Eastward Ho ready to hand out rough justice

Lewis, Shinnecock Hills

At the fifth attempt the 26-year-old Oklahoma native has qualified for his national championship and will address his opening tee shot at the US Open.

Unfortunately for Charleton and in fact one half of this week's 156-strong field at Shinnecock Hills, they will be launching their bids for glory at the 10th hole rather than the first.

The US Open is played with split-tee starts over the first two rounds to prevent the possibility of having to finish rounds the following morning if there are weather delays.

The problem for Dechert and co is they are in the half that begins at the 10th on the first day, and will have to hit the ground running as it is not a gentle introduction to this brute of a links course.

The 10th, known as 'Eastward Ho', was ranked in the top four for difficulty at the previous two Opens in 1986 and 1995 to be played at Shinnecock Hills. It played with an over-par scoring average both times, 4.317 in 95 and 4.451 in 86. In comparison, the first hole was ranked 16th.

Which is why Tom Holdsworth, a former teaching pro at Shinnecock Hills, says: "This is not a hole you want to start your round on."

Eastward Ho is 412 yards with a narrow fairway edged by unforgiving rough remarkably similar to Ian Poulter's hair. Nothing too strange in that in these parts but, significantly, it has a steep downward slope just over 250 yards from the tee, which calls for tough decision-making from the off.

Decide to leave a tee shot at the top of the slope and you will have around 160 yards to the hole. Try and use driver or three-wood off the tee and, if you're accurate, you'll land on the downward slope and roll into the dip around 120 yards out.

Land anywhere in-between and you are left with a downward lie to the elevated green.

Which, of course, is where most of the golfers playing their final practice rounds yesterday morning found their ball lying when they walked off the tee-box.

"I gotta tell ya," announced one spectator in a thick New York City accent, "that's a pretty freakin' narrow fairway. The only way I could hit that is with a seven iron three seven irons."

Charleton Dechert will vouch for that. He did not have an enjoyable time on Eastward Ho. Having found the rough on the right of the fairway with his tee shot, he punched his second out of the deep stuff and across the fairway into even deeper rough to the front and left of the green.

"Check that guy's credentials," called out one unforgiving observer, "he could be an imposter."

This was just the warm-up round.

Only a select trio of Justin Leonard, Gabriel Hjerstedt and Kenny Perry sent the ball straight down the middle during the three hours spent observing the trials and tribulations on the 10th.

But finding the right spot off the tee is only half the battle at Eastward Ho; getting the approach shot right is another challenge altogether.

The elevated green slopes quite severely from back to front, meaning any second shot which hits the front of the green rolls off and, gathering momentum, hurtles back down a steep 35-foot slope.

"The best bet is to hit the centre and get off the green with a par," Holdsworth says.

Dechert may have noticed Darren Clarke marching past him. The crowd gathered behind the ropes to watch the carnage certainly had. "Whoa, Darren, svelte!" called out one spectator at his first look at the newly slimline Irishman.

Clarke has developed a failsafe strategy to taking on the 10th by not taking any shot off the tee. Instead, with manager Andrew Chubby Chandler carrying just a wedge, putter and two longer irons, Clarke was out yesterday working on his short game.

And as he spent time at the back of the 10th green working on his chipping, Dechert skulked off to the 11th tee. On his way there, he stopped to sign autographs for some children, whose father asked how he had found the 10th. "Man, that was not a good hole," came the reply and you get the feeling he was speaking on behalf of a large group of golfers whose US Open campaigns will be on the backfoot from their very first tee shot.