When the average player watches the US Open it is hard to get a grasp on how difficult a US Open golf course is the week of the tournament. Please allow me to give you an idea by comparing it to the type of courses we usually play.
The average male golfer will play a course which is between 6300 and 6800 yards in length, this week they will be playing Pebble Beach at almost 7100 yards long. This is actually short for modern US Open courses, the last few have been played between 7300 and 7400 yards long. When is the last time you played a 500 yard Par 4?
Next the average person hits into a fairway which is 30 to 40 yards wide while the US Open participants are staring at fairways with a width of 22 to 29 yards wide on average. These narrow fairways are usually very firm and if it does not rain become very hard which makes it quite difficult to keep the ball in the fairway. A big reason for this is that during the tournament the USGA limits the amount of water that is used to a minimum.
If they stray from the fairway into the second cut of rough they are now searching for your ball in rough that is the length of your lawn, IF YOU DIDN'T CUT IT FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS. They may be 200 yards from the green but they have a Sand Wedge in their hand because they a trying to advance the ball back into the fairway.
The fun does not stop when they get to the greens. The speed of a green during the US Open is usually 30 to 50 percent faster than the speed of the average public course green and on occassion the USGA has let the speed getaway which can make the greens faster than anyone could ever imagine. Even tour players.
The best story I ever heard about how difficult a US Open course is came from Phil Mickelson. Several years ago he was asked "How difficult is it to play a US Open course?".
He told how he played with a friend of his on the Monday after playing in The Open at Shinnecock Hills in the mid 90's. Phil said his friend carried a handicap of 0 at a club in San Diego, a good player who usually shoots around par. That Monday on Shinnecock Hills playing the same course under the same conditions as Sunday, his friend shot 105.
I think that says it all.
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