The Presidents Cup has largely been a one-sided affair in favor of the U.S., so rerouting Medinah Country Club’s No. 3 Course for this year’s edition was intended to add drama. However, as the biennial team event got underway on Thursday with five four-ball matches, Brendan Porath of Shotgun Start branded the course setup “the dumbest ever.”

“This is the dumbest ever. Rerouting the golf course. You either come to the golf course, or you don’t. You know what I mean?” he said during the podcast. “Like, this is stupid. Like, either you want to be here, or you don’t. Then you deal with what comes where matches end.”

The main modification is the routing of Medinah No. 3, where instead of starting on the regular first hole, every match begins on the regular fifth hole. The players then continue through the course until the regular 18th becomes the Presidents Cup’s 14th hole, before moving to the regular Nos. 1–4 as the competition’s final four holes.

This means the regular fifth, sixth, and seventh holes become the Presidents Cup’s opening three holes. On top of that, those holes feature the wooden split-rail fence along the left side, with the area beyond it out of bounds. Because of the new sequence, these fence holes immediately introduce an OB risk at the start of every match.

The effects of these alterations were immediately evident on Thursday. Rookie Jackson Koivun, Ryan Fox and Si Woo Kim all hit tee shots out of bounds, while Sungjae Im narrowly avoided the same fate. Luckily for him, Im’s ball struck a fence post and bounced back into the fairway.

Speaking to the Golf Channel on Wednesday, Justin Thomas described the opening three “fence holes” as “very nerve-racking.” He explained that every player would be thinking about the fence differently because it isn’t simply a visual obstacle. It’s also the boundary that defines out of bounds, meaning it affects their strategy and how aggressively they approach their tee shots.

But what makes this redesign controversial is whether the new routing adds meaningful match-play drama or simply introduces artificial hazards that punish players. Yet, according to data presented by Golfweek, less than 40 percent of team matches reach the 18th hole. Many matches end even earlier, on the 15th or 16th hole.

In such cases, the updated sequence ensures that players are more likely to face Medinah’s most treacherous holes. But the routing is far from the only change made to the course. Hundreds of trees were cleared, fairways were roughly doubled in size, short-grass areas were added between some holes, and the rough was significantly reduced.

The extent of the transformation was such that Medinah was almost unrecognizable to Patrick Cantlay, who said, “The old course is completely gone.” He added that there were “basically no holes that are the same or even close to the same” and described it as “a brand new golf course,” noting that the fairways are also much wider. 

These renovations were made by OCM, the design firm comprising Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead. With Ogilvy serving as the International team captain, his involvement naturally raised questions about whether the renovations could give his team an advantage at the Presidents Cup. Ogilvy, however, maintained that both teams would have had enough time to familiarize themselves with the revamped layout before Thursday.

That said, it appears not everyone is on board with the changes to Medinah Country Club’s No. 3 Course. Whether the dramatic alterations can have any impact on the U.S. team’s historic dominance in the event, however, remains to be seen.