A golf major hosted at a bowling alley? Why Sahalee has pros going wild

In a modern golf world where tree-chopping is in vogue and wide-open vistas all the rage, there’s something wonderful about a major championship heading to a setting that’s so obviously the opposite. Sahalee is the Pacific Northwest. It’s set in the same type of forest that’s home to Bigfoot, to the werewolves from Twilight, to the escape of D.B. Cooper. Mystery hangs in the air, broken only by the thwack of ball on tree.

What’s the toughest tee shot at Sahalee?

“I think they’re all super, super tough,” Korda said. “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 started ticking through the rest of the challenging tee shots and eventually stopped; there were too many.

“Majority of the round I will be hitting driver just because you don’t want a longer club into these greens,” she said. “This is the type of golf course where you just got to sack up and hit your driver.”

That’s the tough thing about this major championship setup; you can’t exactly just lay back and play it safe. Yuka Saso, who won the U.S. Women’s Open a few weeks ago, outlined the challenge.

“I’ll probably hit drivers most of the holes, unless they move the tee up or the wind changes or anything like that,” she said. “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 trees provide. In the morning the course stays shaded, the ground stays dewy, the temperatures stay cooler, the greens stay more 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 said. “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 where Sahalee’s a bowling alley, the trees sometimes serve as bumpers. Thompson was among those to ricochet a tee shot off a fairway-adjacent tree trunk only to see it bounce back into play.

“Ended up getting some pretty decent shots out of the rough and gave myself some birdie opportunities,” she said.

Other times the trees can serve as gutters, swallowing up wayward shots. Thompson called it a “first-shot” golf course. Stats guru Justin Ray reported that the early wave shot 74.65 shots while 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 said. “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 talking to players and caddies it’s clear the trees can loom so large they can intrude into your thoughts…

…unless you’re Charley Hull. The British star temporarily lost her golf clubs en route to Sahalee, delaying her pre-tournament prep — but she scouted the course Wednesday and cruised to 70 on Thursday, shrugging at the challenge.

“No, I’m pretty tight on my targets anyway, usually every week. This golf course feels like home to me,” she said. “The Duchess at Woburn [her home course in England] is exactly like this. Even tighter. So it doesn’t really faze me too much.

“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 bold, in golf and bowling. Aim for the headpin. Then see what’s left for your second ball.

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

Dylan Dethier

Golf.com Editor

Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he’s the author of 18 in America, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.