OLYMPIC CLUB(LAKE COURSE)

Course Architects: Willie Watson and Sam Whiting (1924), Sam Whiting (1927),
                   Robert Trent Jones (1953), William R. Love and Frontier Golf
                   (renovation, 2009), Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (2020-22)
Year Opened: 1927
Location: San Francisco, California
Slope: 144. Rating: 75.5
Par: 71
Yardage: 7,268
Hole-by-Hole: 1 - Par 5 534 Yds    10 - Par 4 434 Yds
                      2 - Par 4 445 Yds    11 - Par 4 444 Yds
                       3 - Par 3 258 Yds    12 - Par 4 462 Yds
                       4 - Par 4 428 Yds    13 - Par 3 199 Yds
                       5 - Par 4 505 Yds    14 - Par 4 429 Yds
                       6 - Par 4 500 Yds    15 - Par 3 157 Yds
                       7 - Par 4 314 Yds    16 - Par 5 622 Yds
                       8 - Par 3 209 Yds    17 - Par 5 523 Yds
                      9 - Par 4 456 Yds    18 - Par 4 349 Yds
                       Par 35  3,649 Yds      Par 36  3,619 Yds

Key Events Held: U.S. Open (1955, 1966, 1987, 1998, 2012), U.S. Women’s Open (2021),
                 U.S. Amateur (1958, 1981, 2007, 2025),
                 U.S. Junior Amateur (2004),
                 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship  (2015),
                 The Tour Championship (1993-94), PGA Championship (2028),
                 Americas Cup (1958), Ryder Cup (2032),
                 Pacific Coast Amateur (1971, 1975, 1980, 1984, 1989, 2000, 2006, 2018),
                 Women's Western Amateur (1948),
                 San Francisco Open (1946), California Amateur (2017),
                 San Francisco National Match Play (1930, 1932, 1939).

Awards Won: #35 by Golf Digest - America's 100 Greatest Courses (2024-25)
            Ranked 6th by Golf Digest's Best in State (California, 2023-25),
            Ranked 25th by Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses in the U.S.,
            Ranked 79th by Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses in the World.

Website: olyclub.com.

HISTORY: The Olympic Club was founded in 1860 and is the oldest athletic club in the United States. The golf course itself was designed by Willie Watson and built by Sam Whiting back in 1924 and was completely redesigned and rebuilt by Whiting  in 1927.  Whiting stayed on as golf course superintendent until 1954.

For  the first  U.S. Open  held at  Olympic in  1955, Robert  Trent Jones  was brought  in  for remodeling and cosmetic  changes.

Over the years, The Olympic Club  has hosted  some amazing events with astonishing results. The first case in point, 1955:

Perennial  favorite Ben  Hogan, seeking  his fifth U.S. Open title,  was leading in the clubhouse by two shots with little-known Jack Fleck on  the course with four holes  remaining. Fleck, a municipal-course pro from Davenport,  Iowa, playing his first full year on the tournament tour, made two
birdies  over those  last four  holes, including an eight-footer on the last to tie  Hogan and  then beat  him in  a playoff.  Hogan was only  one stroke behind in the playoff as they went to the 18th  tee,  but once there his  foot slipped  and he drove  his ball into very deep rough  far  to the  left. It took him  three strokes  to move  it back to the fairway.  The  end result, Fleck 69,  Hogan 72. Fleck's first four rounds were 76-69-75-67-287;  there were  only seven  rounds below  the par  of 70  in the Championship,  and  he made three of them, including the playoff. For the week, Olympic Club played to a whopping 8.72 strokes over par.

In 1966, the "King," Arnold Palmer was  cruising  to victory in  record fashion, as he  led Billy Casper by seven shots  with just  nine holes to play. Palmer had opened with a front nine in 32 and  needed just par  on his final six holes to break the 72-hole scoring mark of 276. Palmer lost a stroke at the 10th, another at the 13th, two at the 15th and  then  two more at the  par-5 16th. Casper  tied Palmer with a par-4 against  Palmer's  five at  the 17th. He had then  recovered seven strokes in eight  holes  and five  strokes in three  holes. Casper had  closed with 32 to Palmer's  39 to force a playoff.

Once again, Palmer led after nine holes, this time  by three. However, Casper played steady golf over the back nine to score 69 to Palmer's  73 to  became the 11th player  to win the Open a second time, having captured  the title back in 1959. Although the players fared better at this U.S. Open, Olympic still was an impressive test, as the field averaged 75.76 per round, with 15 players breaking par.

The U.S. Amateur Championship made its second visit to The Olympic Club in 1981, when Nathaniel Crosby, son of the late crooner and movie star Bing Crosby, defeated Brian Lindley in the title match.

In a field that included future professional stars Paul Azinger, Corey Pavin, Hal Sutton, Brad Faxon, Ronan Rafferty, Tom Pernice Jr. and amateur standout Jay Sigel, it was the Californian Crosby who came away with the championship.

Crosby, who trailed in four of his six matches during the championship, birdied the 37th hole from 20 feet for the title. Crosby became only the fifth golfer to win the Amateur Championship before his 20th birthday.

In 1987, it was Scott Simpson who turned the tables  on  favorite Tom Watson. Trailing by two  heading into the final five holes,  Simpson birdied  14 through 16  to  take  the lead  and  then made  a miraculous  par  from a greenside bunker  at 17 and  a two-putt  par at 18 to preserve  the lead. Watson, who saved par  on 17 from six feet to stay within one,  missed birdie on the last from 45 feet to finish second. The two players were  the  only players in the field to  better par for  the Championship. The course played relatively easy this time around as 47 rounds bettered par with a scoring average for the championship of 73.53.

Trailing by five shots  in the 1998  Open heading into the final round, Lee Janzen captured his second  U.S. Open title  in six years, when he defeated the late Payne Stewart after  playing the  final 15 holes in 4-under par. Playing two groups ahead of  Stewart,  Janzen started at 2-over,  but dropped two more strokes behind when he bogeyed the difficult second and third holes. The key to
victory could have been his good fortune on the par-4 fifth. His tee shot found the trees on the right  and looked to be lost,  but as he was heading back to the teeing ground  to replay a  second tee ball, his first ball dislodged and fell from a tree into the deep rough. Janzen chipped back to the fairway, hit his approach over the green, and then chipped in for par. With birdies on 12 and 13, Janzen gained  a share of  the lead. Stewart fell out of the lead with a bogey on 16. His  last chance to  tie Janzen came at the finishing hole, where he had a 25-footer  for  birdie. His  downhill putt  broke left and  slid inches below the hole, giving Janzen the biggest come-from-behind win after 54 holes since Hale Irwin  came from five  back in 1973.

The course once again stood tall for the week, as players averaged 74.49 with only 26 rounds under par. In fact, not one player for the championship finished under par, as Janzen's winning total was even par.

The 1993 and '94 Tour Championship's also were  upset -ridden, as  Jim Gallagher,  Jr.  clipped  a quartet  of  players, including Greg Norman and Simpson, by one shot and Mark McCumber defeated Fuzzy Zoeller  in a  playoff the following year. Gallagher Jr., a five-time PGA Tour winner,  has not won again since 1995, while McCumber's title was the last of his  10 Tour wins. A couple of prominent members of Olympic Club have captured a  couple of U.S. Open titles. Ken Venturi, runner-up at the 1948 U.S. Junior Amateur,  won the 1964 U.S.  Open  and Johnny  Miller, the  1964 U.S.  Junior Amateur  champion captured the  1973 U.S.  Open.

During  the 2004 U.S. Junior Amateur,  only  one player,  Brian Harman,  was able  to finish the stroke-play portion  of the  event  under par,  after shooting  rounds  of 67-66.  Harman, however  was defeated  in the quarterfinals by eventual winner Sihwan Kim, who became the second youngest to win this championship.

Over time, many thought that The Olympic Club was too short to hold a U.S. Open Championship again, but the powers that be at the USGA and, of course, the membership at the club had a different idea.

Playing to just under 7,000 yards, the Lake Course hosted the 2007 U.S. Amateur Championship. Colt Knost defeated Michael Thompson, 2 & 1, to become the sixth golfer in history to win two USGA championships in the same season, and the second to win the Amateur and the Amateur Public Links in the same year. Ryan Moore was the first to do so, in 2004.

Thompson defeated current PGA Tour star Webb Simpson in the first round and he reached the final without playing the final hole in all but one match. Knost also was very proficient in his matches, never reaching the final hole, as he cruised to the championship match. His semifinal win was a 4 & 3 thrashing of PGA Tour winner Jhonattan Vegas.

The final was a seesaw affair, as Thompson won the first hole of the 36-hole match, but Knost captured the second to square the match. The battle continued in this regard until Knost won the final two holes of the morning 18 to take a 1-up lead. Thompson battled back in the afternoon, taking a 1-up lead after the 23rd hole, but Knost once again squared the match on the next. With the match deadlocked after 30 holes, Knost made back-to-back birdies to take control, including a 20-foot birdie on the 31st hole.

How difficult did the Lake Course play during the 2007 championship? The lowest score out of 315 players during the stroke-play portion was 68 by Trevor Murphy. Some of the players enjoyed the challenge, others, well ...

"The brutality of this golf course is unrelenting," said England's Gary Wolstenholme, who lost in the first round of match play. "If you miss it just a hair here or there, you can find yourself dropping shots easily at every turn. You have to be precise. You have to hit the fairways and hit the right clubs
into the greens. The difference between good shots and bad ones is pretty slim. But it makes you think, and that makes it a great test."

Simpson, a two-time PGA Tour winner had this to say about the course, "About 90 percent of the time, you're just punching it out. Even if the lie is halfway decent, you just have to play and not try to force things. It just leads to more trouble."

Wolstenholme, now a Senior European Tour player, who competed six times in the Walker Cup for Great Britain and Ireland, was quite appreciative of Olympic.

"You just have to love this golf course," he said.

"The colors, the variety of greens in the grass and trees, the setting itself - it's a very special place."

A complete renovation of the Lake Course was completed in 2009, transforming the course from just over 6,800 yards to almost 7,200 yards. New tee complexes were designed on 14 holes, bunkers were tweaked, added and removed, with only 62 on the course and the eighth hole was redesigned, extending the hole over 60 yards. The course is now expected to play 373 yards longer than it did in 1998.

In addition to the changes on No. 8, the USGA for the 2012 Open have adjusted par on two of the holes, making the first a robust 502-yard par-4 and the 17th, a reachable 522-yard par-5. In previous championships at The Olympic Club, No. 1 played as a par-5 and the 17th a par-4.

Green speeds will be the same as in 1998, 11.5-12.5 feet on the Stimpmeter. Not very comforting, since the size of the putting surfaces is just 4,400 square feet.

When the U.S. Women’s Open came to Olympic in 2021, only five players broke par, as Yuka Saso defeated Nasa Hataoka on the third hole of a playoff. Lexi Thompson was leading, but a final round of 75 put her in third place, one shot out of the playoff. Her back-nine collapse started with a double-bogey on 11 and three bogeys on 14, 17 and 18. Thompson was five strokes ahead with 10 holes remaining, before struggling down the stretch.

Following the Women’s Open, Gil Hanse and his team came in to renovate the greens and fairways. In addition, new fairway bunkers were added and the seventh hole was re-routed to sit closer to the 8th tee. All green complexes were made 35-percent larger and the fairways were expanded by 25-percent.

HOLE BY HOLE REVIEW: One  of the most important shots of your  day around Olympic will be your  opening  shot. The  par-5 first, which was played as a par-4 for the 2012 U.S. Open, is  a dogleg  right which requires a slight fade  off the tee  to set up  a possible chance  to reach the green in two. Miss right  and trees  and deep rough will  grab your ball, left, more of the  same.  Your  second shot  is  played  downhill  to  a small  green.  When laying  up, make sure you have a correct yardage, as a pair of fairway bunkers will collect any errant shot. The green slopes from back to front with a ridge in  the  center. A  definite birdie chance,  as long as  you find the fairway.

The second hole, once rather short, has been lengthened over 30 yards and plays uphill all the  way to the green. A right-center tee shot  is required, as the fairway slopes  to the left and has been moved six paces to the left, tightening the landing area. The putting  surface is  well protected  by  a handful  of bunkers.  A high,  soft approach  is required  to  hold  the green, but  the  most important  advice is, don't  miss  long or short.  The green slopes severely  from back to front and right  to left  and with a false front, club selection will be key.

Wind will certainly  play  havoc on  the third.  The longest par-3  on the course at 247  yards, some 24 yards longer than in previous years,  this hole will play slightly shorter  due to  the downhill slope to the  green. The putting surface is quite  large and slopes from front to back and once again is well protected by sand. Making par or even bogey here is all right.

One of the most difficult holes on the opening nine is the fourth. The second of nine par-4s over 400  yards in length,  the fourth requires a draw off the tee, with a 3-metal or long iron to a fairway  that bends from left to right. Now you're left with  an  uphill second to a  green that slopes from back to front. Make sure you  take  enough club,  or your approach  will slip back  off the green. Remember, below the hole!

Just the  opposite  of the previous hole,  the  fifth is  a  downhill,  dogleg right and requires  a  big fade from  the back  tee. This hole has been lengthened over 40 yards with two new tees and reaches 498 yards in distance. A medium-to-long iron is required for your second shot, that is if you hit the
slim fairway,  to a green that  slopes from right to  left. As is the case with all  of the  greens at Olympic, speed  is key, as the putting surfaces play to 11  or more on  the Stimpmeter.

The sixth is the only hole on the course which features a fairway bunker, located down the left side. Since the 2007 U.S. Amateur Championship, two new tees have been added, increasing the length of the hole to 489 yards. Bending slightly to the  left, make sure you avoid the trap which has been brought in closer to the fairway. With a successful big drive, another long iron will remain. Your  approach is slightly downhill and  downwind. The  putting surface is  quite small,  as are  all the  greens here,  and is  surrounded  by three deep  bunkers. Try  to  keep your  second shot short  and left of  the hole, otherwise three-putting  could be the  end result.

It's  either bombs  away or  a simple iron  off the  tee on the short seventh.  Just 288  yards  from the  tips,  the seventh  plays  uphill to  the green,  which is  surrounded by  numerous bunkers.  The smart  play is  a long iron  or fairway  metal,  leaving just  a  short pitch  to  a devilish  green, which now features just two tiers. The green slopes  from back to front, but if you land on the correct level, there's a definite birdie opportunity. Miss the putting surface and you'll be stuck in probably the thickest rough on the course.

Uphill all the way, the eighth used to be the easiest hole on the course at just 137 yards. Not anymore. Over 65 yards have increased this beauty to 200 yards, requiring a long iron or fairway metal off the tee. With  a beautiful view  of the  clubhouse, the par-3  is completely surrounded by bunkers  of all different shapes  and sizes.  The lima bean shaped green features a gradual slope in the center. A back left pin  placement  could result  in plenty  of bogeys, as it will bring the back bunker  into play. With the tall Cypress trees down the left side, you'll actually need to draw your tee ball. Yikes.

The ninth is a downhill, dogleg right  par-4 which requires  a fade off the tee, as the fairway slopes from right  to left.  Although sand protects the green, the putting surface is open in  the front and  receptive to a medium-to-short iron. Stay below the hole to have any chance at birdie, as the green
slopes hard from back to front. Not without adjustments, No. 9 has been lengthened 16 yards and the fairway narrowed to just 27 paces.

The inward nine opens with another dogleg right, with tall trees guarding both sides of the fairway, which has been moved to the right, tightening the landing area. A fade off the tee is required to set up a short iron to a  green that slopes  away from the player. Land your approach on the front of the  surface, as the  green is firm, and slopes toward the rear. With a solid tee shot, the 10th can  be a  realistic birdie  opportunity.

Although  straightaway and  just 430 yards,  the 11th plays into the wind, so a big tee shot is needed. A medium-to-long iron is required to reach the green and if the pin is in back quadrant of the  two-tiered  green, then add  at least one  extra club. Sand protects both sides  of the surface,  but the front is available to run up your second shot. Making  par here is  certainly a bonus.

A hole that was once just 396 yards long, the 12th is now over 450 yards in length and could be the most difficult on the course, thanks to the ever-present pines and cypress trees that line the fairway just 100 yards  off the tee, making for a very narrow opening for your tee shot. With a successful
tee ball, a medium iron will be sufficient to give yourself a birdie chance. However, don't miss  left or right, as deep sand bunkers will gobble up your shot and long is no  bargain,  either, as a closely mown area awaits. The green slopes gently from back to  front and is minuscule at best,  so  hitting your target  could result  into a positive ending.

Although playing  downwind, the  par-3  13th is  slightly uphill  to  a green  well protected  by two deep bunkers and closely mown chipping areas. The putting surface is quite narrow and long at  32 yards in depth, so hitting the green from 199 yards out, could be quite a  chore. The green slopes from right to left and back to front, so making par is  an excellent  score. Like most greens  at Olympic, the slope and grain run toward Lake Merced. With the overhanging Cypress on the right, try and cut one in for your best shot at par.

The dogleg-left 14th requires a big sweeping draw off the tee  to set  up a medium  iron to  the green. With the fairway being shifted left, the right rough is a spot that will see plenty of action. Favor  the right side of the putting surface and you'll leave  yourself  a  good  birdie  chance. The green is  tiny, protected on either side by sand  and circular  at  26 yards in depth, but  if you're below the hole, you can make birdie.

Another tiny green awaits at  the final par-3 on the course, the uphill 15th. At  just 157 yards and a quartering wind, club  selection will be key, not  to mention  accuracy. The recently rebuilt elevated green is almost completely surrounded  by  four  deep bunkers and slopes from back to front.
Although short,  par  will be  a difficult  score for  those players missing the green.

The  longest  hole on the  course just got longer, as a new tee has been added to the monster 16th, increasing its length to 670 yards, the longest hole in U.S. Open history. This sweeping dogleg left requires extreme accuracy off the tee and with your second, as you  must play down the right  side of  the fairway,  as to  avoid  being blocked  by large  trees on  the entire left side.  A short  iron for your approach will remain to another  tiny green that's fronted by two bunkers, can leave  a solid  birdie chance,  but  don't be  disappointed with  par. It's  a hole  that  no one has ever  hit in two in
competitive play, no that's a par-5. During the 2007 U.S. Amateur, the 16th played to a scoring average of 5.317, one of 16 holes during the championship that played over par for the week.

The 17th, as a par-5, could be construed as easy, but when playing in tournament  conditions, the  hole has played as a brutal par-4. Just ask the players in 2007, as this was the hardest hole for the week with only nine birdies made. During the  1998 U.S. Open, the 17th was also the most difficult
for the championship. Usually into the wind,  the 17th  requires a  big  drive down  the  left side,  as the  fairway slopes back to the right. A fairway metal or long iron will be needed to get home in two. The difficulty  of the hole has just begun as you  reach the green, as  the putting surface is guarded
by sand and slopes hard from  back to  front. This green is usually one of the fastest on  the course.   Take par  and move  on.

Although not the  longest of  finishing holes, the 18th  could be one of the greatest short holes  in golf. At  just 344  yards,  the  final hole  requires just a  long iron  or  fairway metal to  a downhill fairway, that's just 21 paces wide and slopes slightly from left to  right.  After negotiating the tee shot, a short  iron to the uphill green must  be kept below the hole. The narrow and tiny putting surface is the smallest on the Lake Course. Following the 1998 U.S. Open, the 18th green was rebuilt  as  to make it  less severe. Four  diabolical bunkers, three of which spell out I-O-U, protect this minuscule target. It's no wonder that the USGA and PGA Tour have made numerous stops here.

FINAL WORD: When reviewing golf courses, one looks at conditioning, difficulty, beauty, history and other intangibles.

Well, The Olympic Club is all of the above and more.

Carved into the side of the Pacific Coast, The Olympic Club offers exquisitely maintained grounds. As difficult a course as any in the United States, just ask the  players after each  of the  four U.S. Opens  held here, as only four players have finished under par at completion of the event.

Not only is the course  beautifully landscaped, but the scenery of the San Francisco area, the amazing  Cypress and Pine  trees that line each and every fairway and just the general  ambience make  this a  special place.

The history  of the  course is second  to none,  U.S. Opens, U.S. Amateurs and Tour Championships, need I say more.

I will.

The Olympic Club's small, undulating and slick greens and tight fairways  make this course one of the finest tests of golf anywhere in the country. The world's best players will be delighted that for the U.S. Open the green speeds won't be at membership speed of 13-14 on the Stimpmeter.

What makes this club such an amazing place is that over almost 90 years of its existence, very little has changed. The quality of the design has withstood the changes in equipment and agronomy. "It's amazing how little the Lake Course has actually changed over the years," said Mike Davis, former USGA executive director. "Other than the eighth hole, it's basically the same course."

Let's not  forget some  of the  intangibles.

The  Olympic Club  also features  a second  18-hole course (Ocean Course), a nine-hole par-3 venue (Cliffs  Course)  an outstanding practice facility and, by the way, a majestic clubhouse  overlooking the  18th green, that rivals Congressional and Merion's stately  structures.

Olympic  puts  a  premium on  accuracy  off  the tee  and pinpoint  control with your irons as you attempt to catch a piece of the putting surface. "This is really a great shot maker's course," Davis said. "It is a wonderful test in terms of just the ability to maneuver your ball, sometimes we get wind
here at Olympic Club and any time you introduce wind into it, now all of a sudden it not only affects the yardage but the player has to really start thinking more about the trajectory of their golf ball."

In addition, the fairways at Olympic are tight and undulating. "Some other things that make Olympic Club a unique and very good test of golf is the fact that you have got so many un-level lies out there," Davis added. "I think it's eight of the 14 holes with approach shots you're playing from an uphill, downhill, side hill lie and even for the world's best that tests you more."

There's a lot of elevation changes out at Olympic Club and that too tests the best players.  Because it's much easier to hit a level shot than trying to hit uphill, downhill and trying to figure out what your golf ball's going to do.

Forget Ghirardelli Square, the cable cars and even Alcatraz for that matter, whatever you do, make sure you play Olympic when in California, the real San Francisco treat.