A few random thoughts on this year's PGA

[Jeff_Lewis]

1.  A big shout out to Brian Gaffney, our head Pro who accomplished a pretty remarkable feat as the only Club Pro to play the weekend.
2. Can they please fill in about 750 of those 1000 bunkers?  The ones that are only in play for resort golfers?
3. Why is this course so GREEN and SOFT?
4. Will the USGA ever come to terms with putting a stop to the golf ball arms race?
5. Is it possible that Chambers Bay looks less "faux"-links than WS does?
6. There are some remarkable talents out there right now.  The next few years will rival the Nicklaus Watson Trevino Miller Floyd Weiskopf, etc etc period for entertainment value.

[Tim_Weiman]

Jeff,


Actually, many of the bunkers at Whistling Straights are not in play even for resort golfers.

[David_Tepper]

Jeff,


The course was green because it rained. It was not that soft.


See the thread started bt Dean Stokes.


DT

[Ronald Montesano]

I hate this new functionality. I don't even remember what I wrote for 4, 5 and 6.

1.  A big shout out to Brian Gaffney, our head Pro who accomplished a pretty remarkable feat as the only Club Pro to play the weekend.
2. Can they please fill in about 750 of those 1000 bunkers?  The ones that are only in play for resort golfers?
3. Why is this course so GREEN and SOFT?
4. Will the USGA ever come to terms with putting a stop to the golf ball arms race?
5. Is it possible that Chambers Bay looks less "faux"-links than WS does?
6. There are some remarkable talents out there right now.  The next few years will rival the Nicklaus Watson Trevino Miller Floyd Weiskopf, etc etc period for entertainment value.

This will disqualify me from ever playing at Quaker Ridge. So be it.


1. Absolutely swell guy. I enjoyed his time on "the app" with katrek and breed.


2. Been answered. No drone or blimp shots when you play the course. You don't even know that they are there, as you are not playing the entire golf course.


3. Been answered. #MotherNatureLaughed


4. [/size]Has less to do with what you saw this week than you think. You saw pure talent and fitness. You saw total technology success, not just the ball. You also didn't see "those things" when the wind quartered or was against.

[/size]5. What does this mean? What percentage of golfers (aka this treehouse) differentiates between faux and vrai links and should this matter? If it plays like a links and looks like a links, isn't that a good thing for that 9[/size]7% of golfers who can't differentiate? Why should we split hairs over DNA?

[/size]6. You and Nick Faldo think alike. Who knows what will happen? I sure hope that no one in 1968 was saying "We're going to have an electrifying BIG THREE along the lines of Sneed, Hogan and Nelson over the next few seasons."

[/size]7. Brooke Henderson.

[BHoover]

Ants are not burrowing animals.

[Kalen Braley]

Ants are not burrowing animals.

Ants are in fact burrowing animals....Bubba didn't get his drop ONLY because the rules of golf specifically prohibits insects from this category...which IMO is a bit suspect and violates the spirit of the rule.

[BHoover]

Ants are not burrowing animals.

Ants are in fact burrowing animals....Bubba didn't get his drop ONLY because the rules of golf specifically prohibits insects from this category...which IMO is a bit suspect and violates the spirit of the rule.

If insects are specifically carved out from the list of burrowing animals, I don't see how a specific exception violates the "spirit" of the rule. Strict constructionism! Or is there some hidden penumbra within the rule that includes insects?

[Kalen Braley]

The spirit of this rule to me is....did one of mother natures creatures, humans excluded, dig a hole in the ground such that you can't play it, or is difficult to play.  Its clear the ants dug the hole, so how is this different than if a rabbit or gopher did it??
 
That's why specifically eliminating them in the definition of "burrowing animal" is perplexing to me....that elimination is in violation of the spirit of the rule.

[BHoover]

I actually do agree with you. But if insects are a specific exception, then that's the rule. But whether the rule is the "right" one is another discussion.

[Kalen Braley]

I actually do agree with you. But if insects are a specific exception, then that's the rule. But whether the rule is the "right" one is another discussion.

So I think we agree here...
 
I'm indeed only questioning the logic of why insects and worms were left our in the 1st place because they seem to fit in with the spirit of the rule when getting relief in this situation.

[Carson Pilcher]

Is there not a rule that states a player can get a drop when there is a situation that can cause immediate harm to the player?  Beehive, etc?  I would think ants flying up in your divot could classify.  I may be wrong and just dreamed that rule.

[Carl Johnson]

3. Why is this course so GREEN and SOFT?
5. Is it possible that Chambers Bay looks less "faux"-links than WS does?

Green and soft because that's how it was designed to be played.  Can you imagine if it was f&f?  I like Zach Johnson's take:

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/zach-johnson-whistling-straits-furthest-thing-links/

[Charlie_Bell]

Apparently fire ants are an exception to the exception, and the rules official specifically mentioned them.


Also, I'd guess that the Rules exclude worms and regular ants from the burrowing list, because playing a ball sitting on a small anthill or worm-dung pile in the fairway is really no trickier than hitting out of a divot.  There'd be too many rulings -- "Can I get relief from this anthill, partner?" "Well, how  big an anthill is it?"  "Home a few hundred."  "How does it compare to that worm-pile back on the 3rd?"

[Wayne_Kozun]

Discussion of Bubba's situation will probably be common at #6 at Cabot Cliffs as that entire greensite is literally crawling with ants.

[Tom_Doak]

Most of the Rules concerning relief go back to the days of the early links.  To wit:


Relief is limited to "burrowing animals" because there were so many cows and sheep on the course that you'd be lifting and placing all the time were they included.


"Burrowing animals" were used because the general rule was that you always played the ball as it lies, and if you're in a deep rabbit hole or badger hole it might be impossible to get your club on the ball at all.


Ants and insects generally don't do the sort of damage described above, so they are excepted.  In fact I can't remember encountering ants as a problem on a links course [unlike my front yard ].

[Dan Herrmann]

Laugh out loud moment of the event.  As the camera moved away from Bubba during his "burrowing animal" argument,  you could hear Bubba yell out, "Ow!  They bit me!"

As for the golf course architecture, I sure wouldn't pay $500 to subject myself to that kind of torture.

[Phil Young]

Taking from Charlie Bell's comment where he said, "How does it compare to that worm-pile back on the 3rd?" and Tom's "Most of the Rules concerning relief go back to the days of the early links." I was reminded of the reason why Brook Hollow CC was founded.

It was a delightful Saturday afternoon as Cameron Buxton was playing a round of golf at a Dallas club with his usual foursome consisting of his brother-in-law H.L. Edwards, his close friend Charley Dexter and one whose name history has now lost but who was witness to the events nevertheless.

According to these witnesses, Buxton hit a prodigious drive down the left side of the fairway only for it to land down on the sturdy worm cast that had been so diligently erected. Striking the cast as it did, rather than bounding on down the fairway as Cam expected, it ricocheted directly left into some terrible high rough. Cam Buxton decided then and there, and his partner’s, probably after enjoying a good laugh at his expense, all agreed that what the city of Dallas needed was a high-quality championship test of golf, and one that wouldn’t allow worms past the front gate. Over the next few days they set determinedly about making this happen, and so the Brook Hollow Golf Club was born from a worm’s end.

True story...

[Kalen Braley]

Perhaps they are more common back east....
 
But in my 20 years or so of playing golf, I can't recall once ever ending up on an ant hill or worm pile.  I have however ended up in more gopher/rat holes that I would have liked.  I'm just not seeing how excluding insect holes was needed in the rule because they are too common.
 
Once again, I preface this with having played virtually all of my golf west of the Rockies....

[Bob_Huntley]

Kalen,

Play golf in Sub-Saharan Africa and you may well hit a ball into an ant hill....and find it embedded.

Bob

[Rob Marshall]

The spirit of this rule to me is....did one of mother natures creatures, humans excluded, dig a hole in the ground such that you can't play it, or is difficult to play.  Its clear the ants dug the hole, so how is this different than if a rabbit or gopher did it??
 
That's why specifically eliminating them in the definition of "burrowing animal" is perplexing to me....that elimination is in violation of the spirit of the rule.

What is interesting is that an ant hill is a loose impediment and can be moved.


A few years ago in a tournament my stance straddled a sprinkler box and bees were coming out of it. I had a perfect lie and I wasn't standing on the box. I was told by the official (club pro) that I could take relief from a dangerous situation however my nearest point would put me where I would have had a more difficult shot. I asked if I could put a towel over the sprinkler box while I hit the shot from the original location so the bees couldn't come out and was told no even though I wouldn't have been standing on the towel. Never figured that one out. I played it as it lied.

[John Kirk]

1.  A big shout out to Brian Gaffney, our head Pro who accomplished a pretty remarkable feat as the only Club Pro to play the weekend.
2. Can they please fill in about 750 of those 1000 bunkers?  The ones that are only in play for resort golfers?
3. Why is this course so GREEN and SOFT?
4. Will the USGA ever come to terms with putting a stop to the golf ball arms race?
5. Is it possible that Chambers Bay looks less "faux"-links than WS does?
6. There are some remarkable talents out there right now.  The next few years will rival the Nicklaus Watson Trevino Miller Floyd Weiskopf, etc etc period for entertainment value.

  Hi Jeff,
 
I had a few thoughts about the golf course and golf tournament.  This is a good place for them.
 
 
1.     I watched a lot of coverage this weekend, trying to get a feel for the individual holes.  Even by Sunday evening, I found Whistling Straits lacking in memorability.  At most great golf courses, each hole has a distinctive look from the tee.  If you showed me a picture looking down the 2^nd, 4^th and 15^th holes from the tee box, I don’t think I could tell them apart.  Also, the four par 3s, though reasonably different from a playing perspective, look very similar.
2.     The thousand bunkers look strange, but I argue they serve an important purpose for tournament play.  Having such a complex puzzle of sand and grass yields all sorts of odd shots and predicaments for these great players.  They have to be creative, and they have a great variety of risk/reward plays from the rough.  Compared to other American major golf tournaments, Whistling Straits yielded a greater variety of recovery plays.
3.     In my opinion, years from now Whistling Straits may be remembered as an example of massive excess, a hideously complex design that is way too hard to maintain.  I went into the tournament baffled that the course is considered a top 5 modern design by Golfweek magazine, and after four days of looking closely, I still don’t see how such an ornate, severe, manufactured landscape deserves that type of respect. I don’t get it.
4.     But it played well for the pros.  There’s value in setting up the course a bit softer, so we can see how great these golfers can be. Chambers Bay yielded higher scores with ultra firm fairways and inconsistent greens. I thought Whistling Straits was the superior venue for watching pro golf.  In many ways they are similar.
5.     During this tournament, I was less concerned about the massive distances the ball traveled, and more interested in how straight the ball flies. The ball going so far and so straight is of some concern moving forward. 
6.     Whistling Straits has weird sand.  It appears to have very small particles, and looks sort of like dust.  It seemed to yield mostly “chunk and run” type results, and few of the spinning sand shots we’ve become accustomed to.
 
 

[David_Tepper]

Some further thoughts/observations:

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2015/8/17/what-to-make-of-whistling-straits-after-the-2015-pga.html

[Andrew Buck]

I actually do agree with you. But if insects are a specific exception, then that's the rule. But whether the rule is the "right" one is another discussion.

So I think we agree here...
 
I'm indeed only questioning the logic of why insects and worms were left our in the 1st place because they seem to fit in with the spirit of the rule when getting relief in this situation.

I suspect there is a concern that insects and worms burrow almost everywhere and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish, thus concern that everyone would be using it for a drop regularly.

[Kalen Braley]

Kalen,

Play golf in Sub-Saharan Africa and you may well hit a ball into an ant hill....and find it embedded.

Bob

Bob,
 
I suspect they have some serious ant hills as well...the ants are just about as big to carry off a person.   
 
IN light of this, it seems that anthills should indeed be included in the burrowing animal ruling, not excluded