When Mr. Reilly asked me to post my feelings about #8, I had a tough time collecting my thoughts. Despite having played the "new" eight a gaggle of times since they finished the work in 2002, I still have never really come to a solid position as to how I feel about the return to the double fairway concept. It certainly has more than its fair share of critics...
One thing I do think is that it might be easier to achieve the desired balance between the risks/rewards of playing either way by looking at possible changes to the configuration of the green...in lieu of making any change to the landing areas for drives to either fairway.
I'm going to have a tough time describing what I'm talking about here...it would be easier if I could just show you...but if you’re interested in reading on--bear with me while I do my best.
Take a look at the profile of #8 in my course guide (
http://www.azaleagolf.com/rivieraGuide-8.shtml)...specifically, check out the positioning of hole locations A, B and E. If you compare their location on the green to the corresponding section of the green slope map at the bottom (hopefully you can work through my total ineptitude at all things artistic) you’ll notice how each of these pins are cut scarily close to the false edge that runs off into the barranca on the right side. You’ll also notice that this edge is not angular…it does a very slight “S” shape from the back-right towards #6 tee before hooking back around the front-left of the putting surface.
Why does this matter? Because the irregular shaping cuts in front of some portions of the right side of the green as you look at it from the right-side fairway…it doesn’t just run down the right side of it. This “hangs” the middle and back right areas of the green out over the barranca ever so slightly (like the relatively new back-left pin at #13, but in reverse)--broadening the reach and influence of the hazard by using it as a penalizing mechanism not just for shots that are off line left/right but also shots that come up just a few steps short (like Tommy Armour III making the sickest eight I’ve ever seen yesterday after landing his wedge approach just steps away from the hole and watching it spin back and trickle down the hill).
Now, to the front pin (A) from yesterday, this effect created by the false edge doesn’t have any significant impact on which fairway is better suited for a more ideal approach angle because the false edge also wraps around the front and left--effectively creating the same “TA3 Problem” for those who try and attack this pin from the left side as well. Because neither side provides a significant improvement in angle as a reward to the player choosing the riskier tee shot, he ends up being forced to choose between the two tee shot options based upon only the risks inherent in either tactic. Because the tee shot is more challenging to the left side than the right, few will ever go left when the pin is here. This same concept rings true to middle and back-left hole locations…the reward for going left off the tee is either miniscule or non-existent in comparison to the much greater challenge of driving it up the left.
However, to the two hole right-side hole locations deeper into the green (B & E…most especially B), there is a significantly better angle of approach to act as the reward for going left if the pin is cut all the way right on these little shelves hanging over the barranca.
I’ll go back again to the Saturday (back-left) pin at #13 to demonstrate why the angle is better from the left to hole locations B&E at #8. Because the finger of green on which that flagstick it is located is hung out over the hazard instead of flushed up evenly against it, shots on-line short of the hole will draw back down the hill into the barranca.
Therefore, the closer the player hits his tee shot to the short side the worse angle he has at the hole and the more he must risk putting the approach into the hazard should he choose to play aggressively at the hidden hole location.
This effect is mitigated the further away from the short side the player hits his drive. That angle is significantly better than its opposite for two reasons; (1) from there, the player has whole lot more green to work with from the front edge to the pin, and; (2) there is more breathing room for the misplayed shot. If you apply the mirror image of this same theory to the two hole locations in the back/right on #8, logic would dictate that the further left the player is off the tee the better off he’d be.
Still, not everyone (in fact the minority of players in the Northern Trust) will go left at #8 when the hole is located in areas B & E because the reverse-#13 effect I talk about above only applies when the pin is cut no more than four or so paces from that right edge. More often than not, the TOUR doesn’t put the pin all the way over here…and rare is the day when Mr. Morton (the superintendent) is in a feisty enough mood that the members see the hole located there as well.
You might be asking--why is any of what I said at all relevant if the pin position that creates the situation I spend a billion paragraphs describing is almost never used? Because it illustrates the way in which you could correct the existing imbalance of risk and reward that leads to nine out of ten players (approximately…I didn’t have a chance to get the exact stats) choosing to hit their tee shots up the right side. As mentioned above, three of the five distinct areas in which the hole can be located offer no reward for the risk of going up the left…while the two that might offer some reward for that play are usually never used in the manner that would bring into play the strategic concepts I’ve been rambling about in this essay.
If you took the strategy behind the concept I discussed regarding the back-left hole location at #13 and rebuilt the green at #8 to enhance this effect a little more (really hang that pin out on the corner), you could command a play to the left a lot more often...and players might be more likely to split their decisions from the tee at a more interesting rate of 60/40 instead of the current 90/10 favoring that right fairway.
I know this has been a long winded essay and it probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense...I'll try to put together some graphics in the near future to more easily illustrate via the visual a concept that takes way too many words to articulate.
For those of you who made it this far...thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think.
Sam
PS- Just as I finish this up and get ready to post it, I look up at the telecast and see that the TOUR used the pin I'm talking about…and, consequently, both Freddy and Phil went left.