July 1 — Playing his first golf event since his monumental meltdown on U.S. Open Sunday, Dustin Johnson acquitted himself fairly well on opening day of the AT&T National, despite the golf carnage taking place around him.
While playing partners Tiger Woods and Davis Love III hacked their way around the 7,237-yard, par-70 Aronimink Golf Club to the tunes of 3-over and 8-over, respectively, Johnson was able to par his way in from the 14th hole to finish at 1-over for his day.
Donald Ross masterpiece. Johnson said he “wasn’t too good” on Thursday, but he also gave credit to the difficult layout, which features everything you expect from a course that Donald Ross considered his masterpiece. New England golfers familiar with Ross courses — such as historic Essex County Club in Massachusetts, site of the 2010 Curtis Cup, or Oakley Country Club (Watertown, Mass.) — knows about the inverted-saucer greens, false fronts, false backs, and plenty of bowl-shaped collection areas.
“This is a tough golf course,” Johnson said. “It’s really hard to get close to these flags.”
Johnson, who infamously blew a three-stroke lead on his way to carding an 11-over 82 in the Open’s final round, was not alone in his respect for the course.
“A tough golf course, I’ll tell you that,” the Golf Channel cameras caught Scott McCarron mumbling during his opening-round 2-under 68.
Exquisite challenge. So, what exactly makes the course such a challenge? It’s certainly not the signature Ross two-step walk from green to tee, or the 35 acres of fairways and 190 acres of rough.
It’s not even the strategically placed bunkers, which PGA Tour golfers can carry easily, or the thick, four-inch rough. And when you’re blasting it off the tees at an average of 330 yards, as Woods did Thursday, you’ll have little problem with the long, uphill par-4s and par-5s, even the 605-yard, par-5 18th.
Chasm of doom. And then there are the firm, quick, severely undulating, greens that slope down to extremely tight chipping surfaces. You have to stay below the holes on those babies, and you need a firm, yet delicate, touch to chip to the pins.
Where you leave your second shot is critical because if you miss it in the wrong place — the “chasm of doom,” as Golf Channel’s David Feherty termed it — you’ll pay a steep price.
Johnson, for one, ended his first day at Aronimink with great respect for the course.
“A missed shot here and there and that’s two bogeys and maybe a double bogey,” he said. “You really have to focus on every shot,” he said.
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