[Jonathan Cummings]

...Any arguments why, as a TV viewer, The Player's Championship isn't a wonderful and excitiing tournament to watch from a viewer's standpoint!  The Masters is great too but The Player's is simply just as fun.

JC

[PThomas]

it's not a major!

[George_Bahto]

Jonathan: I absolutely agree, especially if you've playd the course.

[Sean_A]

I spose for most people outside the States, Sawgrass is just another US event leading up to The Masters-the real show.  

Ciao

Sean

[Chris Kane]

It barely rates a mention here - not shown on free-to-air television, results aren't reported on the news unless an Australian is leading.  There was a small article hidden in the newspaper this morning.

Its the #1 PGA Tour event, and nothing more.  

[Jonathan Cummings]

Sean/Chris - than maybe I should limit my comments to America.  With my golfing acquintances it inspires more comments than just about any tournaments of the year.

JC

[Jerry Kluger]

It's great to watch but 3 wood 5 iron average on number 16 is incredible. ah but then they have to play 17 which Vijay showed is really not that tough a shot.

[Jonathan Cummings]

1 birdie out of the field - not that tough of shot.....

[Jonathan Cummings]

Could it be, as Miller suggests, that TPC Sawgrass is the best test of all because it allows both long and short hitters, equally, to contend??

JC

[James Bennett]

Jonathon

I'm fortunate and have Fox, so I get to see the golf down here in Australia.  The Sawgrass event has always been exciting, but this year seems moreso.  The greens seem to have their headlights on, and the play to and around the greens seems more exciting.  I expect the weather has been kinder, allowing the 'firm and fast' to occur.  Although, I wouldn't mind if the greens were not wuite as fast - the putting to some of the hole locations on tiers has been a bit severe.

The TPC is my favourite event at this time of year (excluding the Masters) and the first good event for me since it left California.

Next year it moves to May (I think) and I assume it competes against Muirfield Village for best May event.  If the course was presented like this late March version, it would win hands down.  The unknown for me is the impact of the greens changing from bent to bermuda for the May schedule.  If that is right, the way the course will play could be significantly different.  The only other experience I know of this is Hope island on the Gold Coast (quite a good Thomson Wolveridge perret course - see ran's courses by country).  These were originally great, bent greens but were problematic with the climate and eventually were replaced by bermuda.  I don't know how the playability of the course changed.

Good luck next year Sawgrass.

James B

[Tim Pitner]

It's hard to argue with the leaderboard this year--Singh, Garcia, Furyk, Goosen, Mickelson and others.  It's great from a television viewing perspective.  Overall, I don't think the course quite measures up against some of the British and U.S. Open venues.  

[Jonathan Cummings]

Tim - The post is really not trying to compare venues (I agree there are better architectural venues for major tournaments), but comparing tournaments that get the best response from television fans.

JC

[Jfaspen]

Jonathan,

I'm not sure you can talk about "fun to watch" without talking about architecture.

A lot of people watch the masters to see the course.  Same with the British and the other Majors.

Frankly, I think a lot of the problem is with NBC showing almost every shot on 17 and then limiting the viewers ability to learn the rest of the course.  Imagine if CBS focused on 12 at ANGC to the extent that 17 is focused on here.  Maybe 11 or 13 would suffer.

Just some thoughts.

[peter_p]

Why. Half of the first and second place finishers in the past near 20 years are furriners. Jingomania rules. I think it is the second best tournamant of the year because so much can happen on the back nine. FOX could do a better job.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Peter - not sure whether your post is a plus or minus on The Players.  We'll have to discuss it with the other 'furriers' at The King Players V Cup comings up in the desert.  Look forward to seeing you again.  First round on me.

JC

[George_Bahto]

I think Pete Dye's routing here is pure genius. Even though much of it geared to the tour player, this is a fun golf course to play and truly a great test - obviously, especially the progression of the back nine.

However there are a lot of great hole on the front also.

Forgetting the tour players, how much fun is Pete's design on hole 9 for example. In many ways it is similar to the 15th at harbour Town - 2 great Dye par-5's. He build’s great par-5s

He's playing with your head all the way around the course.

It is very hard to assess great architecture - great routing,  while the pros are playing the course.

Sure, “these guys are good!!”   -   well, why the problem on 17 at that short distance? The green is not that small ...........  He’s got their butts “puckering” and as so many have stated, there are a lot of different shots to be played on that hole relative to conditions and especially how much confidence they have in a particular shot..  He’s bringing them out of their “standard” short-iron shot so they have to think about what kind of shot they have to hit to 17.

Nice! If they mess up, then perhaps they have to gamble a bit on the nasty 18th.

Just get to that Stadium Course and play it if you get the opportunity. It's one of the great courses in the country.

[RJ_Daley]

I agree that the course design provides the right tests in variety areas of shot making to offer many styles of player skills a crack at winning.  

As for the actual golf course architecture and construction, what the course was as a product at the begining is not what it is now.  I think one can say that about the design as well as the engineering, and that the two disciplines inter-relate to effect the playability of the course.

Could Pete Dye be the most prolific archie at tweaking his own work of any GCA in history?  

[peter_p]

JC,
    It was supposed to be a plus for the course. One of the two most exciting back nines played by the pros on a regular basis. It was supposed to be a minus on TV coverage, I'm not a fan of NBC.
    I'm in favor of the move to May, it will be out of the shadow of March Madness.
    Thanks, I'm bringing the wine.

[Kevin_Reilly]

It barely rates a mention here - not shown on free-to-air television, results aren't reported on the news unless an Australian is leading.  There was a small article hidden in the newspaper this morning.

Its the #1 PGA Tour event, and nothing more.  

Likewise in the SF Bay Area...one small article in the back pages of the sports section of both local papers we receive.  No mention of it on the main page of Yahoo either.

I Tivo'd today's play and scanned through all 4 hours in 35 minutes...slowed down the FF when I saw some fun at 17, sped it up when I saw Fedex Reliability zone, Finchem or slo-mo historical pieces from the 80's, and that was about it.  I watch every second of the Masters.

How many years now has this "fifth major" talk been going on...my gawd it's gotten desperate.

[Chris Kane]

How many years now has this "fifth major" talk been going on...my gawd it's gotten desperate.

Kevin I couldn't agree more.  If people need to keep pumping up the status of this event, its clearly not a major.  Not even close.

[Brian Phillips]

I love the tournament and I love the architecture.  Some of the pin placements yesterday were just messin' with the heads of the pros and that would have made Pete chuckle.

If I could ever even get close to the genius of that design in Europe I would be a very happy man.

The green designs are superb absolutely wonderful...and I have never visited the place...every year it comes up I dig out my Pete Dye book and bore my wife with histories of why the 17th was built as it was ...etc..

Tournament has always been popular over here in Norway even though Bjornstad did not qualify this year.

Love it.

[Brian Phillips]

Could Pete Dye be the most prolific archie at tweaking his own work of any GCA in history?  

I think all architects would love to go back and tweak their courses over their lifetime.  There are always regrets or things that did not work out quite how was imagined..

Pete is lucky in that respect.

[TEPaul]

Jonathan;

No argument from me. I agree with you that the tournament is just fun to watch, or more like extremely exciting to watch, more than most any I can remember. So much can happen in a heartbeat, and that's just plain exciting. This year it seems even more so for some reason which must be the little nuances in the set-up this year.

The Tour is obviously dialing in a different set-up now (firmer and faster) and this tournament is a good example. A bit faster "through the green" and the green surfaces are firmer than at any time before which does not allow these players to stick approach shots---a huge difference in strategy for them.

I'm a big fan of "difference" in styles and types in architecture and there's no question Pete Dye courses like this one play the way he intended which is pretty unusual. I've just never been that comfortable with the look of Pete Dye courses and I guess I never will be. It's the ultimate in target golf with very thin margins for error and the ultimate in totally manufactured. I think if anyone could see what that raw site looked like before Pete got there they would be shocked.

[Paul Carey]

It is fun to watch..as much as the US Open and the PGA but a distant second to the Masters and the PGA.  Unfortunately it is opposite the greatest TV sporting event of the year...the NCAA basketball Championship.  Next year in May will be great.

[Craig Disher]

Doesn't a move to May reduce the likelihood of wind?

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