David Elvins,
The problem with mounting your last line of defense at the green end is that it affects everyone, even the golfers who lack strength, distance and touch, the rest of us.
Also, Woods hit short irons or wedges into greens that others were hitting medium to long irons into, so beefing up the defenses at the green end only helps the long driver who hits a wedge into the green, and not the golfer who hits it in the fairway 50 yards shorter.
With today's wedges, dense, high rough doesn't seem to impede these fellows from 120 yards and in.
AG Crockett,
Tiger layed up with a three wood on # 18.
If the course was meant to play as originally designed, he would have taken a driver and hit a sand wedge from left and short of the green. Remember, those fairway bunkers are a relatively recent addition.
Marshalling all of your defenses at the green end won't work as it adversely impacts the less skilled player, the vast preponderance of the golfing world.
I'm not suggesting that dense, high rough is the answer,
I"m asking what can be done with architectural features to challenge drives, errant and accurate, in these NEW drive zones. And, not just at ANGC, but everywhere.
Jeff Brauer,
I've always been fascinated with the "Narrows" hole at NGLA, at both the fairway and green end.
NGLA is replete with the use of spines, in the fairways and the greens, and I think it is a viable defense, despite the need to "construct" the feature and its feeding qualities.
If the theory, that the only way to reward a good drive is to penalize a bad drive, is valid, then why not create havoc in the 280-340 range, a range that will barely affect the rest of the golfing world ?