Dr John Carlson
Registered User
Tiger's swing speed has been steadily decreasing as the season has worn on, so the fatigue factor is real.
Tiger's swing speed has been steadily decreasing as the season has worn on, so the fatigue factor is real.
And all 3 could do it. Course is playing easy. Not exactly a tough course right now.Tiger/Rory/JT need to go 65 or lower to have any realistic chance at winning.
Based off what I watched in round one, and that was golf from both waves, this course is the worst major championship venue I've seen in years. Thoroughly unimpressed with this golf course. Nothing interesting to it. Its long because of how soft the fairways are and how hilly the course is. The fairways are also somewhat hard to hit because of the doglegs. The tee shots keep the players from having more than a couple scoring opportunities on the course. Just a plain boring "tricked up long" course that isn't even long in an interesting way. Greens are as bad as there has been in a major championship since Chambers Bay. Slow and bumpy, even in the morning.
The PGA Championship thinks switching to May will change that their tournament is the fourth major. How about we see some better courses? The US Open constantly laps the PGA Championship in course selection, even if we've seen some bad courses in recent years in the US Open.
Based off what I watched in round one, and that was golf from both waves, this course is the worst major championship venue I've seen in years. Thoroughly unimpressed with this golf course. Nothing interesting to it. Its long because of how soft the fairways are and how hilly the course is. The fairways are also somewhat hard to hit because of the doglegs. The tee shots keep the players from having more than a couple scoring opportunities on the course. Just a plain boring "tricked up long" course that isn't even long in an interesting way. Greens are as bad as there has been in a major championship since Chambers Bay. Slow and bumpy, even in the morning.
The PGA Championship thinks switching to May will change that their tournament is the fourth major. How about we see some better courses? The US Open constantly laps the PGA Championship in course selection, even if we've seen some bad courses in recent years in the US Open.
Not sure I agree. This course looks alright from what I have seen, though I think it is in questionable shape. Maybe not the toughest test in terms of course management, but I think there is enough to it. PGA Championship has always been the most average courses of the four majors. Where would you like to see host it?
I agree to an extent, but the biggest problem with the PGA IMO is the total lack of character. The tournament has nothing going for it apart from its major status... the closest thing to an identity it has is that there are 25 PGA club professionals playing, all of which miss the cut every year except for a few outliers. Not really something to get excited for.
The issue is that there isn't really any way to fix this, unless they are willing to revert back to the match-play format that the PGA used up until the 50s. I could honestly see this happening one day since the tournament seems to be in a noticeable decline in interest (although I might just be used to the golf twitter echo chamber) and such a drastic change would drum up a lot of interest. Except not from me, since I really don't like individual match-play tournaments at all.
But yeah, this course kind of sucks. Maybe the solution is to just play the PGA at Cypress Point every year.
You are right that there's no identity, but I don't see why it can't be played at the best courses in the US and be made much tougher. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that most of the best tournaments on a yearly basis in golf have higher scoring. Higher scoring wouldn't be too much of a US Open copycat.
Frankly, I think the only two reasons that the Masters and Open Championship aren't harder on a yearly basis is the set lineup of courses. Those two Championships are weather dependent at times of year in those areas where less than ideal weather will often yield a very tough course. If the greens at Open were around 14 as opposed to 11, the "bad weather" days no one would be able to break 75. If the Masters rough was penalizing, we'd rarely see anyone shoot double digits under par. The PGA should set these courses up harder. Its not that the PGA courses are inherently much easier than the US Open courses. Some are, but Gary Player won the US Open on this course at +2. Its mostly in the set-up.
This is one of the main examples of what I mean. How is this a major Championship golf hole? I'm sure it was different in 1965 when Player won.
The PGA Championship has no more excuses. They got their preferred time of year. It won't be as hot, the weather conditions should be better. We need to see better courses and harder set-ups. I don't see the need for any gimmicks, like a match play or part of the event. There are only four of these events per year. How about they emulate the US Open set up and course selection but don't have the yearly gaffes that the USGA has? I think that would yield more favorable reviews of their tournament.