Wednesday, Sept. 22
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| Steve Pate, center, shares a laugh with teammates Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods on Wednesday. |
The course is in great shape and it's going to provide a challenge to both teams. It was an excellent choice as the venue for the matches.
To me, the toughest hole would have to be the 12th. Far and away it's the hardest hole. It's a par-5 for the members, but for us it's a seriously long par-4 (486 yards).
You're looking at a blind second shot, which means I'm hitting a long iron, usually a 2-iron or 3-iron. I've got to get it up the hill there and hook it in. That's not really an easy shot. During my round today, I ended up behind this big old tree. I was dead, which I'm sure wasn't appreciated by my partner.
When we were here for the Open, they had the tees way up at 12. The fairways were pretty fast and I was hitting an iron off the tee. I was leaving my second shot short of the green and rolling it in there. Not this week. It's a lot tougher now, so it could be a big hole during the matches. It's part of a stretch there, 10-11-12-13, where it's good, tough golf.
But unlike some other places, there really aren't any holes where you're on the tee and scared to death. I mean Kiawah Island, where we played in '91, that was a place where you'd hit what you thought was a pretty reasonable shot and you ended up crawling out of there with a 9.
I don't think bogey is going to win any hole out here like it could when I was in this thing at Kiawah. There's going to be some birdies made here because the greens are so small. You hit a green and you're going to have a chance. Someone starts hitting a lot of greens and gets the putter going, well, you're going to get some birdies.
At the same time, if guys aren't sharp with the irons, there's going to be some chipping going on. Par could win some holes, but I don't see bogey being good enough unless something crazy happens.
It should be great to play because one swing won't kill you. There are ways to recover out here.
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