Common themes from player interviews about the course at Austin Country Club:
- Winds off the lake on back nine
- Great match play holes
- Fairway finders = more control into tough pin positions
- Shorter hitters, “strategic” players thrive
- Difficult uneven lies
- Approaches must hit spots on tiered greens
- Tricky, sloping putts
Relevant Player Quotes
Justin Thomas: It’s a cool golf course. I think it’s fun because it can play so many different ways, You can get firm and fast and some serious wind coming off that lake, and it’s fun. I feel like usually if you played a stroke-play event here you would be very worried about the draw that you get because the weather can fluctuate so much throughout the day, but in match play, all you’re worried about is your opponent and trying to beat him.
Jordan Spieth: Austin Country Club is such a fun golf course to play. You got a lot of different options on a lot of different holes, which also makes it a pretty fitting golf course for match play. So I love coming down here, feel like I have tremendous support in the state of Texas.
Ian Poulter: I kind of like the shit-or-bust attitude, to be honest with you. It gets the adrenaline going, the ticker starts going, and quite frankly you’ve just got to be—shit or bust. You got to pony up and hit shots, right? So you got to suck it up and shit or bust. I mean, it’s an Englishism. Yeah, I mean—it’s just one of those, you have to hit shots. This is that golf course where you’re going to make mistakes, hazards everywhere, tricky pin position, it was just try and keep the foot down.
Scottie Scheffler: I think the layout is a lot of fun, a lot of good holes, a lot of birdies, so for match play it’s fun. You have those holes down by the lake, good risk/reward holes. Especially the way it plays during the tournament it’s fun to watch on TV and it’s fun for the guys to play as well when it gets that firm. I know the course really well. So the preparation for me is a lot easier just knowing what’s around. So this week I feel like I’m at an advantage just knowing this area so well, and the course.
Jon Rahm: I love the golf course. I think it’s one of those that really sets up great for match play. It’s a lot of holes that play differently depending upon the wind. You can drive some holes, you can drive other holes, you can get in trouble on the ones and all that. It gives you birdie opportunities, there’s bogey opportunities; it’s a really fun week.
Kevin Kisner: It’s a Pete Dye, which I do pretty well on over the course of time. But I’m not sure. I’m not sure that I would. There’s too much room off the tee. There’s not as much rough and guys can play from odd areas that I’ve noticed this week. But the Hilton Heads and the Colonials you don’t play from there. I think that’s the biggest difference is there’s more room here.
Tiger Woods: This golf course is tricky. There’s so many moving parts on this golf course. Not only the wind comes all over the place but these mounds. The Tour staff, as I said earlier in the week, these pins are probably half a step harder than they would be in stroke play. So they’re putting them in spots where, yeah, we can potentially putt off greens, chip of greens, balls are careening into tough spots. It’s not flat, I’ll tell you that. It’s got quite a bit of movement to it. And it’s a great match-play course, I can see why the guys like it. You’ll see some high numbers here, and you’ll see a lot of birdies, that’s exactly what a good match-play course does.
Justin Rose: It doesn’t suit any type of player or any type of golf. It’s really tricky right now. It’s like a Valderrama almost in some ways. With the wind blowing, you’ve got to hit shots. By that I mean there’s no standard stock shot out here, you’re trying to hold it against the wind, knock it down. You’re always trying to do something, fit the ball into the green. So it demands a lot of your game. The short game around here is really tricky, which is great preparation going into the Masters. You get a lot of similar style chips.
Abraham Ancer: I like it off the tee. I like the look. I think it’s a very fun golf course, especially for match play. You can play very aggressively. You can play a little more conservatively. The bunkering is tough. The greens are undulated. You can be in really tough spots with these pin placements. There is a couple of really tough ones today, and definitely, you can be out of position very quickly out here, and off the tee, as well.
Paul Casey: Thank goodness it’s match play, wouldn’t want to play stroke play. Packed an extra dozen balls for the week, because you could lose a couple out there very quickly. The greens have a lot of pitch to them. They’re incredibly smooth, you have to hit the right areas. If you get in the wrong side of things you could have almost no shot, no recovery shot. And it makes it exciting.
Rory McIlroy: It’s good for match play! I think you’d see a lot of guys get frustrated if this was a stroke play tournament. You look at this golf course and it sets up great if for guys like Zach Johnson or Matt Kuchar. But it’s sort of grown on me. When I first looked at it, it was a little bit like a shorter, tighter version of Dove Mountain, which a lot of the guys didn’t like too much because of how much undulation the greens had. But as you play it and you start to play it more in competition, it grows on you and you start to appreciate some of the different nuances of some of the greens.
Matt Fitzpatrick: Not really had too much success here, unfortunately. It’s a strange golf course; the front nine’s very different to the back nine. And it can get windy here, so it can be quite tough. So yeah, it’s going to be an interesting week.
Mackenzie Hughes: I like it. It’s kind of a thinking golf course and a lot of strategy, just hitting it in the right places on the greens. Like I said, there’s many different ways to play the golf course, so yeah, I like it. It sets up well for me. It’s not bombs away and go find it. I kind of like that and that kind of gives guys like myself a chance to beat a guy like Paul (Casey).
Patrick Cantlay: I think, this golf course, you have to drive it in the fairway and then you can be aggressive. There’s a lot of birdie holes out here, especially with the greens being as soft as they are and I think it suits my game.
Bryson DeChambeau: I will say there is some quirky places around here. You can get some weird lies. Hit a great drive on 12, wind took it over to the right and landed and it got up in the face of the bunker, and into the wind I couldn’t even reach the green. So there’s just certain unique characteristics about this golf course, a lot of undulations, and you get in some weird places by trying to hit it up there. Sometimes it is better to hit it down the middle of the fairway but I’m willing to take that risk. You know me.
Dustin Johnson: I feel like the greens are really good here. They’re slopey and there’s definitely quadrants in them. But I don’t know, I feel like they’re tough to read because they’ve got a lot of slope. You can kind of see what the ball is doing. But it is tough to get close to the hole unless—if you can control your distance well with your irons then you can hit some really good shots. Depending on the wind and how firm the greens are is really how this golf course kind of—it determines how well you can play it.
Kyle Stanley: It doesn’t necessarily always reward good shots. These greens complexes are, as you can see, a lot of tiers, a lot of slope, and some difficult pin positions. You’ve just got to be conscious of where you leave your second shots. And in addition to that, if you can keep it in play off the tee, hit your second shots out of the fairway, it makes the course a little bit easier.
Featured Image Credit: PGA Tour