Internal out of bounds is generally considered about as popular as slow play in the game. The consensus is that it’s unnecessary and occasionally a bit of a gimmick and only belongs on lesser courses where holes run up and down alongside each other.
Four years ago it was the story of day one as the prospect of a home-town winner in Rory McIlroy evaporated in just one shot, his opening tee shot finishing a couple of yards the wrong side of a single white line with McIlroy minutes away from an opening eight.
This time around we have to wait until the 3rd hole before the opportunity for a very quick re-load arises. Here the out of bounds separates the course from the club’s practice ground and which, this week, will be decorated by hospitality and merchandise tents. In a former life it was a horse-racing track with the rails forming its boundary.
The tee shot here is most likely a long iron, maybe some sort of wood, played to the corner of the left-to-right dogleg. In 2014 supposedly only two players hit driver, Darren Clarke and Tom Watson, with the likelihood being that they weren’t taking on the corner. In the 2006 Open Robert Rock repeatedly hit driver but deliberately down the left-hand side where he knew that if he tugged it a bit, there would be a free drop from the then media centre.
When asked Brooks Koepka wasn’t overly bothered by the thought of leaking one right, either off the tee or with the approach. The reality is that you are more likely to be re-loading with the second shot, which will be played from around 180-220 yards, and that it will have been either a big push right or something near the hosel.
“We don’t really play too many golf courses that have it. I think at the PGA (at Oak Hill) they had it on 6 – couldn’t go down 7. Obviously one here on 3 and I guess 18. It’s fine. Just don’t hit it over there you won’t have a problem, right?
“The wind is off the left and the pin is on the right. I’m going to make sure that I miss that left, considering there’s internal OB on the right. Just picking a good target and sticking with it and being committed,” explained the five-time Major winner.
“It might be 45, 60 feet left of the flag, where if you’re just watching it might not be a great shot, or if you don’t know much about the situation. But to us or to me, it’s a really good shot and right where it needs to be.”
The real beauty of this hole is that it normally plays as the 1st hole for the members who play a more forward tee…
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