LOS ANGELES — Golf is supposed to get easier the closer you get, right? After all, any weekend warrior would much rather be staring down a flag 81 yards away than 100 or 120 yards.
But golf can be vexing and frustrating, which is why when you ask most of the 65 golfers who made the cut at the U.S. Open, they would much rather be shooting at Thursday’s or Friday’s pin on the 15th hole, which played 124 and 115 yards, than the challenge they faced on Saturday.
From just 81 yards.
“Just get it on the green,” was Jon Rahm’s strategy.
“Definitely a funky shot,” Cameron Young said. “Not one you see very often.”
The hole is the shortest in U.S. Open history, 11 yards closer than the seventh hole during the final round of the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
To think of it another way, all but two holes from the blue tees at Palm Beach Par 3 are longer than what the most skilled golfers on the planet played Saturday at the LA Country Club.
U.S. OPEN: Leaderboard | How to watch
And this is the hole on which three holes-in-one occurred in the first two rounds. Matthieu Pavon and Sam Burns on Thursday and Matthew Fitzpatrick on Friday.
Those pins were on either side of a hump that sits in the middle of the green. The play was to spin it back.
The shortest hole in @USOpenGolf HISTORY.@GallagherJrGC and @NickDougherty5 explore the par-3 15th that’s playing at 81 (!) yards on Saturday.
📺: @NBC & @peacock | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/7oAwVoPO3M
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) June 17, 2023
Saturday’s pin was about 15 yards in front of that hump in a tight spot; about 18 feet from the fringe on the left, 15 feet from the right and 18 feet from the front fringe that runs downhill. And it sat on a slight left-to-right slope.
“You need a lot of luck today,” Shane Lowry said about adding to the hole-in-one count on No. 15 Saturday. “The first two days you could hit a good shot and a couple of different options of making it. Today you need to hit a perfect shot and get lucky.”
Bunkers, surrounded by thick rough, protect the green on each side, the one on the left curling around toward the front.
If you hit it short left like Ryan Fox, the first golfer to play the hole Saturday, did, it catches the bunker. If you hit it short right it will roll back off the green. To the right of the pin, more trouble.
The safe play Saturday was aiming beyond the flag, catching the slope and spinning it back. The high-risk, high-reward play is aiming a few…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golfweek…