For Championship Play, is the 18th at Whistling Straits...

[Brett_Morrissy]

Zealously supporting Jason Day today - when he arrived at the tee, I was reminded of Matt's mention of TOC above, my greatest fear for him on 18 is that he would make double and JS make birdie.  It is not the fear that JD would choose the wrong strategy up the 18th, but that everything is so penal, that this is potential to make double everywhere, I mean everywhere.

TOC, on the other hand, for gifted players like this, they can choose their strategy to play the hole to achieve their desired outcome - safety, or go for everything.  Adam Scott showed how to make a double by hitting it OOB on the road, but that is highly unusual, but possible, but it is also 100% possible to take that shot out of the equation, unlike 18 at WS - where danger is everywhere.

[Ken Fry]

Mike,


Sorry for the late response.


You said from the overhead shot, the angles look very sharp off the tee.  The above view is misleading because of the heavy cantor of the fairway from high right to lower left.  The view off the tee is much less severe.


I did witness in Saturday's round something I wasn't sure was possible.  From the furthest back tee, Tony Finau hit his tee shot through the end of the fairway and into the hazard.  If my calculations are correct, that would be an uphill drive over 330.


Ken

[MCirba]

Thanks Matt, Brett, and Ken,

I really appreciate the discussion that stayed focused on the architecture and if I had to sum this up I'd say there probably isn't much viable in the way of options from the tee for tournament professionals and what is somewhat unique about the hole is that there are multiple options once that tee shot does not find the desired target.