Congressional Country Club (Blue Course)

A Present From The 'Open Doctor'

Courtesy of Thomas Bonk
ThomasBonk.com

Since it's that time of the season, call it a Christmas present... Rees Jones style. This present, for the top golfers in the world, is 7,568 yards long. Oh, and you can't open it until June.

You don't have to sneak a peek to know that it's Congressional Country Club, the Blue Course, and the site of the 2011 U.S. Open in Bethesda, Md., on the doorstep of Washington D.C. And Jones has finished fine-tuning it.

Jones, one of the most prominent golf course architects in the world, has been on board to revamp and upgrade the course for the last 22 years, always with the mandate to keep the historic track first reworked by his father Robert Trent Jones in step with the times.

"As the game changes, we've got to keep up with it," Jones said in an exclusive interview.

In 1959, Jones' father completed the first upgrading of Devereux Emmet's 1924 design. Jones came on board in 1989 and has been around the place, on and off, ever since, most notably making changes at Congressional for the 1997 U.S. Open. Ernie Els won it at 4-under 276 (par was 70 and the course was 7,213 yards).

And now that he's finished ramping up the course for another Open, it's clear that Jones has logged some serious time at Congressional.

"I've been working there for 22 years," Jones said. "That's pretty good for Washington."

The 2011 Open will only be the second U.S. Open at Congressional, but it's been the site of four other USGA Championships besides the 1997 Open.

Chances are the Congressional the players see in June may look and play a lot different than the 1997 Open, or even the PGA Tour's AT&T National from 2007-2009. First, if the tees are played all the way back, it's 313 yards longer than it was for the AT&T National, when par was 70. As usual at the U.S. Open, par will be 71 despite the increase in distance.

There are a few notable recent changes Jones has made at Congressional, including the par four 18th that rolls downhill to a peninsula green and a pond. The hole has been lengthened 50 yards to 521 yards.

"As far back as we could go," Jones said.

He knew it would have to be longer after seeing Els use a 5-iron to reach the green on the last day in 1997. And Hunter Mahan used a sand wedge on his way to a closing 62 in the 2009 AT&T National. Jones figures it's about a 7-iron in now.

There was some discussion about converting the 579-yard, par five 16th into a par four, but Jones said the USGA's Mike Davis believed it should remain a par five to present a risk-reward factor. Jones re-bunkered the landing area. The elevated green slopes to the left and there's an out-of-bounds on the same side.

The par four 11th is also different. Jones moved the fairway toward a creek and took out bunkers on the right. And at No. 4, Jones changed the angle of the tee and removed a series of mounds.

All the bent grass greens have been rebuilt and the sub soil replaced.

"They're all essentially new greens," Jones said.

"They're a lot like Augusta's greens. If you hit it to the wrong part, you have a tough putt."

And like Augusta, they're all tough putts at the U.S. Open. Jones has a reputation as the 'Open Doctor' and the doctor has been in. He's been busy, since both the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black were played on tracks on which he had reworked. So Congressional will represent his third body of work among in the last four U.S. Open venues.

The 2011 Open at Congressional is still months away - June 16-19 - but there's reason to begin paying attention right now. Jones and the USGA want firm and dry conditions, so if any players want to start worrying, this might be a good time to start.