2012 And Olympic Club

-- As the world's finest golfers converge on Bethesda, Md., for this week's U.S. Open, their thoughts are filled with conquering Congressional Country Club's Blue Course. It's a monster, the second-longest track in Open history, and it will challenge players in myriad ways.
Once a winner hoists the sparkling silver trophy in the smothering heat of June outside our nation's capital, something quiet and notable will happen in the USGA's universe: San Francisco will move to the front of the line.
That's evident in the maintenance crew's break room at the Olympic Club. There, about a month ago, club officials put up a countdown clock - showing the days, hours and minutes until the first shot of the 2012 U.S. Open. Today, the clock reaches 368 days.

This might seem like a long time, but superintendent Pat Finlen knows it will disappear quickly. Before long, Tiger Woods (maybe), Phil Mickelson and Co. will return to Olympic's tilted fairways and tiny greens for the fifth Open in the Lake Course's long history.
Finlen and several other club officials will head east this week to check out the operation at Congressional. Then, at month's end, executive director Mike Davis and several other USGA officials will come west to check out the conditions at Olympic.
Call it the unofficial kickoff to next year's national championship.
"It's a huge landmark for us," said Danny Sink, the USGA's championship director for the '12 Open. "The big thing is, we're next. People start to see the event is real."
Or, as Olympic Club general chairman Stephen Meeker put it, "The pace picks up when the last putt drops at Congressional."
Sink has been living in San Francisco for more than a year, spearheading the massive logistical effort required to host a U.S. Open. He works in a spacious trailer discreetly tucked along one side of Olympic's parking lot.
The spectacle of the Open coming to the southwest corner of the city is nothing new. The Lake Course has hosted the tournament in 1955 (Jack Fleck over Ben Hogan), 1966 (Billy Casper over Arnold Palmer), 1987 (Scott Simpson over Tom Watson) and 1998 (Lee Janzen over Payne Stewart).
Then again, the Open was different in those years. Much different.
The USGA plans to sell 35,000 tickets for each day of next year's tournament, a 40 percent increase over the capacity (25,000) in '98. And it's not only swollen galleries: The Open is bigger in virtually every way, from the merchandise tent and corporate hospitality to TV coverage and an army of volunteers (5,500 already enlisted).
"The scope of the U.S. Open outside the ropes, you almost can't describe it now," Sink said. "We're here two years in advance, which was unheard of back in '98, and security has gone to a whole new level, mostly since 9/11."
It takes no sixth sense to spot the main reason the Open has changed so much since its previous visit to San Francisco. Woods was 22 years old in June 1998, already a Masters champion but not the dominant, seismic force he soon would become.
He finished back in the pack at the Olympic Club (tied for 18th), then won seven majors the next four years to invigorate the pro game. Woods reshaped the Open much as he did regular PGA Tour events.
"It would be foolish to think Tiger hasn't affected the game at every level - attendance, television ratings, corporate hospitality, security, media, everything," Sink said. "I think the growth of the Open traces 100 percent to him. He's changed the game not only inside the ropes but outside the ropes as well."
The Lake Course also has changed significantly since its previous Open, both inside and outside the ropes. Hundreds of trees have been removed (including many eucalyptus), improving air circulation and allowing sunlight to reach more grass. Olympic officials also took out a lot of overgrown brush, creating more open space on a notoriously tight layout.
The course will measure 7,145 yards next year, substantially longer than it did 13 years ago (6,797). That's nowhere near Congressional's length this week - try 7,574 - but it will seem imposing given the cool, coastal air.
Among the most striking changes in the wake of a substantive renovation in 2008-09:
-- The greens, formerly poa annua, now are bentgrass for a truer roll, presumably without the bumpiness of Torrey Pines in '08 (picture Woods' tying putt on the 72nd hole) and the brown spots last year at Pebble Beach.
-- No. 8, the par-3 rising toward the clubhouse, is a completely different hole. The tee is much farther right, creating a different angle, and the hole measures 200 yards from the back tee. It played at 137 in the '98 Open.
-- The No. 18 green, site of roiling controversy in '98, is wider and not as sloped. Thirteen years ago, the USGA placed the hole in a precarious spot for the second round, leaving Stewart simmering as his short putt scurried well past the hole.
-- Davis, the USGA setup guru, will flip par on Nos. 1 and 17, turning the opening hole into a 533-yard par-4 and making No. 17 a reachable (albeit uphill) 505-yard par-5. The only two par-5s will come at Nos. 16 and 17.
-- A new way-way-way back tee at No. 16 gives Davis the option of stretching that hole to 662 yards.
-- Players will tee off on Nos. 1 and 9 (not 10) during the first two days. No. 9 is more accessible; starting half the field on No. 10 would require groups to walk across the No. 17 fairway, slowing play.