What other way can the PGA make a course harder?

[Msokol13]

So...sitting here doing my three favorite things in the late evening...drinking my diet Coke, typing away on my wireless labtop and watching the Golf channel.

This golf course they will be playing this weekend is nearly 7700 yards...holy crap!

I dont see how lengthing a golf course is a really good test of a players ability...why dont they speed up the greens, harden them and make the rough longer and add more hazards around the greens such as sucker pins....water hazards and sand bunkers?

I'd rather watch a professional hack it around the green then smack a 3 wood into every par 4....just sayin.

[CG031]

7700 is taking it way too far, but that's just my opinion.

Seeing Steve Stricker hit 3 wood's into par 4's and par 3's does nothing for me, but once again, my opinion.

[MurphDurph]

I agree with setting the course up to test their short game, rather than their strengh. Everyone always suggests working on your shots < 100 yards so why not make the pros show us why they are the pros?

[SpacklersEdge]

Make the fairways more narrow. I don't mean making them narrow by making the rough more narrow, I am talking about large trees like 25 yards wide.

Only problem is, it makes the course unplayable for the rest of us.

[enduro]

Probably put some windmills on the course the players have to putt through at the exact right time....

As for manipulating the greens more, there's only so much you can do. The firmness at the US Open and Augusta is pretty extreme. Grass can only be so firm and that's about the limit. You could add more contours but then it becomes goofy golf. The greens are pretty tricky already. You can't really move the pins any closer to the edges as they're about as close as you can get already. The greens are fine as is and create a fair test where better putters will find an edge over 72 holes.

Rough could be grown a little longer for PGA tournaments so the bombers who don't care for accuracy would be challenged more. But so much of it trampled by crowds, players don't seem to care much about hitting into into. I really think that is a strategy of a lot of players right now and why not? Play it as it lies, after all.

More bunkers in the deep drive areas is my favorite solution. If players are going to try and go deep they will pay a severe price in the bunker if they fail. This means regular players using the course will not see these in play and shorter, accurate drivers won't either.

[plark]

I agree with setting the course up to test their short game, rather than their strengh. Everyone always suggests working on your shots < 100 yards so why not make the pros show us why they are the pros?

I agree strength obviously isnt a factor for these guys I mean last week Tiger Woods hit his 5 Wood 300 yrds.. I'd like to see them make it harder for their short game

[lumpuckeroo]

I agree strength obviously isnt a factor for these guys I mean last week Tiger Woods hit his 5 Wood 300 yrds.. I'd like to see them make it harder for their short game

I'm with you on this part also, but I think they make the courses longer to continue to bring hazards that were originally in the drive landing area into play. Also, if conditions prevail, they can make a long course short, but not the other way around. They advertise based on the longest it will play, but chances are not every hole will play from the absolute back of the back tee.

Just a guess on my part, but I think they tend to shy away from making greens super fast, as no one wants the problems like they had at the US Open at Shinecock.

[Laurentius]

I am with you on this one!

3 woods on second shot on par 4 is not fun to hit nor fun to watch, I would like more hazards around the greens, super difficult flags, and more dog legs.

I want to see more shot makings then miserable tour players hacking around 6 foot rough.

[Kellfire]

Why not shorten courses and bring the shorter players into the game instead of benefitting those who crush the ball off the tee?

[jldavis73]

They could effectively lengthen the golf course by slowing down the fairways. The tour players get 50+ yards of roll on tee shots, which leads to these huge driving averages. Move tees slightly back, slow down the fairway and the course would play longer without having to add much yardage. But really, what's wrong with birdies? The U.S. Open is usually so boring to watch because the tour players are struggling just to make par. The PGA Championship is better to watch because they can shoot reasonable scores. No one wants to watch a tournament when the 36 hole leader is +1. These guys are the best in the world, play all the tournaments at 7000 yards and turn 'em loose!

[Zeph]

The lengthening doesn't seem to play that big a role. Tim Clark was long in contention at Firestone, JB Holmes and Garcia were not, even though they drove it ~400 yards on the 16th. Still, 7700 yards is very long. Not only do you have to be long, but you have to be accurate. This is where Tiger is very good. Finding the green and a possible birdie at the same time.

As long as the best players hit a lot of greens, adding hazards won't do much. Narrowing the fairway maybe, but you'd have to increase the rough also, seeing as these guys hit it just as well out of the it as from the fairway. Faster greens? They don't get much faster than at some of the tournaments. They are such excellent putters anyways. Obstructions perhaps? Like the tree in the middle of the fairway at the 18th on Pebble Beach.

[ugottabjoshinme]

They could effectively lengthen the golf course by slowing down the fairways. The tour players get 50+ yards of roll on tee shots, which leads to these huge driving averages. Move tees slightly back, slow down the fairway and the course would play longer without having to add much yardage. But really, what's wrong with birdies?

I disagree completely. I would rather watch the best players be challenged than see who can make the most birdies.

[iacas]

A course with long par fives is actually an advantage for the shorter hitters, who tend to be better with their wedges.

Also, if Tiger finds the hay on a long par four, even he won't find the green very often. Better to be hitting a 4I from the fairway as a short hitter than trying to hit a 6I from 224 from the hay like Tiger might be doing.

Furthermore, courses love to say they're playing 7700 yards or whatever, but they move the tees around and that number is the maximum yardage. They rarely play that long. Look at Bethpage or Torrey Pines. And yeah, that's the USGA and not the PGA, but the PGA does the same things (though not necessarily as dramatically - though they are starting to because Mike Davis is getting such good press).

[enduro]

Why not shorten courses and bring the shorter players into the game instead of benefitting those who crush the ball off the tee?

Guys with power should have some kind of advantage though. Power should count for something.

[Trav]

Guys with power should have some kind of advantage though. Power should count for something.

Why should power count any more than finesse? If golf were simply a ball-busting exercise, then we could go watch Long Driving contests. Distance without accuracy is fun sometimes, but it's not golf.

I always favor making penalty situations truly challenging. We already know about making the rough deeper (I like the graduated rough concept). Another example could be to make the bunkers more challenging, like the pot bunkers you see on Scotland - most are very difficult to get out of, whereas in the US they are typically regarded as easy shots for pros. Also if you set them on the fairway where the pros put their drives in play, they aren't going to affect the average hacker the way merely adding distance does. But there's only so much you can do, after all these are pros for a reason.

[neophyte]

1. Put out of bounds along the sides of all fairways.

Today in tournaments you can hit in the middle of the next fairway and it makes no difference. In local high school tournaments at Scenic Valley, the boys started hitting into the 18th fairway from the par 5, 3rd T because it was cutting the corner and a way of avoiding trouble in the third fairway and made it easier to go for the green on the second shot.

2. Have hitting into bunkers earn a 1 shot penalty.

According to some golf history I have read, hitting into a bunker used to cost a player an extra shot which is no longer a problem today.

3. Don't mow the straight fairways between 290 yds and 350 yards from the T.

[iacas]

Why should power count any more than finesse?

He never said that. He simply said that power should give an advantage... the logical assumption isn't "over finesse," but over those with less power.

Finesse should give an advantage too (over those without or with less finesse).

[l8nvr]

to make the game harder, could they not leave everything the same, but, make the hole a half inch smaller?