Players Go Lower on the Lower

-Billy Condon

The Lower Course at Baltusrol, site of numerous U.S. Opens and the 2005 PGA Championship, has been the better-scoring course for the players at The Carter Cup. As the leaders are going low on the Lower (Peter Kim is 5-under thru 10 and numerous others are 3- and 2-under), the scores bring up an interesting discussion at Baltusrol. Why would the players go lower on a course that hosts major championships? Especially when it is their second 18 holes of the day, in hot and humid conditions, with no caddies? Here are a few explanations we came up with:

-The Lower Course has flatter greens than the Upper Course.
-The Upper Course requires much more intimate knowledge of the undulations on the greens and strategies for attacking the flag, something very hard to come by when playing the course for the first time or one time a year.
-Players gain a mental edge knowing they are playing a course where names like Nicklaus and Mickelson have won.