. There was only a slight breeze when I played it, but it was still enough to make you think on every shot. The thing that amazed me the most is that there is no let up on this course from the very first hole. The other thing is that you have to think about every single shot. There is no standing on the tee and just hitting driver to the middle of the fairway.

You really have to work the ball off the tee because all the holes, except for the par threes and the 18th, have some sort of dogleg. This is tough because the course is very tree lined and if you don't move the ball in the right direction, it will generally run through the fairway. To make it even tougher, most of the fairways are sloped, such that even a good drive might find a slope and run into the rough. This was one of the hardest parts of playing...you hit what you think is a good looking shot and it ends up in the rough. That was the story of my day. Hitting fairly decent shots the just missed the fairway or the green by just a little bit and end up in the rough or in a bunker. Needless to say, the battle scars are still a bit fresh. That being said, it is just a fantastic track and I had a very ejoyable round with some recent acquantences in the San Francisco area.

No discussion about the Lake course would be complete without mentioning the 18th hole. From the blue tees, it measures 322 yards, but it is up hill to the fairway that is just absolutely tiny. I hit my 3 hybrid into the wind and kept it in the fairway with 135 yards to the green. To say the the green is elevated is an understatement. I hit 6 iron to the green and was pin high to the right. The green on 18 is super small and still has some pretty significant slope to it. This is after they leveled it off a bit after the 1998 US Open when Payne Stewart barely touched the ball and it rolled off the green. The 18th is just a great short finishing hole.

Well, that's my story from the Olympic club and just want to give a big thank you to Dave, Joe and Pete.