They’re the golf holes that make the hearts of go-for-the-green types like Tiger Woods beat faster. They’re the holes even weekend hackers can eat up on a lucky day. They’re the holes that for the most part just lie there–and then surrender.
At Cog Hill’s Dubsdread, home of the Advil Western Open, you don’t have to birdie these holes to win but you had better not bogey them if you want to hoist the championship trophy on Sunday.
For head pro Jeff Rimsnider, compiling a list of the birdie holes on Course No. 4 is as easy as hitting most of their greens in regulation. Rimsnider’s pushovers: the 525-yard par-5 fifth, the 519-yard par-5 15th, the 372-yard par-4 10th, the 564-yard par-5 11th and the new 177-yard par-3 second.
The numbers from last year’s Western support that view. PGA Tour players destroyed the fifth hole, site of John Daly’s double eagle in the 1991 tournament, by making a whopping 239 birdies, 21 eagles and only 11 bogeys there last July. No. 15 ranked second, yielding 186 birdies, three eagles and only 33 bogeys.
The reason why is no secret.
“Five and 15 are the top two [birdie holes] for sure,” Rimsnider said. “They’re easy to reach in two, they’re not really tight–so you can really bust a drive–and there are some bunkers, but they’re shallow and not really tough to get out of. On 15 there’s a lot of room to the left if you miss your drive; it’s an easy bailout hole off the tee and there’s a nice angle into the green for an easy up and down.”
In last year’s final round, winner Scott Hoch and runner-up Davis Love III separated themselves from the field by shooting 64 and 66, respectively. Both players did what they had to do: they birdied the fifth and 15th holes.
Rimsnider remembered the 1999 tournament in which Briny Baird shot an opening-round 67 with the help of his caddie, Marty Schiene, a Canadian PGA Tour player from Naperville.
“Marty knows this course well, and on the fifth hole Marty had him hit driver, driver,” Rimsnider said. “He was like, `Go for it. So you’re in the bunker. It’s an easy up and down.’ On 15, I think he had him hit driver, 3-wood. The holes look intimidating, but they’re not.”
Except for its heavily bunkered green, No. 10 doesn’t look intimidating, and it’s not. “The landing area is pretty wide there,” Rimsnider said. “A lot of guys will hit 2-iron or 3-wood off the tee and you’ve still only got a wedge into the green, which is flat. And three of the four days there’s usually an easy pin position.”
No. 11 ranked fourth-easiest in 2001, and that’s where Rimsnider ranks it.
“You obviously don’t want to go right there [onto the road],” he said, “but otherwise there’s a pretty wide driving area, and the bigger hitters can cut the dogleg by going over all the trees on the left with their second shots.
“To go for it in two you’ve got to be in the fairway. And if you’re going for it in two you can always bail out right because there are no bunkers over there.”
The new member of the easiest-hole club is the par-3 second hole, which has a much larger, deeper and more accessible green than the one it replaced last year.
“On the old No. 2,” said Rimsnider, “if the pin was far right it was hard to keep the ball on the green. Now they just hit an 8-iron and knock it close.”
In light of the tournament-record 21-under-par 267 total Hoch shot last year and Love’s 268, the fear that the 99-year-old Western Open is turning into another birdie-fest is growing.
Rimsnider, though, says he believes that Dubsdread is up to the challenge.
“The guys who wind up on top are still the ones who hang on on the tough holes,” he said. “There are not lots of birdies being made on this course yet. There are still a lot of bogey holes out there. I don’t think Dubs is ready to surrender yet.”
