A sign close to the first tee at Bethpage Black sums up the brutal challenge facing players at this week's U.S. Open, according to Australia's Geoff Ogilvy.
The placard reads: "The Black Course is an extremely difficult golf course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers," an ominous caveat for the longest layout to stage the second major of the year.
"This is probably the only golf course with a warning at the first tee," former champion Ogilvy told reporters at Bethpage State Park on Tuesday. "I've seen lots of rules written down on the first tees but I've never seen warnings."
At 7,426 yards off its back tees, Bethpage Black features seven par-four holes in excess of 450 yards and will play extra-long this week after being softened by rain.
"The ball's kind of hitting and stopping on the fairways," said Ogilvy, who clinched his maiden major title in the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot.
"I hit a wood into multiple par-four holes this morning. As for three and four-irons; we were wearing them out. The difficulty of Bethpage is how long it is."
U.S. Opens are renowned for tight fairways, thick rough and slick greens but this week at a damp Bethpage the putting surfaces will be on the slow side.
"The greens are relatively puttable," the 32-year-old Ogilvy said. "The hard part is getting it to the green in regulation.
"Long and high is an advantage here for sure, because there are long shots you have to fly on the green and stop," he added.
"At the moment they're relatively easy to stop because they're soft but that might or might not change depending on the weather."
A double winner on the PGA Tour this year, Ogilvy likes his chances.
"My game's pretty good," he said. "I don't see there's any reason why I can't play well.
"I like to think it's all pretty close," added the Australian, who won the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship and the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in early March.
