Medinah's wooden fence: The Presidents Cup's first three holes are now a chain of penalties

Standing on Medinah's first tee, Collin Morikawa said, 'I've never seen anything like it.' That sentence, reported by GOLF.com, became the first block of this Presidents Cup story. A wooden fence hugs the left side of the first three holes, about two yards off the fairway. Every drive is a block; the fence chains them into a silent penalty. I learned the beat by hand before I ever trusted a screen, so I wrote down the numbers myself: the 1st is 495 yards, par 4; the 2nd is 460; the 3rd is 592, par 5. Members play these holes as 5, 6 and 7. For the Presidents Cup, they were rerouted to 1, 2 and 3, so the opening shots fall under the fence's shadow. The fence runs almost all the way up to the green, turning a left miss into a lost hole. The report calls it 'out-of-bounds-like.' The man who designed it is Geoff Ogilvy, the International captain and lead architect of Medinah's redesign. The setup is not just difficult; it is strategically loaded. Fade players gain an advantage, while natural drawers and aggressive drivers are punished. On the 495-yard par 4, the left fence takes away the driver and forces a conservative right-side line. The grown rough between fairway and fence makes the penalty zone wider than the visible fence. In foursomes, one left miss can doom the team's hole, making this a far bigger story than a normal course setup. Many outside observers call it unfair, but the locker room is more curious than angry. Most players adapted by aiming right; some flirted left. If the fence decides a match, the architect-captain double role will stir a conflict-of-interest debate. If not, it becomes a colourful architecture tale. The real test will be the scoring averages on the first three holes and the exact local rule governing the fence. Until then, players will keep aiming right, and I will keep adding blocks to my notebook.