FLOURTOWN, Pa. — The Philadelphia Cricket Club’s 11th hole, normally the 18th for members, is a bear at 487 yards on the scorecard. On Saturday at the Truist Championship, Sepp Straka hit driver-lob wedge.
Before you start going on about how distance is ruining the game’s great courses — and there’s definitely an argument to be made about that this week — this isn’t about that.
Why? Because just yesterday, on the same hole, from the same tee box, Straka hit driver-7-wood and didn’t even reach the green. Just over 24 hours later, he was walking after a driver that flew the left bunkers and caught the massive slope in the fairway, before finally stopping 400 yards away.
Such is the beauty of the Wissahickon course’s charm, where a simple wind switch and temperature change can make the hardest holes easy and the easiest holes hard. This week, just outside of Philadelphia, while the greens have been soft all week, players have been treated to three radically different golf courses.
In benign conditions on Thursday, when the 72-man field tore up the Cricket Club’s PGA Tour debut to the tune of a scoring average more than three strokes under par, No. 11 gave up 21 birdies with a getable front right hole location.
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Friday, when a cold front and a switch in the wind caused 11 to play directly into the breeze, only four players made birdie, and it played as the fourth toughest hole.
During the third round on Saturday, when the blue skies returned but brought with them higher winds, Straka was one of 16 players to get their drives down the bottom of the hill, but there were only 13 birdies.
“It’s fun to see three different ways in our first three days playing here,” Straka said. “Yesterday, the ball wasn’t rolling a whole lot because of the rain, and then today the ball is rolling out a lot off the tee.
“Having to try to pick clubs was a lot tougher today than yesterday. It’s been fun on the tee box trying to strategize on a new golf hole every day and trying to figure out the best way to play it.”
The 11th wasn’t the only hole to see dramatic shifts. The nearly 500-yard, uphill par-4 17th was the toughest hole Friday at nearly six-tenths of a shot over par, but tied for eighth Saturday, yielding 18 birdies. In Round 2, No. 12 was the fourth easiest, playing downwind, but in Round 3, it was the fifth hardest back into the breeze.
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On Friday, the course began fighting back, playing just barely (four one-hundredths of a stroke) over par in the moderate to heavy rain. On Saturday, with sunny skies but a consistent 15-20 mph breeze, the course played the toughest it has all week, with the field a tenth of a stroke over par.
With the lead jumping out to nine under after one round, it climbed just three on Friday and another two Saturday. While many expected the winning score to be well north of 20 under par, there’s now a serious question of whether the number will be out of the teens.
That’s not necessarily good or bad. A good course isn’t defined by how hard it is and what the best players in the world will shoot on it. But the Philadelphia Cricket Club has surprised many this week.
“It’s not fair to say that this course is too easy or too hard, given certain conditions. You could say that about a lot of places,” Justin Thomas, who is tied for third at 11 under heading into Sunday. If this place had proper long rough and if the greens were firm and fast, it would be a tough challenge for us.”
That’s the issue with playing a northeastern course this early in the year. The rough hasn’t quite grown in yet.
“This time of year, I feel like these golf courses don’t play as hard as if they were like in August, just because the grass just hasn’t grown in quite yet,” said Tony Finau, who shot 67 Satuday. “On a golf course like this, if the rough was thick and long, it would be extremely hard.”
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But it was the wind that through everyone’s game plan out the door on Saturday. Shane Lowry, who is tied for the lead at 14 under with Straka, said he felt like he had to play driver on the first two holes today, the only par-4s that are under 400 yards on the course and both were downwind. Michael Thorbjornsen actually drove it over the 371-yard par-4 1st on Saturday.
Lowry said the most difficult thing Saturday wasn’t the shots that were airborne, but putting on greens that have so much slope with the winds.
“When you get inside 10 feet, to be really precise on these greens was tough,” he said after his third-round 67. “I feel like it was a day where you need to get the ball as close to the green as you could, whenever you could, and work from there.”
What course will Sunday see for the final round? Only time will tell.
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