Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Rare is the golf course where the first hole is the most talked about of the 18.
Cherry Hills Country Club is that course, thanks to Arnold Daniel Palmer and one mighty smote in the June heat of 1960.
From his perch at 5,411 feet, Palmer drove the first green, 346 yards distant and 42 feet downhill. He two-putted for birdie, shot 65, made up seven strokes on Mike Souchak, outbattled Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus, and won the United States Open Championship.
So, yes, the first hole gets one’s attention. That was the case Thursday morning, when wise golf fans young and old happened to gather at the green to see who, if anyone, would be able to duplicate Palmer’s feat.
Put it this way: If it was easy, anyone could do it.
It isn’t. And in the first round of the BMW Championship, many tried, but only a pair of players could match the King.
One, fittingly, was named Palmer. Ryan Palmer, unrelated to the great man himself, plopped his tee shot on the 346-yard hole 28 feet from the cup, and, trumping Arnie, made the putt for an eagle 2. Charley Hoffman, in the group before, also managed to make hit drive hold on the Fiberglas-fast putting surface, but settled for par.
Palmer and Hoffman were the only two in the field of 69 to do so.
Top-ranked Rory McIlroy, whose sparkling start pushed him briefly to the outright lead in this 111th edition of what traditionalists call the Western Open, did not. His 3-wood landed in the right rough, and he chipped close for an easy birdie putt.
Bubba Watson also missed the target. His wayward drive to the right hit a member of the gallery hard enough for the impact to be heard on the other side of the green. He signed a ball for the wounded fan, then lofted a delicate chip that stopped 11 feet from the cup and sank that for a birdie 3.
This is the first time the Palmer Tee is being used regularly in a big tournament here since that 1960 Open. The USGA went farther back to a new tee for the 1978 U.S. Open, won by Andy North, and the PGA did the same for the 1985 PGA Championship, which Hubert Green captured. So full marks to the WGA and PGA Tour for both nodding to tradition and creating excitement right from the start of the round.
The end of the round found McIlroy, from the green fields of Northern Ireland, in a trio tied for the lead at 3-under-par 67 with two fellows who hail from not far from here: Jordan Spieth of Texas and Gary Woodland of Kansas. One stroke back and sitting on the right side of the fairway on the par-4 ninth when play was called for the day because of lightning at 5:51 p.m. Mountain Time is Henrik Stenson, the smooth Swede. He’s the one player among the nine at 2-under yet to sign his scorecard. Nine players in all weren’t able to finish.
That the scoring wasn’t lower was a surprise to some, but shouldn’t have been. This William Flynn-designed layout, recently refurbished by Tom Doak, has stout architectural defenses, as those who played for the first green discovered. Add in fast fairways, faster greens, and wiry three-inch rough, and it’s precision more than power that sets a player up for a good score.
McIlroy’s scorecard was al but oblivious of the difficulty. He reached 5-under and was cruising until his 16th hole, the par-4 seventh, when his approach landed in a grassy depression, his third bounded over the green into a bunker, and he failed to save par. Another bogey followed on the par-3 eighth.
“I was a bit frustrated,” McIlroy admitted. “It’s fairly tricky out there. Low scores are hard to come by; 67s a really good start.
“The fairways are firm, so even when you hit irons and fairway woods off the tee, they’re running out of the fairway. And the greens have gotten a lot harder in the last 24 hours. You’re having to land shot a good 10-15 yards before you intended to.”
McIlroy figured out enough to run down five birdies in his first 12 holes, including three in succession starting at his 10th, the famed first.
“It’s playing a little bit like a U.S. Open,” McIlroy said. “Not quite as difficult as that, but thick rough and firm greens. That’s what they need to keep the scoring the way it is.”
It was McIlroy’s first exposure to Cherry Hills, but Spieth was here two years ago, playing in the U.S. Amateur. He was bounced in the first round of match play, but loved the place, and still does after his six-birdie, three-bogey round.
“It’s nice to stay with the same family I stayed with back then,” Spieth said. “I kind of feel I’m back at a U.S. Amateur or college event this week. This is one of the few events where I may have more experience than a lot of the guys. I’ll take that mental attitude the next few days.”
Woodland, who averaged 343 yards off the tee, essentially made his score on the back nine, the tougher and longer of the nines, then hung on. He was 4-under through his 12th, bogeyed the par-4 fourth, then parred in.
“The greens, they’re concrete out there,” Woodland said. “If we don’t get any rain it can be pretty interesting by the weekend.”
A few drops fell late in the round, and there was more rain expected overnight, but not enough to make the course anything close to easy.
“A lot of the fairways were difficult to hit,” said Sergio Garcia, in the 2-under gaggle. “It played very, very firm and you had to be really on to score well.”
Canadian Graham DeLeat is in the group at 68 after sitting at 3-under down the stretch, and noted one more thing that might have contributed to the clustering of scores close to par.
“It was a quick week,” DeLeat said, noting the Monday finish in Boston. “I think probably not anyone had the same preparation they normally would have, especially for such a big event. I guess we’re all kind of in the same boat.”
When play was halted, 21 players were under par and another six, including Watson, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson, were at even par 70. If Cherry Hill’s usual par of 72 was in effect, 44 players would have beaten the standard.
Of the leaders, Woodland’s story is the most intriguing. He’s 29th in the point standings, and only the top 30 advance to next weekend’s jackpot in Atlanta. McIlroy is second, Spieth ninth, and sitting pretty. Woodland, along with Stenson, needs a fast finish to play on.
“The goal is to move up as far as you can, be in the top 5 going into next week,” Woodland said.
A high finish would make that happen.
“I’m still trying to win this thing,” Woodland said.
The tournament? The pot of gold at the end of next week? Yes and yes. This is professional golf, after all.
– Tim Cronin