BBC radio are reporting that qualifying on the Sunningdale Old Course was temporarily suspended this morning after four groups had played the par 3 4th. In that time one player had4-puttedfrom 2 feet and another had 5 putted. The hole location was moved and once the four groups had finished their rounds they returned to the 4th to replay it.
In the effort to "challenge" top players, are course set-ups becoming borderline stupid? I played at The Berkshire on Friday which was great fun, as always but the afternoon round on the Red Course took nearly five hours. The Berkshire Trophy was last weekend and whilst the greens were quick but not as quick as they would have been then, the fairways and rough were still in "competition" nick. Frankly, some holes were ridiculous. The fairway on the 1st on the Red was only 20 yards wide. On the 15th on the Blue the fairway was only 10 yards wide at 280 yards from the yellow tees (so presumably it narrowed at 300/310 from the back tees. The 8th on the Blue (which is a tough hole at the best of times) had a fairway no more than 20 yards wide.
These fairways were significantly narrower than normal and made the course play much, much harder for all. Does anyone know what score won the Berkshire Trophy? For me, these are great courses but short by modern tournament standards. If the Berkshire still want to have a prestigious tournament then they need to accept that scores will be low, rather than set it up to make it a test of luck as much as judgment and skill.