This week, the Presidents Cup returns to Canada for the second time within the event’s historical past, on the Blue Course at Royal Montreal Golf Membership. The worldwide workforce will likely be trying to be extra aggressive than they had been in 2007, the place they misplaced 19½ to 14½ to america.
The Blue Course has remained similar to final 12 months’s, giving us a preview of how gamers will strategy the course. The design is tight and punishing, ultimate for exact gamers, with tree-lined fairways, thick tough and small, elevated greens.
Presidents Cup, course
Royal Montreal Golf Membership is the oldest membership in North America, based in 1873, though its present location modified in 1959, when it moved from its historic location in Montreal to the island of Île Bizard, eight kilometres to the west.
Two new programs had been constructed right here, designed by Dick Wilson and transformed by Rees Jones between 2004 and 2005. The realm was initially occupied by agricultural land and apple orchards. The course embodies most of the parts that characterised the structure of golf programs of that interval: the slim fairways that wind via the timber and the greens surrounded by tough make the sport one-dimensional, making technique a little bit influential ingredient within the competitors.
The spectacle of the Presidents Cup will nevertheless be assured by the match play method and the nice want for revenge of the worldwide workforce, which has received the occasion solely as soon as, in 1998. The ultimate holesAs in each workforce match play competitors, all the pieces will likely be selected the final holes, which on this case are stuffed with water obstacles that make the photographs to the inexperienced very delicate.
Listed here are the three holes that determined the result of the 2007 version. Gap 14 – 360 meters, Par 4In 2007, 4 lopsided matches ended on the 14th gap, together with a formidable 5&4 victory by Vijay Singh and Stuart Appleby over Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk within the Friday fourballs.
The 14th gap on the Blue course at Royal Montreal is similar to one other well-known Dick Wilson-designed gap, the 18th at Bay Hill, besides this time it’s a mirror picture, with the water hazard on the left. The lake extends all the way in which down the golf green to the entrance fringe of a slim inexperienced that extends left across the water.
The touchdown space is barely 20 meters broad, so most gamers will go for a secure tee shot. New superior tees have not too long ago been created, which could possibly be used to remodel the outlet into an thrilling, drivable par 4. Gap 15 – 410 metres, Par 4If the 14th resembles the ending gap at Bay Hill, the fifteenth is similar to the 18th at Doral’s Blue Monster, one other Dick Wilson traditional.
From the tee, gamers have the choice of enjoying a secure iron, leaving an extended strategy to a poorly protected inexperienced, or making an attempt a fade drive to a slim touchdown space only a few metres from the inexperienced. Any drive too straight or too far left will find yourself within the water.
The inexperienced has been moved again 40 metres by Jones, and its floor is split into distinct sections, marked by steps and undulations. Gap 17 – 145 meters, Par 3Nearly half of the 34 matches in 2007 (16) ended on this par 3.
The seventeenth gap was moved nearer to the water on the correct within the 2004 redesign. It normally requires a brief iron for professionals, however membership alternative may be difficult when the wind and strain choose up. Gap 18 – 400 meters, Par 4The last gap at Royal Montreal is a medium-length however difficult par 4, with a dogleg left protected by a pond.
On the 1975 Canadian Open, Jack Nicklaus teed up the 18th with a one-shot lead over Tom Weiskopf. Nicklaus, nevertheless, despatched his tee shot into the water hazard on the left, scoring a bogey that despatched him to a playoff, which Weiskopf received.
Greater than three a long time later, Tiger Woods suffered the identical destiny throughout his 2007 Presidents Cup singles match towards Mike Weir. Woods additionally hit his drive into the water, finally conceding the outlet to the Canadian and dropping the match.
