The USGA plan to have the greens running at between 11.5 to 12.5 on the Stimpmeter, which they feel is optimum. They will also shave some of the green surrounds on more holes than players will be used to at other US Open venues to bring more short game options into play.
Other changes to the course setup or the design changes made by Love include a change to the par for the 1st and 17th holes (turning these short par fives into long par fours), a new 8th hole and a new tee on the par-five 16th – allowing the USGA to set the tees back to play at an astonishing 670 yards on some days of the championship.
"The first six holes are going to just be brutal. I would contend if you play the first six holes in two over, I don't think you're giving up anything to the field," said Davis. "However on the back nine, we potentially could see a US Open where the last five holes are finished with somebody hitting a wedge on every hole. That may not happen on 17, because they may go for it in two so they're not really hitting a wedge approach, but if you think about this US Open, it's unique.
"You've got a new tee at 16, the par five, the big dogleg that we're going to play on Sunday at 670 yards. The reason we did that is we really felt that that would make it a true ‘three shotter’. The wonderful thing about that hole is that from the back, if you miss any one of your shots, it's awful hard to catch up. We won't play it back there every day but it will certainly play like it did, I think in my opinion, when Hogan and Palmer played it back in 1955 and '66. It will be a big, big par-five for them."
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