EarthGolf

It’s been known for well over a year that Rees Jones has been hired to buy the USGA’s affection renovate Cog Hill in the hopes of getting a U.S. Open. It’s also well known that the USGA wants to have a midwest location that can become part of the U.S. Open rota and, ideally, it would be Chicago. Despite the 2003 U.S. Open that was held at Olympia Fields, the USGA doesn’t think it has a location in the midwest that can become part of the unofficial rota with courses like Oakmont, Pebble Beach, Olympic and Pinehurst.

So, Cog Hill’s famous Dubsdread (No. 4) course is about to go under the knife in an attempt to seduce the USGA into bringing a U.S. Open once again to Chicago. It will do the obligatory and tried and true change of par 5s to par 4s, among other changes.

There will be a pond at the dogleg on the par-4 seventh hole, perhaps a stream guarding the par-4 eighth green and the 18th green will be moved closer to the pond. The results will still look like Dubsdread but a 21st Century version.
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The finished product will be a par-70, with the fifth and 15th holes reworked as par-4s, at slightly more than the 7,326 yards it currently plays for the PGA Tour players.

If Dubsdread has had a weakness, it has been its greens. The sprawling surfaces have wonderful contour and shapes to hide a flagstick. They haven’t had the surfaces to firm up and speed up to U.S. Open standards. While the BMW tournament rotates out of town in 2008, all 18 greens will be resurfaced. It hasn’t been decided which strand or modern bent grass will cover the greens, the substructure will be built to USGA specification.

We also find out that the course will be getting the sub-air system on the greens as well - the new staple in “major championship” venues. Interestingly, Pete Dye said he had no interest in the job and recommended Jones - I wonder why?

It could be because renovations to public courses has, at best, been a mixed bag in terms of success. As Geoff Shackelford pointed out in this article from last month’s LA Times, the changes aren’t always what was best for the long term. The US Open is currently booked through 2013 - meaning the earliest that Cog Hill could see a US Open is 2014. Right now, the greens fee for Dubsdread is already $138. One can only imagine what that greens fee will be once the “renovations” are complete - renovations on a wing and prayer in an attempt to host a week long tournament once every 7-10 years.

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