Why are they changing?

[nurseduffer]

Just wondering if any of you know they are going to revamp Sawgrass? Just seeing how tough this course is and how hard it is for the worlds very best...just can't understand why they would even mess with it. If it aint broke.... Maybe someone could enlighten me

[jeffgladchun]

Its about trying to make the Player's Championship golf's fifth major. They want the winner to be at or just under par, not 14 under. I don't necessarily think its a bad idea, we'll just have to see how the course plays next year.

[iacas]

Its about trying to make the Player's Championship golf's fifth major. They want the winner to be at or just under par, not 14 under. I don't necessarily think its a bad idea, we'll just have to see how the course plays next year.

I don't think that's it Jeff. That reason may be on the list, but it's way down there:

The course work is necessary in order to present premium conditions year-round. The course was built on marshland that causes the playing characteristics to change dramatically after rainfall. During a week of wet conditions, the winning score has averaged 13.6-under par, while weeks with little or no rain, the winner's total has averaged 8.5-under. The course will not be lengthened from its current 7,093 yards but made it play to its original "firm and fast" conditions. The fairways renovation includes removing the current topsoil, adding extensive irrigation and fresh sand, totaling 24,000 tons of organic material removed, which equates to filling of seven miles of dump trucks. Already, five fairways (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9) have been reworked. Every green will have a subsurface mechanical drainage system installed to hydrate in dry weather and vacuum water in wet weather.

Tiger Woods and others bemoaned the rough because it's not what Pete Dye intended the course to have. Balls are supposed to run through sparse rough and into worse trouble, not get hung up in the rough. Very few places want to remove rough in order to become a major.

The move to May has more to do with the subliminal reinforcement of "fifth major" than the course renovations. Nurse, the course should play tougher with lower rough and the faster (drier) fairways. But that's more like how it was intended to play. Watch Norman's win in 1994 - look at the rough back then.

[muskegman]

I really like the TPC at Sawgrass because it is a challenging course for every player. When DLIII shoots an 83 after holding a share of the lead you know that a course has teeth. I shudder to think how many balls I'd lose at that course playing from the forward tees.

It is an excellent venue but not a major. This whole talk of the "fifth major" is silly IMHO. Just call it what it is: A great tournament or the top regular season event.

[The Undaunted Duffer]

All this hoop-la over a 5th major. Why is it such a deal? Does it really matter? Champions Tour has 5, should the PGA Tour? I don't know, and I'm not sure if I care.

I think each tournament should be treated as a major to be honest with you. Every golfer needs to cowboy up and make something happen, even if its the B.C. Open, the Tucson, or the Reno-Tahoe.

True, majors have more prestige, but what ever happened to the old Western Open, and the two Amateurs. They're not majors anymore.

It's all relative as the times change.

[sioutdoors]

i thought they wer saying it was because the course couldnt drain anymore and they wer going to put a syatem in to draw the water away frome the greens