Ernie Els vividly remembers his 1997 U.S. Open win at Congressional Country Club, when he claimed the second of his four major titles by finishing 4-under to win by a stroke over Colin Montgomerie.
“Nice to walk in the clubhouse and see what we did back in ’97,” the World Golf Hall of Famer said. “There’s quite a few pictures around the clubhouse. That’s not been changed at all it doesn’t seem like. The locker room, the same thing.”
The venerable, century-old clubhouse in Bethesda, Maryland, remains the same. What is not so familiar anymore are the vistas around the Blue Course, which hosts the Senior PGA Championship beginning Thursday.
“All the corridors are there the same, but [a] very, very different design,” the 55-year-old Els said. “Bunkers are totally different, green complexes are very different, trees have vanished.”
The stars of the LPGA were the first to experience Andrew Green’s 2019 redesign three years ago when the Women’s PGA Championship came to town. But they didn’t have the reference point of many of this week’s contenders, who can remember what the track played like when it was the tree-cloistered host to Els’ win, Rory McIlroy’s 2011 U.S. Open triumph and a regular stop for Tiger Woods’ annual PGA Tour event.
“I feel it’s a wonderful design. It really is,” said Els, who is scheduled to tee off at 8:17 a.m. Thursday. “You walk off most of the greens right onto the tee, which is nice, and a lot of the tee boxes are exactly the same place as they were back in the day. Very good design.”
Among the field of 20 major champions, six World Golf Hall of Famers and eight Ryder Cup captains, the initial reactions to the “new” course this week have been the same, with everyone highlighting what is likely to be the most significant factor in determining a champion.
“I was really impressed with the greens and the surroundings of the greens. It doesn’t give you any room for error,” said two-time Masters winner Jose Maria Olazabal.
“It’s in great shape. Very difficult. The greens are very difficult,” echoed former U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker.
“The greens seem treacherous, I would say,” added three-time major champion Padraig Harrington. “They’re not fast or anything, but a lot will depend on course setup and pin positions.”
Rain Wednesday and Thursday may make those greens more receptive to scoring, along with unseasonably cool temperatures that aren’t expected to crack 70 degrees the entire Memorial Day weekend.
“This is a ball striker’s golf course. You’re not going to be able to fake it around here for four days and expect to be in there come Sunday,” said defending champion Richard Bland, who is set to tee off at 1:48 p.m. “You’ve got to drive it well. There’s a lot of bunkers that are in play, and then the greens are going to be tricky if you get in the wrong spots.”
The 52-year-old Bland won last year’s championship at Harbor Shores in Michigan, the first of two majors the LIV Tour golfer won in his first year playing in senior events.
“It was my first ever senior event, so yeah, I was kind of going into it a little bit last year — what’s the right word? Sort of blindsided a little bit,” Bland said. “I was confident that if I played the golf that I was playing at the time and I took that forward into the Senior PGA, I felt I would have a say in how the championship would pan out.”
He is one of four golfers, including Harrington, who are completing the PGA double — playing in last week’s PGA Championship at North Carolina’s Quail Hollow and this week’s Senior PGA.
“I had to hit the golf ball very well if I was going to have any chance even just to make the cut,” said Bland, who finished tied for 37th last week. “It was nice to be able to do that and actually put sort of three and a half really good ball-striking rounds together, which I’ve not really done as consistently this year.”
The Senior PGA tournament, the oldest of the five senior majors and second in a row after The Tradition last week, will be the sixth major championship hosted by Congressional and second of the senior variety following the 1995 U.S. Senior Open.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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