SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Yani Tseng fell in love with Sebonack Golf Club the first time she saw it a few weeks back. The views are spectacular and one can't help but feel relaxed and at ease looking out at the Atlantic Ocean.
Come Sunday, Tseng might feel differently.
She won't be alone if she does.
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Oh, the views of the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island's Great Peconic Bay and Cold Spring Pond won't have changed, but Tseng's and others' views on the setting might. As beautiful as this links-style course is, it is equal parts beast.
The Jack Nicklaus-Tom Doak design has elicited quite a few descriptions from the players in this week's U.S. Women's Open, among them interesting, uncomfortable, goofy, crazy, daunting, tricky, thorny and, of course, beautiful.
"As soon as I got here, I saw the beautiful view and everything here, I feel very relaxed here. But the golf course is very tough, the greens are very tricky," said Tseng, who last year at 22 became the youngest player in all of golf to win five professional majors. "I think this course just makes you think more and it can be a very, very good challenge. You might hit a good shot and end in a bad place or you might hit a bad shot and end up in a good place. You never know.
" … Par would be very good on a U.S. Open golf course like this."
World No. 3 Suzann Pettersen said she was "overwhelmed" at first by how "tricky" the course was the first time she saw it. With its neighbors Shinnecock Hills and the National Golf Links of America providing other stunning backdrops, the par-72, 6,796-yard Sebonack layout will nonetheless have the players on edge throughout, tense from the first tee and basically one shot away from suffering. The combination of rolling fairways, deep bunkers, penalizing rough and taxing green structures provide a complicated test.
Among the holes that stand out are the opening two holes — the par-4, 396-yard first hole and the par-4, 421-yard second — that some players call the toughest opening two holes they have seen.
"This is a course that really grows on you," Pettersen said. "The more you play it, the more you get to know it, the more you kind of get a feel for it.
"Off the tee this course is fairly generous compared to other U.S. Opens we've played. But people are talking about these greens being very big. I actually find them very small. Because if you're looking at the sections you're hitting it into and where you really want to be, they're fairly small and you've got to be really precise. … You get to learn the contours of the greens and you can see how to use them to access certain pins."
Few players, if any, have more experience at Sebonack than 2007 U.S. Women's Open champion Cristie Kerr, who has a place in Manhattan. Kerr has played the course often and knows how tough it is. The course has been called a second-shot course as it demands precision on approach shots. Kerr agrees.
"You really have to know … where you can and can't hit it," Kerr said. "You're going to have to play (approaches) off some backstops, and it's going to be a great test. I think experience counts for a lot, but you still have to play good, solid golf. Obviously, nobody's ever teed it up here in a tournament before, so there is going to be a little bit of a learning curve. You've just got to hit your shot where you're looking this week and not get greedy and try to manage your game around the course."
That's the blueprint, Tseng said.
"I think some of the greens are really, really crazy," she said. "You hit it to the left edge of the green and you might finish on the right edge of the green, so you never know. But you need to kind of picture your shot and imagine your shot on this golf course, and I think it's very important.
" … There are some holes that you can really go out there and try to make birdie, but there are some holes that you really need to play safe and play smart. … It's a tough golf course because you might hit a good shot in a bad place, and maybe you have like 40 feet, 50 feet to make two putts. But you hit a good shot. You just need to be patient, do the best you can on every shot. Even if it didn't come out where you wanted it to, you just move on."
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