2018 PGA Tour Running Thread

I interviewed Bill Coore the other day for a story for our magazine. Really nice guy who has a lot of interesting thoughts on how modern course designs can positively affect pace of play.

 

It's about time the players spoke up about the idiocy of the "mashed potatoes" guys.

Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas Believe the Crowds Following Tiger Woods are Out of Hand

 

Evil, there is a course in Watertown, Mass., just west of Boston called Oakley Country Club. It is so old that it's where Ross got his first job when he came to America.

 

"Dilly, Dilly!"

 

He's created lots of very good stuff. Spectacular to the point of being legendary? No. If I had a criticism, it's that Jack's courses have an Augusta National look to them in that every blade of grass is generally perfectly manicured and the courses often lack a natural look. But he created an exceptionally entertaining routing at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Mich., on a property that was an industrial wasteland, and Shoal Creek and Wynstone (private, north of Chicago) are fun, playable course and major selling points for those residential developments.

I think Weiskopf is way underrated as a designer. Anyone who has a chance to play Coore/Crenshaw's Clear Creek (west of Reno/Tahoe, I think it is), don't pass it up.

 

Sorry boys.
Any time someone starts talking about The Masters, it gets me in the mood for the following 3 songs.
I can hear Nantzy going over the highlights with these first 2 songs playing in the background, and Summerall's voiceover.

 

There are two ways to counter the technology advances, smaller greens and narrower fairways. I have the privilege of regularly playing a Mackenzie course and the course doesn't need to be tricked out with long carries and blind shots to be difficult. Subtlety in greens and bunker placements go a long way. That's why I was not a fan of Miller courses, too many blind shots. Modern public courses also suffer from having to accommodate cart paths.

 

Whistling Straits may be the most evil golf course ever built.

 

The Dye course I have played more than once is TPC Sawgrass, because my parents lived near it. When the course had been "finished," that is, technically ready to play but with the stadium part unfinished and the greens harder than the Garden parquet, the club let members of nearby clubs like my folks play it for a song to try to sell expensive memberships. All those spectator areas that are terraced with railroad ties. When we first played it, they were mounds and hills of sand. Hit in one of those, well, I dunno if I would have broken 200 if I hadn't picked up about six times. I swear to you, left to his own devices, Dye would've left the course like that.

 

I think it's funny how people are so in love with these "public courses" getting US Opens.
Listen. I'm sure Pebble Beach is wonderful, and everyone wants to play it once. I get that.
But the average amateur going there, dropping $500 for a green fee, caddy.......all said and done, you're dropping $2000 or more......and you're not breaking 130.
What the hell is fun about that?
Same with Chambers Bay.........Erin Hills.......Torrey Pines.
Play courses you know you can play.
Don't pretend to be a 3 when you're a 13.