The “National” nine begins with three increasingly-longer par-4’s to get you started, #3 a great 420+ from the two back tees with water down the entire left side on the drive (around a slight dogleg left) with trees encroaching on the bail-out area to the right. The long-iron approach must negotiate four mounds into the smallish green. The fourth, a middle-length par-3 seems benign enough on the scorecard, but from the elevated tee you’d better not miss the well-bunkered table-top green.

You might feel like you need to call in Henry Kissinger to negotiate the huge waste bunker in front of the par-4 fifth, the large greenside bunker in front of the par-3 sixth and the old oak that sits in front of the par-5 seventh, the National’s #1 handicapped hole.

The ninth might actually be the toughest, though, with deep marsh all along the right side of a narrow fairway and right next to another elevated “table-top” green it actually shares with #9 on the Player layout.