Captain Jack hopes to make it three in a row
Posted: Monday December 07, 1998 11:27 AM
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Jack Nicklaus, the only player to win all four majors on the PGA and Senior PGA Tours, hopes to add The Presidents Cup to his list of achievments David Cannon/Allsport |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- During the 1991 Australian Open, Jack Nicklaus pronounced Royal Melbourne Golf Club a "good members' course."
Nicklaus took so much heat for that remark that he wrote a letter to the club's captain, explaining that he wasn't trying to label a course generally regarded among the world's top 10 as mediocre.
Richard Hatt knows what Nicklaus meant, and the club pro at Royal Melbourne promises that things will be tough when Nicklaus returns as U.S. captain for the Presidents Cup matches beginning Friday.
"It's generous off the tee, there are some wide fairways, big greens, and you don't have to carry 200 meters over water," Hatt said. "But it's like a sleeping giant. Grow out the rough and extend it, cut the greens just a bit shorter than usual, and it becomes an entirely different proposition."
The third edition of the international team event is the first held outside the United States, and Nicklaus said Royal Melbourne was a natural choice.
"I think Royal Melbourne is one of the great golf courses of the world," he said. "It's got a great reputation for tournament golf. The players who haven't been there would like to go."
Royal Melbourne's composite course - 12 holes from the West (designed by Augusta National architect Alister Mackenzie) and 6 holes from the East - has been the site of various championship tournaments, the last being the 1996 Greg Norman Classic.
For the Presidents Cup, a rerouted par-72, 6,981-yard layout using the same composite course has been mapped out to have the golfers in the match-play format play the last few holes closer to the clubhouse.
"Sixteen and 17 in the original course are the farthest from the clubhouse, so we've revamped the entire course so that only the 18th is the same on both," Hatt said.
So the 16th hole for Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and company will be the 12th from the original composite course, while No. 17 is the first hole from the original course (and the first hole on the West course).
The 18th, which Hatt describes as a "classic" hole, is a 442-yard par-4 that usually plays into the wind with a slight dogleg left and bunkers on all sides. The green is two-tiered and plays from right to left.
Royal Melbourne's bunkers contain natural gray dune-blown sand that some golfers say is like hitting out of talcum power. About 20 of the bunkers, including some on No. 18, feature island pockets of natural-grown heathland.
"They're spindly, low-lying bushes, easy to get into but hard to get out from," Hatt said.
Royal Melbourne is one of about 20 courses around Melbourne that sit atop about 20 feet of sand. Others of the 'sand-belt' layouts include Yarra Yarra, which played host to the LPGA tour's Australian Open in November.
"The course drains very well," Hatt said. "We had a downpour here a few days ago and it was bone dry 30 minutes later."
Hatt said that although Royal Melbourne is a generous driving layout, "it's a second-shot course."
"Club selection into the green is very important," he said. "If you hit above the hole, you can be in plenty of trouble. The greens can be so quick that you're not even thinking about one-putting, but how to get away with only two.
"It makes you work for your par, but it's not ridiculous."
U.S.-based Australian Steve Elkington considers Royal Melbourne one of the best in the world.
"It's a different style, more rugged looking than Augusta, but the greens are similar," said Elkington, a member of the International team. "It's a very hard driving course with very fast greens. It's not a pushover."
American team member Mark O'Meara agreed.
"You just can't appreciate what a fine golf course it is,' O'Meara said. "You have to hit it pretty straight. The fairways are somewhat generous. If you miss, you can get in some trouble."
The dangers of Royal Melbourne's greens are best illustrated by two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw, one of the course's biggest admirers. He first played it in the early 1980s and has been a regular visitor since, teaming with Mark McCumber to win the World Cup for the United States in 1984.
Crenshaw rates it among the best three courses in the world, alongside Augusta National and Pine Valley.
"There are no other championship surfaces in the world like these," he said during a practice round for the 1991 Australian Open - the same one where Nicklaus made those much-publicized comments.
As Crenshaw spoke, he took eight attempts to get a long putt near the cup on the 14th hole.
"That's what the course is about," Crenshaw said. "Staying below the hole, positioning the ball so you can stroke it on the green rather than just breathe on it."
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