Vijay Singh's comments about OH during the PGA after his Pro Am round at Ridgewood (as reported by Steve Elling):
PARAMUS, N.J. -- Time heals all wounds, eh?
Or maybe it's time wounds all heels, depending on your opinion of Vijay Singh.
Another week and another tournament later, at least one prominent player was still feeling the sting from the final major championship of the year, played two weekends ago at Oakland Hills.
Without prompting, the world's fifth-ranked player on Wednesday fired another broadside blast at the harsh setup used at the 90th PGA Championship, ripping the course for being too severe in spots.
Singh had just completed his pro-am round at The Barclays, to be played this year for the first time at Ridgewood Country Club, when he began taking more verbal shots at the host PGA, which heard catcalls from angry players all week during the event.
"I think, finally, we are playing a good golf course," Singh said of Ridgewood.
Ouch. Within moments, he made it doubly clear that he was both praising Ridgewood and pasting Oakland Hills.
Two things to consider when weighing Singh's considered opinion: First, he is a former PGA Championship winner, so he's not going to launch into a dated diatribe without good reason. Then again, he was credited with five-putting one of Oakland Hills' undulating greens, which Jack Nicklaus once characterized as the toughest in golf.
"From tee to green that's one of the best golf courses I have played, but it's a disgrace to have greens like that on a golf course that good," Singh said of Oakland Hills, site of multiple U.S. Opens and PGAs in years past, not to mention the 2004 Ryder Cup.
"If the members were to play the speed of the greens we played, they would all quit," he said. "I don't think there would be any members left.
"I don't know what the PGA was going at. I don't think they could ever hold another golf tournament on that course if the greens are like that."
The course underwent a tweaking and lengthening three years ago by designer Rees Jones, but the greens were essentially untouched. Maybe they should have been bulldozed, too, Singh said.
"They should get somebody to redesign those greens," he groused. "From tee to green it's one of the best golf courses you can ever play. But on the greens, it was just a disaster."
Then again, eventual winner Padraig Harrington was credited with one-putting 10 of the final 13 holes during his memorable rally in the final round, so somebody surely had them figured out. -(end of article)
So can we assume that others may have felt the same? Is OH in danger of having the last bit of Ross (the greens) removed? Is this sour grapes by a player that has always been a poor putter?