Do you believe in miracles?
Justin RoseIan Poulter and his fellow Europeans pulled one off with a stunning comeback on Sunday in the 2012 Ryder Cup. Now, nearly a decade and a half later, the must-watch match play returns to the scene of that shocker, Medinah Country Clubout of Chicago. This time it’s the Presidents’ Cup12 Americans against 12 Internationals on the club’s No. 3 course. Given the historical record — the United States owns an lopsided 13-1-1 in this event — the Internationals need some magic of their own. Here are seven things to know about the grounds where they will try to conjure.
What’s in a name?
The club was founded in 1924 by a group of Shriners belonging to the Medinah Temple in Chicago, which itself was named for the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. The clubhouse’s distinctive architecture, replete with domes and minarets, reflects that Middle Eastern etymology.
He is no stranger to big events
Medinah actually has three golf courses, but it is No. 3 that has done the heaviest lifting of the tournament: three US Opens, a PGA Championship, a US Senior Open, that unforgettable Ryder Cup 2012, and now a Presidents Cup.
Sergio’s tree is gone. The memory of it is not
Even if you didn’t watch it live, chances are you saw the shot on replay. In the final round of the 1999 PGA Championship, Sergio Garcia it was trace Tiger Woods when he left his drive behind a tree on the 16th hole. Instead of punching out, the cautious play, Garcia hit a powerful shot with a long iron, his eyes almost closed at impact and his left leg flailing wide. Somehow, he managed to find the green, a ball he followed by chasing the shot down the fairway, hop-skipping as he went. Today, the tree is gone. It was removed during renovations in 2009. But Garcia’s feat persists, commemorated by a plaque that marks the spot where he shot it.
Success has many fathers. No. 3 is also.
Tom Bendelow set the original course when it opened in 1928, but in the following decades – and to varying degrees – other famous figures touched on the design. AW Tillinghast took over in the 1930s, brought in in part to help the club survive the Depression by making the course robust enough to attract championship golf. Roger Packard redesigned the layout in the 1980s before the Senior Open and US Open. Rees Jones hà fattu una revisione completa in u principiu di l’anni 2000 per u PGA Championship. More recently, Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead, or OCM, led a restoration aimed at returning the course to its 1920s character. Among other alterations, OCM added bunkers (the total number increased from 70 to 117); widened greens to create more pin locations; trees removed; built three new holes; and modified the route so that Lake Kadijah is now more prominent in the closing stretch.
One of the captains adjusted the course
The O in OCM is Geoff Ogilvy. You know this name. He won the 2006 US Open. He is also captain of the International team, trying to engineer a meeting on the course that helped to improve.
This week’s itinerary is meant to heighten the drama
Altered by the renovation of the OCM, Medinah’s itinerary has been revised again for the Presidents’ Cup. Matches begin on the 5th hole, in part to ensure that the dramatic holes along Lake Kadijah feature in the competition (about 80 percent of matches end by the 16th hole). Re-sequencing also makes logistical sense. It helps the flow of spectators smoothly, which matters when Medinah expects a crowd of Chicago-site sports throughout the week.
Size matters only a little
No. 3 tips out at over 7,600 yards. That sounds like a lot, until you remember that distance alone does little to deter today’s top players. Consider, for example, the longest hole on the layout (the 10th for members, plays like the 6th in the Presidents Cup), a 646-yard par 5 that works downhill and into the wind. Never mind the scary yardage. The bigger boats on both teams should have little trouble getting to within two. It is something to remember throughout the competition. As there are no pictures on the scorecard, the numbers written on it can be misleading as well.