TPC Sawgrass v. TPC Stadium Course

[Jason Topp]

Which do you like better and why?

[Adam Clayman]

Jason, I'd say Sawgrass is superior because; 1) The routing is better for walkers.
2) Sawgrass allows a higher handicaper to at least believe he can pull off the shot. In the desert, the design is so penal, even a non-thinking neanderthal knows damn well their 4 iron has no chance of holding the green and opts to lay up, any shot over 160 yards.

[Jason Topp]

Adam - that was my initial reaction as well, although there is less water on the stadium course than I remembered.  I also think that the difference between the courses is not very large.

Some points that favor the stadium course:

1.  More three dimensional
2.  It seemed like it had wider fairways

Some other reactions:

I continue to believe that really deep greenside bunkers pose almost no more difficulty for the good player than shallow ones.  Nonetheless, they are impossible for most people.  

The one thing I hate about many Pete Dye courses are the ounds with such steep slopes that result in extremely goofy recovery attempts.  

I do not think that all of those mounds are necessary for the difficulty of the course.  Those slopes are unnatural and generally pretty far out of the line of play.  The high handicap player plays them often but the good player usually only experiences them near the green.

[Adam Clayman]

Jason, I don't see them as that equal. One of the aspects I loathe about the desert course is the pond surrounds on #10.  I find them jarring after the long drive from nine green. Plus, there's a lot of the over the top humor, Pete threw-in at the Stadium. In Florida the lines are just right, a perfect mix of the hard and soft.  The feeling is more relaxed in Fl. while everything going on in the desert is likely put there to put the golfer off. Annoying, like a pink painted room.

[John Foley]

Sawgrass was a much more visually intimidating course that PGA West. I always felt that comming off the tee PGA West fair and would not push me tremendously for a maginal drive where Sawgrass a poor drive was double city.

The amount of H2O on both courses would be a wash in my mind.

Bunkers at PGA West we're much tougher.

[Jason Topp]

The feeling is more relaxed in Fl. while everything going on in the desert is likely put there to put the golfer off. Annoying, like a pink painted room.

Great quote!  

I tend to focus less on the visual than on playability.   I cannot remember the 10th being particularly jarring.