Par-4 16th: Ryder Cup course built for drama

It came two days after Europe captain Luke Donald made a rookie mistake by hitting the wrong ball when landing in a thick mush, earning himself a two-stroke penalty and a triple bogey.

A year earlier, Tommy Fleetwood’s bogey on the same hole meant he ended up finishing one stroke behind winner Nikolaj Hojgaard.

If there is one hole on the course outside Rome that is destined to be the deciding hole in this year’s competition between the United States and Europe, it is No. 16—assuming the competition goes that far in match play.

Bob McIntyre and Adrian Meronk, the last two Italian Open champions, each scored 16 points in the final rounds.

“Dave (Sampson) at European Golf Design has created a course worthy of drama,” Marco Simone superintendent Lara Arias said in a recent interview. “And that’s what you want from the Ryder Cup. Everyone will say, ‘Wow!’ It’s the Ryder Cup.”

At 352 yards, the safe play on 16 is a 200-yard tee shot downhill that forms a wedge to the green with a pond on the right. But it will be tempting to hit the driver, who must fly 300 yards to close the creek, with two bunkers guarding the green and water to the right.

Holes No. Nos. 5 and 11 are also potentially playable par-4s.

“The good thing about Marco Simone is that he has a lot of long holes and a lot of short holes. There’s a lot of left, a lot of right, a lot of up and a lot of down. He has a lot of character. And I think that’s the sign of a really good golf course,” said U.S. captain Zach Johnson.

“So there are long par-3s and short par-3s. It has long par 4s, short par 4s that you can drive, and a few par 5s that you can hit. So for this tournament and the format we play in, it’s great.”

Another feature of the Marco Simone course is the tall brown grass behind the narrow fairways.

“It’s a tough situation,” Donald said after his team held a training camp at the track this month. “The main stage is very similar to what we played at the Italian Open. “It’s also very common to lose a few golf balls due to some wayward tee shots.”

The native grass is native to the region—meaning it likely existed during Roman times, as evidenced by colorful plant-themed mosaics discovered in a first-century Roman villa near the 10th hole.

“Native grass is not treated with water or fertilizer and is only cut twice a year, so it is low maintenance and very resilient,” Arias said. “It also provides a great color contrast between the fairways and the greens.

Although it pains Arias, she has ordered much of the local grass cut down during Ryder Cup week to make way for the 50,000 spectators expected each day.

“Otherwise they’ll just trample him,” Arias said.

However, it leaves 6 ½ feet of natural grass at a height of five inches inside the ropes.

Two other key factors, according to Marco Simone, are the physical challenge for some players as they climb nine hills, perhaps twice a day, and do so in sweltering heat and humidity.

Temperatures are forecast to rise above 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius).

The elevated position on the back nine offers views of St. Peter’s Basilica 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the 11th green and beyond.

“The potential heat could be a problem for the hills,” Johnson said. “This will probably be one of the warmest Ryder Cups in Europe – and certainly the warmest in my time. Even if we have a 70 degree day, it will be warm considering where we have played in the past. So, heat, hills, possibly scorching sun: the going will be an ordeal. And that will also be part of the equation of how we highlight guys.

“So you try to use all of that in the game. It’s going to be tough for our players, but it’s going to be really tough for the caddies. And they are very much an integral part of the team.”

Without most of their caddies on hand, the Americans used carts during training camps.

“We actually got invited (to caddy) at one point,” Johnson said. “But the players and a lot of caddies were saying, ‘You know what? We have four days to prepare for Ryder Cup week. They are confident that they can get the job done. … They need more free time.”

Four holes at Marco Simone are surrounded by water: No. 5, No. 8, No. 16 and No. 18. There are also a couple of creeks; and all the water flows into pond No. 8.

“So we can reuse the water later to irrigate the golf course,” Arias said.

Perhaps not only Americans and Europeans will be on this path. That’s because Marco Simone’s property is home to a colony of nutria, an amphibious rodent that is known to roam the fairway.