Brian Quackenbush Golf

Oakland Hills South Course is the most difficult course I have ever played. It is most likely one of the five most difficult courses in the world right now. It was setup today at its most difficult with every single hole location as tucked as it could be. It was what golf is probably like in hell. There were 4 holes where you could make birdie with a perfect drive and approach shot. The other 14 yielded birdies to perfect shots and blind luck. You were happy on most with two-putt pars from 40 feet.

The course is 7,445 yards and a par 70. I’ve played long courses before and this is among the longest I’ve played. But, length alone isn’t what makes it difficult. Fairways are incredibly small in the landing areas. Rough was so brutally long that you never had the option of going for the green with your approach shot if you had more than a wedge. The fairway bunkers, which you were hoping to find instead of the rough with off-line tee shots, were normally so deep that your option was to wedge out well short of the green. Then, there are the greens. The speed and slopes are appropriate for a course 6,500 yards in length…not one 1,000 yards longer than that. With a slight increase in green speed and firmness, Oakland Hills South could have hosted a US Open today.

Contemplate this. There are 4 par 4’s over 490 yards in length, 2 of them uphill. One of them, the famous 18th, is probably the most difficult par 4 I have ever played. The landing area on the dogleg right slopes to the left, away from the dogleg. The fairway is about 25 yards wide and is surrounded by bunkers and deep rough from which you have no chance of reaching the green. Should you find the fairway, you have 200-220 yards left, uphill, to a green that is only 17 yards deep and fronted by huge bunkers. If you hit the surface, you better be on the proper half or you must negotiate a “buried elephant” that runs down the center of the green from front to back. The ninth, a par 3, plays 257 to a ridiculously undulating green. The 17th, another par 3, plays 238 with about 10 yards of uphill. As you can see, 6 of the holes are so difficult that par is an excellent score.

I played the North course in the morning and shot the 6th lowest round of the North course AM wave. So, I was looking good going to the South course for the afternoon. I got off to a reasonable start on the front and turned in 2 over. But, the back nine bit me pretty good and I shot a 40 to finish 4 shots out of the playoff in 34th place.

I feel OK about the event despite missing the top 12 that qualified for the Open for a few reasons. First, I essentially played both courses blind. My experience from the 2002 US Amateur was mostly useless since I didn’t remember any of the North course and the South course had changed so much. I was giving up a lot of course knowledge to the guys who had practice rounds or even a walk-around. Second, I was pretty much brain-dead from two weeks competing and a 5 hour drive last night. I felt my intensity slipping a few times during the round. It’s very clear that I need a couple days off.

I’m in Cambridge, OH tonight after phase one of my drive back to Aiken. I plan to take tomorrow and Wednesday off before getting back into it on Thursday. I will find out tomorrow morning if my position on the money list looks good to get me into the Nationwide event in Columbus.

I made enough birdies (6), but made too many bogies (5) and finished with a one-under 71. The good news is that I moved up from 50th to 31st. Unfortunately, that puts me outside the top 25 which would have gotten me into next week’s event. The conditions were similarly brutal today with strong wind, concrete greens and high rough. My 71 was the 10th lowest round of the day. My earnings from this event moves me a bit further up the money list so I have a better chance at holding onto a spot in the Columbus event in two weeks.

I’m in Detroit tonight getting ready for the British Open qualifier tomorrow morning. The field has shrunk to 87 players, still playing for 12 spots. I didn’t get a chance to practice on the course when I got here this afternoon, but I did walk around and had the impression that the setup will be similar to what I’ve seen the last few days. Honestly, I think the setup back at Peek’n Peak will be a bit more difficult. I don’t expect the wind tomorrow and the greens seem slightly softer. The rough also doesn’t seem quite as brutal. This past week may have been a good warm-up.

The qualifier tomorrow is somewhat of a blessing in disguise. I had intended to enter the Nationwide qualifier tomorrow for the Cleveland event this week in case I finished outside the top 25. When I entered online on Monday morning I was told by the Northern Ohio Section of the PGA of America that the event was full at 144 players and that I would be 8th alternate. I was told that they would not expand the field to two courses…the first time I have ever heard of a section limiting the field like this. On Tuesday afternoon, the waiting list was capped at 32 players which means 176 had entered to play. This is before taking into consideration the 12 spots they were holding for conditional Nationwide Tour players. So, at that time, they had potentially 188 entries with another day and a half to go. Could the entries have gotten to 200 players? I have no way of knowing, but this would not have surprised me.

Given how important these qualifiers are to so many players like myself, I would have hoped the Northern Ohio section would expand the qualifier to two courses. So many good players with incredibly dynamic schedules wait until the last few days to enter these events and many were denied entry.

I left a voice message for the Tournament Director and sent him an email expressing my concerns about limiting the field like this. Neither message was returned. I also spoke with the PGA Tour office who expressed sympathy for my situation but said they had no influence over how the section ran the tournament. I learned that the section had the right to go to two courses if the field size ran over 168 players.

So, the field size was large enough to go to two courses, but the section decided not to expand the event. I wish I had a response from the Northern Ohio section because I just can’t think of a reasonable explanation for their decision to limit the field. It seems to me that they did not have the best interest of the players in mind, and to me this is unacceptable.

Since I don’t have a Nationwide Monday qualifier tomorrow, the British Open qualifier fits nicely into the schedule.