Dye-designed Kampen Course will test golfers

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Players on the Middle Tennessee men's golf team took one look at the Kampen Course at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, on the campus of Purdue University, and realized teams competing for the 2008 NCAA Division I National Championships were going to have their hands full this week.

Photos: Practice Gallery

Then the Blue Raiders enjoyed, if you can call it that, playing the Pete Dye-designed course and there initial thoughts were confirmed.

"The rough is just brutal, penalizing," said Blue Raider junior standout Chas Narramore.

"It is the toughest golf course I have played under the circumstances," sophomore Kent Bulle said.

Thirty of the nation's best golf teams converged on the Kampen Course for their first of two practice rounds Monday. Their chances of capturing a national title will depend greatly on how they approach one of the nation's top collegiate courses when the tournament begins to unfold with the first of four rounds Wednesday.

There will be no taming the course. It will be more a battle of survival, as well as mental and physical fortitude.

"This is the toughest course we have seen this year but it should be, it's the national championship and it's supposed to be difficult," said Middle Tennessee first-year coach Whit Turnbow, who has guided the Blue Raiders into their first Division I National Championships. "The very best team here is going to win; there is no doubt about that."

The course will play at more than 7,400 yards from the championship tees and if the length is not enough the layout of the course presents a challenge with vast sand bunkers, native grasslands, ponds and a natural celery bog. The Kampen Course features large bent-grass greens and one miss hit will certainly leave golfers in the rough.

"You just can't take an iron or 3-wood out, hit it down the fairway and expect to make a good score," Narramore said. "You almost have to hit a driver on a lot of these holes because they are into the wind and they are 480 yards, which is like a par-5. There again, if you miss a fairway you are chipping out in the rough. There are some spots where you can advance the ball but if you hit in the rough you are not going to be on the green in two so you have to be good with the driver. There is no missing with the driver this week or you will be in trouble."

The rough appears to be one of the great challenges for the golfers on a course that promises to provide many obstacles this week.

"The length makes it tough and then you add in the rough and there is no intermediate cut," Bulle explained. "You have six inches of rough that you can barely advance it from so you have to chip out if you are there. It's not just the rough; it's almost a penalty every time you are in there because you have to chip it out. At this level you want a golf course that is tough because it will separate the good teams from the great teams this week."

Bulle played in the U.S. Amateur at Olympic Club in San Francisco, Calif., last summer - site of the 2010 U.S. Open - and said there are similarities between the courses that help prepare him for what lies ahead this week.

"It prepares you because it's about even on the scale as far as ranking for a tournament," Bulle said. "The set-up is identical with the large, quick greens and high rough everywhere. The set-up is like a USGA event."

Although the course most likely will be the winner this week, Blue Raider players believe the extreme level of difficulty plays to their advantage.

"We have a bunch of grinders that are going to take double out of play and put bogey in play and bogey is not a bad score out here," Narramore said. "We have guys that are going to battle as hard as they can. Even par is a great score this week but anything below 300 is a good score and will have you in contention."

The general consensus among players, coaches and officials is that no team likely will break par this week. That could play into Middle Tennessee's favor as it seeks the school's first team national championship at the Division I level.

"It's going to be difficult and I think that favors us because we tend to do better on harder courses and this definitely is hard," Turnbow said. "We will start putting together a plan for the course during our (Tuesday) practice round and we will be ready to go Wednesday."

The tournament runs Wednesday through Saturday. All 30 teams will play 54 holes and the field will be cut to 15 teams after Friday's round. The final 15 teams will advance to Saturday's final round and compete for the national championship.

Middle Tennessee will tee off on No. 1 with playing partners Virginia and Texas Wednesday at 7:35 a.m. (Central). Live scoring will be available on Golfstat.com and on the GoBlueRaiders.com home page.