Viewers' Guide : Need to fix a famously weak finishing hole? Try a trick from Dad's old playbook - Brief Article

Even for Rees Jones, the game's master rebuilder, the 18th hole at Bethpage Black was a problem. At just 378 yards, the straightaway par-4 18th, downhill off the tee, uphill to the green, was a milquetoast finish to an otherwise muscle-bound brute of a golf course.

There was brief talk of swapping the hole with the nearby 18th of the adjacent Red Course for the U.S. Open, but the notion was quickly abandoned. The days of playing the National Open on a composite course are largely over, Jones says (The Country Club at Brookline, Mass., notwithstanding).

As consulting course architect, Jones had the task of transforming the 18th into something that would challenge the world's best players during their final shots. He found room for a new back tee to add more than 30 yards and reduced the green by a third by cutting away its right-front corner. But still, the hole seemed like a simple drive-and-pitch par 4.

So in the end, Jones reverted to the formula practiced by his famous father, Robert Trent Jones, some 50 years earlier on many a U.S. Open course. Rees pinched the fairway to single-file width using two fields of flanking bunkers and crowded the entrance to the green with a pair of traps of awesome proportions.

Jones disputes this characterization. "My father was basically trying to capture different skill levels of golfers in each of his flanking bunkers," Jones says. "He really didn't have any intention of letting them fly it over his fairway bunkers. But we give players that choice. If they want to carry the bunkers, if they see an advantage to that, they can do that. Or they can choose to throttle back."

It's a 305-yard carry downhill to get past the bunkers on the left and right. The fairway at that point is 20 yards wide. The oversize bunkers are in keeping with the mammoth scale of bunkers elsewhere at Bethpage Black. Jones terms them "indeterminate hazards," meaning players missing the final fairway can't be sure what they'll be faced with. "You could be in the sand, on a slope, or in deep grass," he says.

But Jones knows the conservative nature of most top-ranked players. "I think most of the players will play an iron off the 18th tee, then hit an 8-iron in instead of a wedge," he says. "It makes the hole play longer, which is fine. I'm giving them the choice. I'm not taking driver out of their hands. They'll be taking driver out of their own hands."

2002 U.S. Open Championship

Bethpage State Park (Black Course) Farmingdale, N.Y.

Hole        1       2       3      4     5      6      7

Yardage    430     389     205    517   451    408    489
Par         4       4       3      5     4      4      4

Hole        8       9      Out    10    11     12     13

Yardage    210     418    3,517   492   435    499    554
Par         3       4      35      4     4      4      5

Hole       14      15      16     17    18     In

Yardage    161     459     479    207   411   3,697
Par         3       4       4      3     4     35

Hole       Out    Total

Yardage   3,517   7,214
Par        35      70

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Player streaks

Senior tour regulars Hale Irwin and Tom Kite have the longest current streaks of playing in consecutive Opens. This will be Irwin's 32nd straight (courtesy of a special exemption), the second-longest streak in history next to Jack Nicklaus' 44 straight (1957-2000). Kite, who will be in the field thanks to his top-10 finish in last year's Open, needs to play this year and in two more to tie Gene Sarazen and Arnold Palmer, who were in 31 straight Opens.

Here are the players with the longest current Open streaks and when they began:

31: Hale Irwin (1971)
28: Tom Kite (1974)
15: Scott Hoch (1987)
12: Corey Pavin (1990)
11: Lee Janzen and Davis Love III (1991)
10: Tom Lehman and Colin Montgomerie (1992).

Exempt players

In addition to the following exempt players as of April 8, others to earn spots will include the top 50 in the World Ranking and the top 10 on the 2002 PGA Tour money list through May 26, the top two money leaders on the European tour through May 27 and players advancing through sectional qualifying June 3-4. The exempt list (a-denotes amateur):

Michael Allen, Robert Allenby, Paul Azinger, Thomas Bjorn, Mark Brooks, Angel Cabrera, Mark Calcavecchia, Michael Campbell, Stewart Cink, Darren Clarke, Ben (Bubba) Dickerson (a), Chris DiMarco, Joe Durant, David Duval, Ernie Els, Bob Estes, Niclas Fasth, Brad Faxon, Bruce Fleisher, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Matt Gogel, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Scott Hoch, David Howell, Hale Irwin, Toshi Izawa, Lee Janzen, Steve Jones, Robert Karlsson, Shingo Katayama, Tom Kite, Bernhard Langer, Paul Lawrie, Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard, Frank Lickliter, Davis Love III, Steve Lowery, Scott McCarron, Paul McGinley, Billy Mayfair, Rocco Mediate, Phil Mickelson, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Peter O'Malley, Mark O'Meara, Craig Parry, Corey Pavin, Craig Perks, Kenny Perry, Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, Jeff Sluman, Steve Stricker, Hal Sutton, David Toms, Kirk Triplett, Scott Verplank, Mike Weir, Tiger Woods.

TV schedule

(All times Eastern)

June 13-14 (Thursday-Friday): 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. (ESPN); 3-5 p.m. (NBC)

June 15-16 (Saturday-Sunday): 12:30-7 p.m. (NBC)

ESPN will air one-hour highlights nightly at midnight. In case of a Monday playoff, ESPN will pick up play on the first hole at noon, with NBC taking over at 2 p.m. until conclusion. The Golf Channel will air nightly from Bethpage after network coverage, with news conferences, "Golf Central" and "Viewer's Forum."

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