17th Hole? Long And Brutal

Southern Pines, N.C. – Kris Tamulis is uncertain whether she has cracked the code of the tempestuous 440-yard, par-4 17^th hole, but she will take what it has granted her.

Two rounds, two pars. Thank you very much.

Shiho Oyama plays into the 17th hole, the second-hardest during the championship. (Fred Vuich/USGA)

"I think that the biggest thing there is just hitting a good tee shot in the middle of the fairway," said Tamulis, 26, of Naples, Fla., who managed to post a 1-over 143 halfway score before the second suspension of play at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pines Needles Lodge and Golf Club.

Biggest? Ha. Why not say it’s paramount or imperative.

The hole is a conventional dogleg to the left with a bunker that creeps into the crook of the leg. Its presence creates a dilemma, though, for players.

A tee shot short of the bunker leaves approach shots of up to 200 yards into the green. Try to skirt the bunker on the right side and the unpredictable Bermuda rough lays in wait. Or attempt to fly the bunker, as Tamulis has done both rounds, and kick some of the teeth out of the hole.

But a restored fore-bunker on the green’s right side, plus the green, which has been returned to architect Donald Ross’ original elevation, create a shaky approach.

"When you have 440-yard par 4s and you don’t hit the fairways, you’re going to make it pretty tough on yourself," said U.S. Women’s Open rookie Ashley Prange, who made one of the 16 first-round double bogeys on the hole - most of any hole on the course. Fellow Open rookie Maria Kostina made the dreaded other - a 10.

In 2001, playing 11 yards shorter, the hole ranked as the second-most difficult with a scoring average of 4.525. In this year’s first round that stretched into Friday morning, the hole was testier with a stroke average of 4.590.

Come Sunday night - or whenever the weather breaks long enough for this championship to be completed - this hole may have altered the course of both champion and contenders.

"When I played my practice round the first day, I hit 3-wood into it and I was like ‘You know, this is brutal,’" said Tamulis, who hit it into the rough during another practice round and laid up. In rounds one and two, the fairway found on the backside of the bunker, she had 4- and 6-iron in the green.

Of the 11 par-4s, the 17^th is the second longest, just 10 yards shorter than the second hole.

"It's just really long,” said amateur Vicky Hurst, 17, of Melbourne, Fla. Hurst bogeyed the hole both rounds and was at 8-over 150. “The drive is tough because if you're a long hitter you have to go over the bunker. But it's a long carry over the bunker and if you go any farther right, then you're through the fairway into the rough.”

But this is the U.S. Women’s Open, where fairways are pinched tighter than a grandmother grabbing a child’s cheek. Plenty of players will be errant of perfection.

So if a mistake is to be made, is the rough or the bunker the lesser of two evils?

"You know, probably the rough," said Angela Stanford, 29, who has bogeyed and birdied the hole en route to a 1-over 143 score through two rounds. "Just because you might get lucky and get a lie. The bunker, I think the closer you get to that lip, you're so far out that it's going to be hard to kind of get it over that lip. So you might get a good lie in the rough."

Tramulis would prefer to err on the side of the bunker. Through two rounds, though, she has been error free at the 17^th.