Gil Hanse rejuvenates the Lake Course at The Olympic Club

SAN FRANCISCO - Expansive city views now greet golfers stepping onto the first tee at the famed and fearsome Lake Course at The Olympic Club.

Many of the towering Monterey pines and cypress trees that blocked the scenery are gone, opening up views of the new Lombard Putting Course and other holes that unfurl upon the hilly landscape below. It's quite the introduction to a course fresh off a striking year-long renovation carried out by Gil Hanse, one of the game's hottest golf course architects.

A grand reopening Monday introduced a more modern and member-friendly Lake Course, where expanded fairways 25 percent larger, widened runways into greens and putting surfaces 35 percent larger overall give golfers more room to miss. For elite players, the never-ending challenge - including those dreaded reverse-camber doglegs - remains intact with a busy calendar of championship events ahead. The new and improved 7,050-yard, par-71 Lake Course will host the 2025 U.S. Amateur, the 2028 PGA Championship, the 2030 U.S. Women's Amateur and the 2033 Ryder Cup.

"The level of precision required to score at The Olympic Club is still going to be very high for the players who are setting out to score," Hanse said. "But the level of precision to just go out and play golf and enjoy yourself is a little bit lower, because of those demands on the approach shots."

The thought of an easier - notice I didn't say "easy" - Lake Course might have been sacrilege at one point in time in the club's storied history. This is, after all, a place that has hosted five U.S. Opens, one U.S. Women's Open and two PGA Tour Championships. It was a badge of honor among everyday golfers to be brutalized by the course. Count Jim Furyk (2012 U.S. Open) and Lexi Thompson (2021 U.S. Women's Open) among its many victims.

Club President Jim Murphy admitted that some members approached the work with trepidation. Many have already been converted.

"There was a great degree of uncertainty," Murphy said. "Once the project was started, and we saw Gil's plans, there was a great degree of anticipation. Once we opened, a week ago Friday, and getting the feedback from the members, I guess I would characterize it as a great degree of jubilation. This is just a fantastic golf course. It will only get better as it matures."

The Olympic Club - Lake Course

Private/Resort

The Lake Course's architectural history is a complex one. Originally laid out by Willie Watson in 1924, it was redesigned by Superintendent Sam Whiting in 1927 after storm damage (along with the adjacent Ocean Course). The Lake Course was altered again by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1955.

As the trees grew and multiplied over the years, fairway bunkers became obsolete, so they were removed. At one point, only one remained. With the trees trimmed back - both during the project and by ferocious storms that knocked down more than 100 last winter - Hanse reintroduced a number of new fairway bunkers. The most noticeable ones run along the right side of the par-5 17th hole and both sides of the famous short par-4 18th.

A new 7th hole created by Hanse was used to reconnect the routing to the par-3 8th hole that was moved in 2009. At 316 yards, it's a welcome breather where birdie is attainable and par readily available. Like the old 7th, the fairway climbs uphill. A new bunker up the left side 50 yards short of the green provides a risk-reward proposition. Players who can carry it will be able to feed the ball off a down slope toward the green, which is flanked by three of the course's smallest bunkers on the left and another front right. "It is a much more compelling tee shot," Hanse said.

Clubhouse improvements and the addition of the Lombard Putting Course - almost as hilly as its namesake street in downtown San Francisco -were also part of the process. It's wildly entertaining trying to solve its humps and hollows. The word 'fun' wasn't always tossed around by many people after a day of golf at The Olympic Club in the past. Hanse has changed all that with both the putting course and the Lake Course.

He's certainly on a roll out West. His restoration at Alister MacKenzie's nearby Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City has been heralded a success. Just last week Pebble Beach Resorts tapped Hanse to lead a complete redesign of The Links at Spanish Bay on the Monterey Peninsula.

"(I love) the trees - the cypresses, the pines. Just the scale of the golf courses and the variety of the architecture," he said of working in northern California. "The landscapes in California are so different among those three. We are excited about all of them."

Check out more photos of the Lake Course from the grand re-opening day.