by Mike McAllister, Managing Editor, PGATOUR.COM
SAN FRANCISCO -- It starts with a fairway that sits atop the San Andreas Fault, a fairly precarious position should the ground start to shake. To finish, you must navigate past a fairway bunker, the only one on the course. In the four previous U.S. Opens held here, that bunker rarely has made anybody flinch. But don't worry -- it will this week, a by-product of added course length.
In between, there's the only putting surface that doesn't break toward the lake. There are doglegs that run one way and fairways that decant the opposite way - the famed reverse cambers. You'll face uphill lies, downhill lies, sidehill lies and ask yourself, "Did they just turn Lombard Street into a muni?"
If you're lucky, the fog and the marine layer will lift as you stand on the third tee, providing a distant view of the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.
By then, you might be ready to climb up and jump off.
The first six holes of the Lake Course at the Olympic Club are not for the faint of heart, but they may very well rip out your heart. USGA Executive Director Mike Davis said it will "absolutely" be the hardest start for any U.S. Open. Johnny Miller, the 1973 U.S. Open champ who considers Olympic one of his two home courses, called the opening stretch "awesome ... awesomely tough." Fellow TV analyst Frank Nobilo said playing the first six "takes the life out of you."
Ah, the Suicidal Six. It's difficult to find anybody who disagrees.
"Everything that's been said about them," said Luke Donald, the top-ranked player in this week's field, "it's true."
On the eve of the 112th U.S. Open, Sunday's winner might not necessarily be decided by how he plays the first six holes. But the losers likely will be identified, those pour unfortunate souls who'll have the remains of their golf game tossed into the brisk winds that can rumble in from the nearby Pacific ocean. The ones who'll wake up in a cold sweat next week, unable to erase the nightmarish stretch from their minds.
This week, the goal for each player in the 156-man field will simply be to hang on tight for the first six holes, avoid the killer numbers, and breathe a huge sigh of relief once sanity is restored at the drivable par-4 seventh - a hole that the Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee described as "an oasis during the brutality of the U.S. Open."
Trying to determine the definition of success through the first six holes has been one of the main discussion points this week. Lee Westwood said he would be "delighted" with even par. Tiger Woods felt the same way. Phil Mickelson said 1 over is "acceptable."
Bubba Watson put the number at 2 over ... each round.
"If I shot 2 over every single day in the four days, I'd be pretty happy, knowing what I've seen so far," Watson said.
Said Davis, the mastermind behind the USGA's course setup: "If you can get through those 1- or 2-over par, I can promise you you're going to be beating most of the rest of the field."
Cumulatively, the six holes -- five par 4s, one par 3 -- stretch to 2,620 yards. That's 138 yards longer than in 1998, when the Olympic Club last hosted the U.S. Open. A small difference, relatively speaking, but the added length doesn't nearly tell the full story.
Consider the opening hole. In 1998, it was a par 5 at 533 yards, playing to a stroke average of 4.7. Now it's a par 4 at 520 yards, as USGA officials opted to flip the pars at the first and 17th holes. Thus, instead of getting a quick jump on the course, you'll more than likely suffer a quick bogey.
Matt Kuchar was surprised last week during his first practice round when he saw the new configuration on the opening hole. "Hit a driver and a 3 wood thinking this is not much of a par 4 here," Kuchar said.
The 428-yard par-4 second has been beefed up by 34 yards, but a narrow fairway will limit the ability to use driver. A severe slope on the green that runs back to front will cause much angst if you don't have the right club dialed in. Chris Stein, head pro at the Olympic Club, considers it the hardest second shot on the course.
The 247-yard third is Olympic's longest -- and toughest -- par 3 but it plays downhill. How you swing may not be as important as what you swing. "The critical thing about 3 is picking the right club," Mickelson said. "If you can pick the right club on 3, you're going to use the same club on 8 and the same club on 13. So it's really a big first pull of the club."
Then you come to the fourth and fifth holes, both par 4s. The fourth hole has a dogleg left with a fairways that slopes to the right; the fifth hole, playing to nearly 500 yards, is just the opposite. Right-handers won't be able to play a fade off the fourth tee or a draw off the fifth tee and hope to keep either drive on the fairway.
In 1998, the fourth and fifth holes ranked as the second- and third-toughest that week. The only hole that was tougher? The 17th, which will now be a par 5, leaving Nos. 4 and 5 at the top of the difficulty list.
Incidentally, you may recall that in 1998, a cypress tree at the fifth gobbled up Lee Janzen's tee shot in the final round. But just as Janzen was headed back to the tee box after failing to find his ball, a gust of wind knocked the ball from the tree limbs and onto the ground. Saved a penalty stroke and a second tee shot, Janzen went on to overtake Payne Stewart for the win.
That tree is gone now but don't expect similar mercy this week.
Finally, the 489-yard par-4 sixth gets an added boost of 52 yards, which means shorter players may opt to lay up in front of the fairway bunker that sits down the left side. Stein calls it the course's most difficult tee shot. Wedge was the club of choice for most approach shots in 1998, but now it will be a mid-iron.
To be fair, not every player sees Olympic's first six holes as some sort of cataclysmic adventure that must be endured. They say the pain and suffering will be felt throughout the entire 7,170 yards of the Lake Course - which, despite its name, has not a single water hazard.
"They're difficult holes," Kuchar said, "but I don't think the course really gets that much easier once you get past No. 6."
Mickelson, as he so often does, sees opportunity where others see obstacles. He doesn't fear the first six; he relishes the chance to solve them.
"I think it's overrated a little bit in the difficulty," Mickelson said. "It's certainly challenging. But the way it's set up gives you an opportunity to play them. They're not unplayable, by any means."
He might be right. If Mickelson can conquer the first six holes, he may very well earn his first U.S. Open title. And if he doesn't? Well, he won't be alone. After all, misery loves company, and Olympic's opening stretch promises to turn even the sunniest of dispositions into befuddled wretches.