Devilish par-3 hasn’t been seventh-heaven experience

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — One of the shortest holes on Shinnecock Hills drew most of the attention Saturday — and almost all of the ire from those playing the third round of the U.S. Open.

The 189-yard 7th hole, a par-3 known as “Redan,” had the world’s best players muttering to themselves and complaining out loud.

“Seven is unplayable so I guess the majority of the field is going to make 4 there, which is ridiculous,” said Ernie Els, who did make a 4 there, one of 27 bogeys — along with three double-bogeys and one birdie — the 66 players managed Saturday.

The hole was ranked the toughest both for Saturday and the first three rounds with average scores of 3.485 and 3.371, respectively.

Phil Mickelson and Shigeki Maruyama were tied for the lead with Jeff Maggert at 6 under par when they got to Redan, which was more like Rodan, the destructive movie monster. When they left the green that slopes severely from front right to back left, Maruyama was one shot behind and Mickelson was two back.

A Redan hole — its name comes from a fortification used by Russia against British and French forces in the Crimean War — is supposed to be set up so that the prevailing wind is in a player’s face. The wind at Shinnecock Hills on Saturday was across the hole, meaning the wind would be behind the ball as it was already going down the slope.

“The change in the wind had a great deal to do with it,” said Walter Driver, the chairman of the championship committee. “The green is very firm and we had given instruction to stop rolling the green as of Tuesday and I found out today, after the round, that for some reason, a different person on the greens staff had rolled the green this morning despite the orders we had given.”

Driver said he couldn’t be sure what difference the rolling — a machine goes across the green and makes the surface more compact and thus faster — made. The other 17 greens are rolled twice a day.

“The four hole locations we had were the fairest and most benign for the design of the green,” Driver said. “It got more difficult as the day wore on as the wind got stronger from right to left. The wind was drying it out, they were putting downwind, downhill, downgrain, downworld and it was very difficult to stop those putts”

Mickelson’s 8-iron tee shot landed short and right of the hole and kept rolling all the way off the green. His chip went 8 feet by the hole, and he barely touched the par putt. That made no difference as it trickled 12 feet by the cup, lucky to stay on the green. Mickelson missed for a double bogey.

“I don’t know what to say about it. There’s nothing more that I could add,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t try to make it,” he said of his first putt. “I actually played it a little bit left and hit it easy, just trying to get it to stop and make 4. It never stopped it just kept going. It could have gone even farther, I was lucky it stopped right there.”