Hazeltine National a real heavyweight test

Philip Reidlooks at the changes made over the years at Hazeltine National Golf Club ahead of next week's USPGA Championship

WHAT IS it about Hazeltine National? It’s not revered in the same way as Augusta National, nor loved in the same way as Pebble Beach. Perhaps it’s too young. It opened for play only in 1962 and, when it played host to its first major, the 1970 US Open, at a time when the course design included more blind tee-shots than you’d find at Royal County Down and saplings that only hinted that one day they would grow into monsters, the memory was not so much that Tony Jacklin won but what runner-up Dave Hill said of the place.

In a joking manner, Hill, after his second round, remarked to a scoop of journalists, “Just because you cut the grass and put up flags doesn’t mean you have a golf course . . . what it lacks is 80 acres and a few cows . . . they ruined a good farm.”

Years later, Hill was to claim that his remarks were made “tongue in cheek” after indulging in a couple of vodkas.

But the course which next week plays host to the USPGA Championship, the final major of the season, is much changed from the one on which Jacklin became the last European winner of a US Open, and much more mature than the lay-out on which Payne Stewart beat Scott Simpson in a play-off in the 1991 US Open, a title win that became more poignant because of Stewart’s subsequent death in a freak plane crash.

The old criticism of Hazeltine is no longer valid. Eleven years on from Stewart’s US Open win, the course was in pristine condition for Rich Beem’s heroic win in holding off a fast-charging Tiger Woods (who birdied the last four holes) in the 2002 USPGA championship. Since then, it has been refined by Rees Jones (younger son of Robert Trent Jones) and, as well as earning a reputation as “a ball-striker’s dream” in the opinion of Ernie Els, it has also been lengthened to make it a real heavyweight test.

As Jim Remy, the president of the PGA of America, remarked in a media briefing recently: “The average length of the par fives for our championship here at Hazeltine will be about 615 yards, with the longest par five being 642 yards.

“There will be three par fours over 475 yards, including the first at 490 yards, and I believe the 12th, at 518 yards, and what may be the longest par three ever to be played in a major championship or event, the 13th at 248 yards. So this venue meets the needs of the athletes of today and this generation in 2009.”

Jones has brought in new tees, which allows the tournament officials to play it to a par 72 of 7,674 yards, although the likelihood is that flexibility will be used with a variety of tee boxes available, for instance on the par-four 18th which measures 475 yards.

Jones has introduced the tees to bring back into play what he calls the “sideslopes” that his father had integrated into the original design but which had become virtually obsolete in championship play because of the advances in club and ball technology.

The sideslopes refer to the natural folds in the land, such as the crest in the landing area on the 18th which hides a slope that could kick drives from the fairway into the right rough.

Also, Jones has moved a significant number of bunkers on the course since the 2002 championship: fairway bunkers have been repositioned to come more into play off the tee, while greenside bunkers had been edged closer to the collars.

The greens, however, have remained unchanged since Beem’s win, although they will be reconstructed after the championship ahead of Hazeltine’s next big event, the 2016 Ryder Cup.

Interestingly, Jones decided to make very few changes to the course’s closing holes: the 16th, a wonderful hole where the tee-shot is so important with the lake on the right and a stream running down the left and the green set as a peninsula in the lake, has been untouched; the par-three 17th is as it was in 2002, and only a number of bunkers have been repositioned on the 18th.

Jones had wanted to remodel one particular bunker on the 18th but was over-ruled, because it was the bunker from which Woods, in the rain-delayed conclusion on Saturday to his second round, played a miraculous, 202-yard three-iron that cleared the lip of the trap and finished within 12 feet, a shot the world’s number one would later call “one of the best shots I’ve ever hit”.

There’s even talk at Hazeltine of installing a plaque near that bunker to commemorate the shot.

Hazeltine, more than anywhere, demands history; and it is playing catch-up on the likes of Augusta and Merion and the other famed courses.

Pádraig Harrington, the defending champion, remembers Hazeltine, but for the wrong reasons as he suffered a neck injury – having made a brief visit to a holiday arcade, something which is now banned for the Dubliner – which resulted in him having serious on-course manipulative work carried out by his physio, Dale Richardson.

“I have a picture at home on the wall – I tend to only put quirky pictures up – where it looks like he is trying to pull my neck off. He’s got me in a headlock as he’s trying to adjust it on the course,” remembered Harrington.

Of that last round on the Sunday, hampered as he was by the neck injury, Harrington added: “You know, it (2002) was my best result in the PGA up until I won last year. I finished 17th and I was in reasonable position going out on Sunday, and to be honest, I couldn’t swing the club; it was ridiculous the way I had to swing the golf club that day.

“It felt like I couldn’t get my arms past my hip height . . . it was a big, strong golf course with heavy rough that required you to be very consistent during the week in terms of hitting fairways, hitting greens.

“It would suit a good, strong player but consistency was needed.”

Since then, of course, Harrington has discovered the art of winning majors and his victory at Oakland Hills last year – his third major, adding to this British Opens in 2007 and 2008 – brought him his first on American soil.

“That was probably the most exciting win I’ve ever had on the golf course . . . I felt I would describe it as winning ugly, as in I just grabbed it, I just took it. It’s nothing to do with purity of play or anything like that.

“It was just down to the fact that I wanted it, and I took it, and there’s nothing more satisfying than taking one against the head.”

What of the course at Hazeltine?

“It’s a golf course that’s there in front of you, with plenty of options,” said Harrington, adding: “In major golf nowadays the best majors are played on golf courses that have options.

“If the golf course is too short or something like that, it tends to get tricky with pin positions, because that’s the only way of defending it. I think Hazeltine looks like it will provide a big, strong test . . . what I keep hearing about Hazeltine is music to my ears.

“It’s sounding like we’re going to have a big, strong test, but nothing that’s going to be tricky.”

How Irish players have performed in the USPGA

1990— Shoal Creek, Alabama (Wayne Grady 72 67 72 71 — 282). M/C — Ronan Rafferty.

1991— Crooked Stick, Indiana (John Daly 276). T-7th David Feherty 284.

1992— Bellerive, St Louis (Nick Price 278). M/C (148) — David Feherty 75 75 — 150.

1995— Riviera, Los Angeles (Steve Elkington 68 67 68 64 — 267). T-39th — Philip Walton 71 70 71 68 — 280.

1996— Valhalla, Louisville (Mark Brooks 68 70 69 70 — 277). M/C (144) — Philip Walton 70 76 — 146.

1997— Winged Foot, New York (Davis Love 66 71 66 66 — 269). M/C (146) — Pádraig Harrington 77 71 — 148.

1999— Medinah, Chicago (Tiger Woods 70 67 68 72 — 277). M/C (146) — Darren Clarke 72 75 — 147.

2000— Valhalla, Louisville (Tiger Woods 66 67 70 67 — 270). T-9th — Darren Clarke 68 72 72 67 — 279, T-58th — Pádraig Harrington 75 72 69 74 — 290. M/C (147) — Paul McGinley 74 75 — 149.

2001— Atlanta, Georgia (David Toms 66 65 65 69 — 265). T-22nd — Paul McGinley 68 72 71 67 — 278. M/C (141) — Darren Clarke 73 69 — 142, Pádraig Harrington 75 74 — 149.

2002— Hazeltine, Minnesota (Rich Beem 72 66 72 68 — 278). T-17th — Pádraig Harrington 71 73 74 72 — 290. M/C (148) — Darren Clarke 79 70 — 149, Paul McGinley 74 79 — 153.

2003— Oak Hill, New York (Shaun Micheel 69 68 69 70 — 276). T-29th — Pádraig Harrington 72 76 69 73 — 290. M/C (148) — Darren Clarke 79 70 — 149, Paul McGinley 73 76 — 149.

2004— Whistling Straits, Wisconsin (Vijay Singh 67 68 69 76 — 280). T-6th — Paul McGinley 69 74 70 69 — 282, T-13th — Darren Clarke 65 71 72 76 — 284; T-45th — Pádraig Harrington 68 71 72 78 — 289. M/C (145) — Graeme McDowell 77 75 — 152.

2005— Baltusrol, New Jersey (Phil Mickelson 67 65 72 72 — 276). T-23rd — Paul McGinley 72 70 72 69 — 283. M/C (144) — Graeme McDowell 72 76 — 148, Darren Clarke 73 77 — 150, Pádraig Harrington 76 77 — 153.

2006— Medinah, Illinois (Tiger Woods 69 68 65 68 — 270). T-37th Graeme McDowell 75 68 72 72 — 287. M/C (144) — Pádraig Harrington 75 74 — 149.

2007— Southern Hills, Illinois (Tiger Woods 71 63 69 71 — 272). T-42nd — Darren Clarke 77 66 71 74 -288, Pádraig Harrington 69 73 72 74 — 288; T-60th Paul McGinley 74 66 76 75 — 291.

2008— Oakland Hills, Michigan (Pádraig Harrington 71 74 66 66 — 277). T-15 — Graeme McDowell 74 72 68 73 — 287. M/C (148) — Darren Clarke 75 76 — 151.

Irish competing next week

Pádraig Harrington(Age: 37) World Ranking: 17

Best USPGA finish: 1st (2008)

Most likely to say: “I’ll have the last laugh.”

Rory McIlroy(Age: 20) World Ranking: 26

Best USPGA finish: Debut.

Most likely to say: “I’m made for the majors.”

Graeme McDowell(Age: 30) World Ranking: 48

Best USPGA finish: T-15th (2008)

Most likely to say: “I have a good feeling about this one.”

Darren Clarke(Age: 40: 41 next Friday) World Ranking: 109

Best US PGA finish: T-9th (2000)

Most likely to say: “Life begins at 40, my friend Vijay won more majors in his 40s than his 30s.”