How to play Medinah from a course architect’s POV
When the Presidents Cup comes to Medinah Country Club this week, International Team captain Geoff Ogilvy will know the host course from a perspective few captains could match.
Trackman Editorial TeamOgilvy was part of the OCM team that renovated Medinah’s No. 3 Course, giving him firsthand knowledge of the strategy behind its design — and how players can get the most out of it.
The goal of the renovation was to make Medinah more playable for everyday golfers while preserving the strategic challenge for elite players. That meant creating more width, removing trees, improving drainage so the course could play firmer, and making positioning more important. It also meant rethinking how the water comes into play.
Several straight forced carries were replaced by diagonal hazards, allowing players to choose how much risk to take.
“When you can create a diagonal, there’s a short carry there and it gets a little bit longer progressively,” Ogilvy says. In other words, the more aggressive the line, the longer the carry. “You just pick your sort of line.”
It’s something to keep in mind when you play Medinah in Trackman Virtual Golf.
Take the fifth hole. The aggressive play challenges the left side, where bunkers and out of bounds add pressure. There are safer options, but they come at a cost.
“You can always go short,” Ogilvy says. “You can go way out to the right, but that sort of leaves you a blind, long second shot heading back towards the out of bounds.”
Avoiding the difficult shot doesn’t necessarily eliminate it. It may only postpone it.
“At some point you’ve got to take the hole on, and if you don’t take it on off the tee, you’ve got to take it on on the second shot.”
The 16th offers another version of that decision. Its fairway runs diagonally across the lake, letting players decide how much water to challenge.
“Pretty much everyone can fly the water,” Ogilvy says. “It’s really not that far if you go a long way left. But progressively, the further right you go, the further it gets.”
Take on more and execute, and the next shot gets easier. Choose the safer line and you’ll face a tougher approach.
“The ease of your second shot will be in direct proportion to the quality of your tee shot,” Ogilvy says.
That strategic freedom is part of what makes Medinah so interesting to play virtually — especially this week, when you can test your own approach in the sim while watching the world’s best make the same decisions.
And Ogilvy says the virtual version captures the course remarkably well.
“I’ve looked at all the Trackman virtual flyovers … and it’s like being there,” he says. “It really is amazingly accurate.”
Further reading: Must-Play Courses by Players Turned Designers