At Sahalee Country Club, the bushes can loom.
Ezra Shaw / Getty Images
SAMMAMISH, Wash. — There’s one thing meditative concerning the grounds at Sahalee Country Club, host of this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. There’s one thing religious concerning the setting. It’s the bushes, it’s the shadows, it’s the calm.
“It’s just pretty different from anything we play,” World No. 1 Nelly Korda stated. “It’s just a beautiful walk.”
“It’s almost like an oasis of its own here,” added Lydia Ko. “I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been really peaceful.”
“It’s beautiful. The trees are just so impressive. It’s kinda of magical,” stated membership professional Stephanie Connelly-Eiswerth, equally wowed.
In her follow rounds, Brooke Henderson she didn’t even really feel like she was on a golf course.
“You just feel like you’re in amongst nature. It’s just a great feeling,” she stated. “I love just kind of looking around and breathing deep and feeling that fresh air. It’s an incredible feeling.”
Studies have demonstrated the advantages of being in nature. Reduced stress. Lowered blood strain. Improved bodily and psychological well-being. Based on their descriptions, that checks out.
That is, till the golf begins.
“I heard it’s called ‘Sa-Hallway’ down here,” Ko stated.
“It’s kind of like hitting on a bowling alley,” Connelly-Eiswerth added.
Like bowling, baseball or organized labor, golf is a sport of strikes. But when golf followers consider Seattle-area golf they often consider Chambers Bay, the mega-links some hour south of downtown that hosted the 2015 U.S. Open and the 2022 U.S. Amateur, amongst others. You can see the whole wide-open expanse of a course from the clubhouse. You can see most holes from most different holes. There’s very actually one tree on the property — and it’s not even in play.
This week’s check is a bit totally different.
Sahalee is not any stranger to big-time match golf; the course hosted the 1998 PGA Championship and the 2010 U.S. Senior Open and the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship plus prime newbie occasions in between. But to get there you allow Seattle and drive 15 miles east into the center of the forest. Sasquatch is literally sewn onto Korda’s golf bag this week. They’ve undergone some tree-trimming lately, decreasing the estimated tree depend on property to … 7500. They loom over each fairway and each inexperienced. That’s the place the descriptors come from. Sa-Hallway. Sa-Alley. There’s a number of speak of chutes and corridors and grocery-store aisles.
“I think I was a bit nervous coming into this week because I knew it was narrow,” stated Madelene Sagstrom.
Several of the sport’s prime stars performed their approach to the highest of the first-round leaderboard on Thursday. Celine Boutier, Charley Hull and Leona Maguire shot 2-under 70. Nelly Korda and Patty Tavatanakit shot 3-under 69. And Lexi Thompson shot 4-under 68. Other stars confirmed out, too: Cedar, fir, hemlock, maple. It’s not simply the variety of bushes however their measurement; they’re 150 ft tall or extra and loom over fairways. You can catch a good lie within the tough however get stymied. Hell, you may hit the fairway and get stymied.
Hence the bowling metaphors.
“This course has its teeth for sure,” Tavatanakit stated. “A couple of drives I hit really good today and I ended up getting blocked by the trees.”
In a fashionable golf world the place tree-chopping is in vogue and wide-open vistas all the trend, there’s one thing great about a major championship heading to a setting that’s so clearly the alternative. Sahalee is the Pacific Northwest. It’s set in the identical sort of forest that’s dwelling to Bigfoot, to the werewolves from Twilight, to the escape of D.B. Cooper. Mystery hangs within the air, damaged solely by the thwack of ball on tree.
What’s the hardest tee shot at Sahalee?
“I think they’re all super, super tough,” Korda stated. “Y’know, No. 1, the tee shot, that’s going to be your first tee shot of the day and that’s a really hard hole.”
She began ticking by way of the remainder of the difficult tee pictures and finally stopped; there have been too many.
“Majority of the round I will be hitting driver just because you don’t want a longer club into these greens,” she stated. “This is the type of golf course where you just got to sack up and hit your driver.”
That’s the powerful factor about this major championship setup; you may’t precisely simply lay again and play it secure. Yuka Saso, who received the U.S. Women’s Open a few weeks in the past, outlined the problem.
“I’ll probably hit drivers most of the holes, unless they move the tee up or the wind changes or anything like that,” she stated. “Hitting driver obviously the target gets narrower. But I think I have to hit driver; KPMG is one the championships that is very long. I don’t want to have like 5-iron or hybrid [for my] second shot.”
She summed it up like this:
“This golf course it’s very narrow, so you have to be aggressive but also conservative. You have to hit it straight but also long.”
Ah, that’s all.
There are some intriguing wrinkles the bushes present. In the morning the course stays shaded, the bottom stays dewy, the temperatures keep cooler, the greens keep extra receptive.
“I feel like in the morning you can definitely be a little bit more aggressive with a majority of the pins being in the shade and a little softer,” Korda stated. “But once the greens start to see a little bit more sunlight they start firm up a bit more and you have to play a little bit more defensive.”
In the world the place Sahalee’s a bowling alley, the bushes typically function bumpers. Thompson was amongst these to ricochet a tee shot off a fairway-adjacent tree trunk solely to see it bounce again into play.
“Ended up getting some pretty decent shots out of the rough and gave myself some birdie opportunities,” she stated.
Other instances the bushes can function gutters, swallowing up wayward pictures. Thompson referred to as it a “first-shot” golf course. Stats guru Justin Ray reported that the early wave shot 74.65 pictures whereas the later wave shot 75.71. Every par-3 and par-4 averaged over par.
“Overall I think the whole golf course is demanding,” Korda stated. “By the end of the week we’re going to be really tired. You’re going to have to put a lot of the thought into all your shots.”
From speaking to gamers and caddies it’s clear the bushes can loom so massive they’ll intrude into your ideas…
…until you’re Charley Hull. The British star briefly misplaced her golf golf equipment en path to Sahalee, delaying her pre-tournament prep — however she scouted the course Wednesday and cruised to 70 on Thursday, shrugging at the problem.
“No, I’m pretty tight on my targets anyway, usually every week. This golf course feels like home to me,” she stated. “The Duchess at Woburn [her home course in England] is precisely like this. Even tighter. So it doesn’t actually faze me an excessive amount of.
“I feel pretty comfortable. I love tree-lined golf course. The tighter it is, usually the better I play.”
That’s the spirit. Fortune favors the daring, in golf and bowling. Aim for the headpin. Then see what’s left in your second ball.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your feedback at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
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