1. Reverse Camber – the holes turn one way, but the land flows the other, making distance control off the tee just as important as accuracy.
2. “Trees trees trees trees trees” – as the great Art Spander put it. “No water or OB, just forty thousand trees…”
3. Or as golf architect Tom Doak called it, “one of the most claustrophobic driving tests in golf. Stand on the tee box long enough and you can feel the trees growing inwards,” which is why…
4. “We cleared a lot of the trees out so there is no longer a tunnel effect on the tee boxes,” said architect Bill Love who oversaw the work to get Olympic Club ready for the Open.
5. Well over 650 trees were cut down and many more pruned.
6. Doak also called, holes four and five, “the toughest back tom back holes in America – and that was back in the late ’80s!
7. Burger dogs! – What the Jerry Garcia is a burger dog? It’s a hot dog shaped hamburger patty served on a hot dog bun – the reverse camber of clubhouse food:)
8. More expansive views of the golf course. Now that the trees are gone, you get a great view of the Bay.
9. In ’66 Billy Casper tied Arnold Palmer after trailing by seven shots with nine holes to play. Then he went to a Mormon bible meeting until midnight, then ate mooseburgers till 1 a.m. before fileting Palmer in the playoff the next day. In fact, he played the back nine Sunday-Monday in 66 to Palmer’s 79. “I was thinking about Hogan and the [US Open scoring] record, then I thought about Hogan and Fleck…” – Arnold Palmer.
10. Jack Fleck beat Ben Hogan in ’55 using a new set of Hogan’s latest irons he got from Hogan himself.
