We often refer back to the players who prevail on certain courses as a means to measure the greatness of those designs—at least as tournament tests. Jack Nicklaus, Lanny Wadkins, Tom Watson, Tom Kite and Tiger Woods have helped cement the reputation of Pebble Beach. Oakmont has identified greats like Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Ernie Els, Paula Creamer and Dustin Johnson. And Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Watson, Payne Stewart, Jim Furyk and Lexi Thompson have enshrined the championship bona fides of the Lake Course at San Francisco’s Olympic Club.
Of course, Hogan, Palmer, Watson, Furyk and Thompson didn’t win at Olympic Club—they faltered there. This alternate docket of near misses and tragic collapses is as much a part of the Lake Course’s lore as the calculating, straight-hitting lesser-remembered opportunists—Jack Fleck, Billy Casper, Scott Simpson, Lee Janzen, Webb Simpson and Yuka Saso—who did lift U.S Open trophies.
The Lake Course’s overhanging trees, lush roughs and moody atmosphere that keeps players on edge and forebodes strange twists of fate are also integral to its lore. The towering cypress trees and their tufts of dark umbrella-like needles are surrogates for the clouds and fog that often waft across the property’s sloping hillside. Historically they’ve acted as bars paralleling the course’s long penitentiary walks, snaring balls and clogging out recovery options. Deep greenside bunkers with high, shaggy lips of long grass added to the aura of constriction. The most dangerous place at Olympic Club, if not off the fairways or embedded in the sand, has always been in the lead during a final round.
This brooding and sometimes terrifying style of golf has made Olympic Club one of the most unpredictable venues for major championships. It will be revealing to see if the course induces the same kind of turmoil following a new renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner that has substantially peeled back many of the elements that have made the Lake Course, ranked 35th on America’s 100 Greatest Courses, such a haunting, punitive tournament site.
The Lake Course’s downhill par-3 third is one of the best views in San Francisco.
Kirk Rice
When the game’s elite begin to cycle through once again, beginning with the 2025 U.S. Amateur, the question will begin to be answered: Have the roughs and trees been a crutch the design has leaned on, or is there is something more architecturally complex that makes scoring at Olympic Club so exacting?
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
