Stay home weekend so I had my coffee Sunday mourning watching Euro tour Denmark Open. Although Lee Westwood was the only “name” player it was the most entertaining round I have watched all year. Shortish tree lined course cut through a pine forest with loads of great recovery shots and shot making. Today i’m watching early Fed Ex broadcast and it’s as boring as it gets. Looks like nothing but a putting contest. With all the talk about the ball and clubs being too hot how about playing some courses that test the entire game.
Boring golf
I think it's more of a symptom of modern day architectures feeling that the best way to overcome the distance issue is to simply add tee boxes 40+ yards further back on several holes, bumping up a 7200 yard layout to 7400-7500 yards.
I think it's a flawed philosophy, and I think the 2013 US Open at Merion provided a great template for the "cure" of the modern day distance ailment. That course played a tad over 6900 yards... critics were saying that the pros would slaughter Merion's layout. Justin Rose won with a 4-round total of 281 (+1).
Compare that to Erin Hills, which played 7800 yards, where Brooks Koepka shot 16 under and setting a US Open scoring record.
Look at the par4 10th at Riviera... back in 2016, it was the most difficult short hole on the tour circuit that season... only 315 yards, but the scoring average was 4.087, despite the fact that the longer hitters could swing 3-wood and get somewhere near the green.
The design matters. The conditions matter. You give these guys 40-yard wide fairways with light rough, soft greens, and cut the fairway grass so short that it affords an additional 30 yards of distance - sure... they're gonna rip the course to shreds.
Consider Harbour Town at the Heritage that's played mid April.... it's 7100 yards. It's a long bomber's nightmare. In fact - you can't find a long bomber having won this tournament going all the way back the past two decades! It's a great layout. A tight shot-making layout that requires a degree of precision that the longer grip-it-and-rip-it players simply don't have. That's why you see the shorter hitters who can keep the ball in play do well there.... guys like Jim Furyk, Snedeker, McDowell, Kuchar, Boo Weekley, Byran Gay, Justin Leonard, Peter Lonard, etc.
Critics point out that the reason why the longer hitters don't typically play here is because the Masters is traditionally played the week prior.... that might be the case, but I still don't think it would make a difference. Very rarely do you have a long-hitting player, with exception of perhaps Bubba, who can bomb it off the tee and shape the shots needed to hit the proper scoring grids on the greens there. It's not a bomber's paradise. You're taking driver out of their hands, and that driver is a huge, huge advantage for them. Suddenly they're having to hit 3woods and hybrids off the tee, where guys like Furyk suddenly aren't giving up 50 yards to the bombers in the field.
Longer layouts aren't needed to challenge those guys. Tougher layouts that force them to hit from point A to point B, layouts that are shorter but less forgiving when they stray off the tee - that's all that's needed.
There's no trickery needed there. It's just that a balance is struck at this layout between distance and being precise regarding distance control and accuracy. And more times than not, a player like Jim Furyk is going to stand a better chance of competing with the likes of a Brooks Koepka or Dustin Johnson there.
Tinker I love watching the European Tour. Very comparable to the courses we play around here, as far as green size goes. That course in Denmark had the smallest greens I've seen in a long time. Yet, they hit them. The 1/2 acre greens the PGA plays on are too tricked out. Makes the golfers play for certain areas of the green, instead of just actually trying to hit it in the 1st place.
Another thing I've noticed through the years, watching the ET, is the amount of center shafted putters they use over there.
Does boring golf equate to how many strokes under par the field can get to? I kinda think so for the most part. Does the PGA subscribe to the idea of the birdie fest?
Par4QC Spot on, it’s nothing to do with how long you make it, there is a limit to that before you have made it unfair. A 600 yard par 4 will play over par on your, but it’s also hellaciously unfair. The average tour guy needs to be “able” to hit the green in regulation, that basically caps a par 5 to ~500 yards. That won’t stop a guy that pops it 360 off the tee from scoring on it, just makes it a bigger advantage to hit it long. Yet a 400 yard par 4 with a landing area at 225, dog leg and some tree/bunker protection for the green is not something everyone is going to be able to over power. Even the best placed shot will leave an iron in that has to be worked a little potentially or something of that nature. Par is a good score and it can get ugly, that’s the difference between a cake hole and a respected on on your.
I can think of a couple holes I used to play that were round wreckers is you were dumb. The one looked relatively simple, about 330 on the card, dog leg left, fully mature trees at the apex of the leg on the left and tight enough you couldn’t just go over (believe me if anybody is going to, I can). There is a bunker at the end of dogleg in the right and heavy rough with a smattering of pine trees in there to make it a real penalty. Then the contour of the land comes into play, the ground slopes pretty drastically to the left, once you are around the dog leg, and funnels balls in to the woods.. not nice maintained woods, but “hit another one” woods. The green is fairly small and sits below the level of the fairway, also has a ~30ft drop off the back, taking your ball into those damn woods again or into super thick rough which will catch a reasonable shot. The hole is a bitch because you could hit the perfect shot and be on in one and putting for eagle (if everything goes your way) l, but 99% of the time, if you go for that shot, you are re-teeing and starting over. The best shot is a well controlled 200-215 yard shot, drawn around the corner to the left side of the fairway so you can clearly see the landing area and work into the longest part of the green, then hit a short iron in and it better not miss left, with enough spin to hold the green. If you miss short it’s going to leave a shitty chip shot, if you are long, you are dead. It’s one of those holes if anybody birdies it, you feel like they stole a shot. Usually an armature 4 some will walk off with 1 or 2 bogies a double or two and a withdrew haha. It’s not unfair, but it’s hard!
That makes for some challenging golf. Maybe that’s not what the PGA wants, but it would be the answer to keep things relevant in today’s game.
Golf should be a game that requires 14 clubs and gives the best shot maker the most advantage. What I see a lot now is ball hitting and putting. Most all the newer courses in my area where built on old farms, over long and wide open, not a tree in site. They market all these courses as “links” but they really are manicured pastures. I drive very straight most of the time and when I see a player hit it 100 yards right and still have a short iron in I wonder what game i’m Playing.
PA-PLAYA
Great points. I love those short par 4s that the long hitters can reach but are very risky and difficult. I like layouts with variety. A mixture of forced layups, monster long par 4s, drivable par 4s, etc.
I like a course with a long par 3, too. Koepka's shot into the 248 yard 16th at the PGA was fantastic and fun to see. It was pinpoint accuracy at long distance.