Thought One:
For all the talk about how the Players Championship is the “fifth major,” it sure seemed as though no one really wanted to win it …
Thought Two:
While other tournaments have worked hard to extend the length of their venues to “compensate” for the new equipment, the TPC At Sawgrass is essentially the same as it always was.
And yet, none of the big bombers were really in contention. Fred Funk—the anthesis of a big bomber—won last year.
Maybe it’s time tournament organizers stopped tinkering and let the courses work as originally designed.
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You are so right about the TPC holding it’s own despite modern day advances.
The key is that the course has always been a target golf course and the greens can be extremely demanding (similar to Augusta, but different in some ways as well).
Dye has created a masterpiece. The course does not favor any particular shot shape (draws vs fades) and simply demands good tee shots and better iron play. The greens definitely were US Open like this weekend. On top of this, the course has some exciting holes.
They should hold the Match Play Championship at a course like this. Imagine 17 and 18 in a tied match.
I agree that they should be leaving the courses alone. what’s the obcession with longer. With almost every modern sport the focus has been to bigger farther faster. What this has done has taken smaller individuals out of professional sport. What’s been lost is finesse. Hockey’s a case in point. the trend to bigger players has taken a lot of the speedster sand finesse players out of the game. Goons are more prevelant. it’s not an improvement. In golf a perfect pitch or precision iron play beats the long ball everytime . More difficult course layouts as appossed to long courses will make the game better. more skill required and more watchable
I suppose you are correct in saying that none of the big bombers were in contention on Sunday, but several times Ames outdrove Vijay and Vijay seems to be mentioned in the same breath as Tiger as far as the longer courses being suited to his game.
I was as surprised as you, but Ames finished in 60th place for driving distance. Ames was hitting all the Par 5’s in 2 with irons and often was swinging after VJ.
DD is only measured on a couple of holes is part of the problem.
Ames seemed to be hitting the drives to the correct side of the fairway, which is very important at the TPC. Accuracy over Length at the TPC.