U.S. Open Hole 18 preview -- Chambers Bay, 18 holes in 18 days
In the 18 days leading up to the June 18 start of the U.S. Open Golf Championship, FOX Sports.com and Golfweek have previewed the Chambers Bay course -- one hole at a time. This is the final installment in that series.
Today’s hole: No. 18 -- Par 4/5, 525/604 yards
Par here will shift in accordance with the other par-shifting hole, No. 1, which just so happens to run parallel next door but in the opposite direction. This hole starts by Puget Sound and works its way past old, abandoned gravel sifters that look like Flintstone-era megaliths. The fairway is pinched tightly at 250 yards from the green, making tee shots on this hole extremely demanding when it’s a par 4, even with a little help from a prevailing southwest wind. It’s one of those holes where players will just have to stand up and hit a perfect drive. Those who can confidently carry it 300 yards or thread it 280 in the air will wind up, after rollout, with middle- and even short-irons into this big, complicated green.
As a par 5, the tee shot is less strategic but still dramatic thanks to a back tee that forces players to start along a corner of those sorting bins (compare it to the tee shot on the 17th hole at St. Andrews over the Old Course Hotel wall). The goal here will simply be to bust it and hope to get near enough to that pinch point for a full-bore second shot. Players who miss the fairway or lay up on their second shot will face a nasty little feature: a 10-foot deep pot bunker 105 yards short of the green (courtesy of the USGA’s Mike Davis), from which recovery to the green is all but impossible. The putting surface, more heavily decked than any on the course, used to sit in front of a bailout area from which the ball would release back to the green. No more. It has been replaced by a rough line that removes the backstop effect. The last 100 yards of his hole will be the scene of amphitheater-style spectating on a gladiatorial scale.
Earlier holes
No. 1 -- Par 5/4, 598/496 yards
No. 10 -- Par 4, 436/468 yards
No. 11 -- Par 4, 500/537 yards
No. 12 -- Par 4, 281/311 yards
No. 14 -- Par 4, 512/546 yards
No. 15 -- Par 3, 123-246 yards
No. 17 -- Par 3, 172-218 yards
Golfweek's complete preview
