Special Places - Congressional Country Club

The US Open comes to the nation’s capital with Congressional Country Club hosting the 111th playing of the championship. The third US Open to be contested at the ultra-elite club in the affluent Washington DC suburb of Bethesda takes place on the second longest layout in Major history, and a course that is vastly different from the previous two Opens here. Congressional was founded in 1921 and the Devereux Emmet designed Blue Course opened for play in 1924. Robert Trent Jones remodelled Emmet’s layout in 1961, creating a test worthy of the 1964 US Open. Twenty-five years later, Congressional commissioned Jones’ younger son Rees to revamp the course again, which resulted in it being awarded the 1995 Senior Open and the 1997 US Open. Affectionately known as Big Blue, the layout usually plays to a par of 72. However, for PGA Tour events holes 6 and 11 are played as par 4s instead of 5s, but for this year’s championship only 11 sheds a stroke.

This week, stretched out over 6926 metres and with a par of 71, Congressional is the longest-ever Open layout. So, with the customary USGA tweaking of the rough and the speed of the greens together with difficult pin placements, length and accuracy off the tee will be essential in an event where a score of level par is designed to be in with a shout at close of play on Sunday. The fairways and greens of this grand old parkland golf course are now both bent grass since the greens were changed from poa annua during the major renovation in 2009. When the US Open was last played at Congressional there was the unusual spectacle of the round finishing with a par 3. That aberration has been consigned to the dustbin of history by creating a totally new 199m par 3 to start the back nine, and the round now climaxes on the old 17th, a breathtaking and dramatic 478m downhill par 4 with water protecting the green on three sides.

The US Open is noted as much for the players’ names that don’t appear on the trophy – Sam Snead, Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson – as it is for those that do – Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus, all four times. This year the title chase is as wide open as it has ever been, and with the likelihood of unpredictable weather thrown into the equation, another fairytale ending could be on the cards.

Golfweather Editorial