[Jonathan Mallard]

Yardage is from an participant.


Question is mine.

[PCCraig]

Is 7100 yards really all that long anymore?

[Chris Cupit]

I doubt it will ever play the total yardage of 7187 on any day and no, 7187 for excellent players on well conditioned courses is not that long at all.  Those players with a legitimate chance of winning hit it plenty far--far enough for 7187 if they did stretch it out.


Sorry, but in this case, technology stinks.

[Matt Kardash]

I find it funny when people still freak out about course length on this message board. This isn't 1980. The 7000 yard mark literally means nothing for the pro golfer anymore. A course would have to be 8000 yards to even start being considered long in my books (for the pro golfer).

[Don Mahaffey]

I played earlier this week with a 64 year old former Mid Am champ and Champions tour player who was hitting it 290-310 all day long.

[Matt_Cohn]

The scorecard on the site says 7,061, par 71. There is one par-4 over 460, and the longest par-3 is 212. There just aren't any extremely short holes — shortest par-4 is 359, then 384. So the yardage seems pretty standard.

[Kevin_Reilly]

I played earlier this week with a 64 year old former Mid Am champ and Champions tour player who was hitting it 290-310 all day long.

Who was that?  How much of that distance was carry vs roll?

[Terry Lavin]

We hosted this event at Beverly in 2009. Our course is par 71, 7050 yards. The seniors played it at 6600 all week. They never played the back tees on three of our long par fives and they played the middle tees on the two longer par 4's. It was a great week of golf even if they were hitting the par fives in two. I would like to think something similar might happen at Old Warson.

[Peter Pallotta]

It really is amazing what happens when you hit the centre of the club face/sweet spot...every single time...including with your hybrids.

[Jason Topp]

A guy who failed to qualify just shot 70 in our club championship qualifying round from 7,000 yards.  Another guy who failed to qualify for the senior am is the defending club champion, which was played from a longer yardage last year.

[Tom_Doak]

Who was that?  How much of that distance was carry vs roll?

Don must have played against David Eger and partner in the Renaissance Cup.  (Sorry about the draw, Don!)

I played with David after the event at Crystal Downs.  He was only driving it 260-280 there, so he was getting a lot more rollout at The Loop, which is a very firm playing surface right now.  David was being consistently out driven by 30 yards or more by a young pro in our foursome at the Downs, but it was the veteran who made five birdies to none for the longer hitter.

[Howard Riefs]

I doubt it will ever play the total yardage of 7187 on any day and no, 7187 for excellent players on well conditioned courses is not that long at all.  Those players with a legitimate chance of winning hit it plenty far--far enough for 7187 if they did stretch it out.

Round 1: 6,767 yards
Round 2: 6,799 yards

[Tom_Doak]

Howard:


Thanks for posting the real yardages they're playing.


Even 50-year-olds are long hitters now, thanks to the new technology; but Stonewall tested a bunch of younger players in the Mid-Am from 6,800 yards.


The glorification of long golf courses is a conspiracy amongst the governing bodies, the equipment companies, and the golf media [which takes a lot of ad money from the equipment companies].  Long courses are great!  Look at how far these guys can hit it!  You need new equipment! 


It's almost as bad as the media coverage of politics.

[David_Tepper]

From the blog of one of the participants in the Senior Am:

"My hope is the USGA doesn’t start making adjustments and moving the tees forward. Candidly I felt the last two years venues were played way to short (not that it helped me). I think a National Senior championship should be conducted at 7,000 yards long."

[Pat Burke]

Howard:


Thanks for posting the real yardages they're playing.


Even 50-year-olds are long hitters now, thanks to the new technology; but Stonewall tested a bunch of younger players in the Mid-Am from 6,800 yards.


The glorification of long golf courses is a conspiracy amongst the governing bodies, the equipment companies, and the golf media [which takes a lot of ad money from the equipment companies].  Long courses are great!  Look at how far these guys can hit it!  You need new equipment! 


It's almost as bad as the media coverage of politics.

+1

[Dan Moore]

I played in the event. It rained for about 30 hours straight from Thursday at 5:30 pm into early Saturday morning.  It stopped in time for qualifying to start on time at 7:10 am Saturday. The course drained pretty well and it was fairly wet, but we still got some bounce and roll.

I don't know if they changed the set-up because of the rain, but it was set-up quite a bit shorter than initially indicated. It was set up longer for Thursday's practice round than for either day of the competition. Howard has the correct yardages as we played it. 

The median age of the field was 59. I am probably in the shorter or mid range of the distance spectrum in the field and I didn't find it overly long as it was set up Difficult yes, but not unfairly long.  The rough even before the rain was very difficult so the premium was more on accuracy and shot making than distance. 

If I had one complaint it would be the rough around the greens made recovery shots hack and hope and really didn't offer much in the way of options.  I think everyone found the greens difficult to gauge.

That said I thought the course and set up was a really demanding and fair test of quality golf. And I think that was the overall perception of the field. I think if it had been set up over 7,000 that would have been too long and there would have been a different perception.

Now that medal play is over and  the course drying out I wouldn't be surprised to see it set up a little longer.

[John Kavanaugh]

Dan,


Playing in a senior am is Mucciesque!!! Congrats.

[Dan Moore]

Thanks John. Second only to the 5th Major and Lord Brassey Cup! 

[Mark Chaplin]

Dan congratulations on playing, certainly a good season for you!

I cannot understand why the USGA take good short game out of the equation by surrounding greens with thick rough. Hack and hope really does sum up the set up at many fine courses.

[Ken Fry]

We all know why the overall distance is bragged about so often.  Don't men ALWAYS like to brag about length?!?!?  (Both metaphorically and literally?)

Ken

[Kyle Harris]

It is pretty important to remember, before diving into these discussions, how and why the USGA sets up the golf course for the hybrid Stroke/Match play events.

With multiple-course Stroke play events, the USGA will set up the golf course in the most conservative manner to ensure the field can finish in two days, as well as accommodate any potential playoff. Match play set ups tend to vary both in distance and difficult because the format is more accommodating.

Typically the listed yardage before the event or published for public consumption is at the maximum yardage considered. This does not mean they will ever use that yardage.

[Ryan Hillenbrand]

Dan,

Wish I would have known you were one of the competitors - I was out there walking around yesterday.

Curious - what were favorite and least favorite holes?

Seemed #8 had the highest stroke average.  I always hated that hole.

[Howard Riefs]

Round 1: 6,767 yards
Round 2: 6,799 yards

The avg. score for both stoke-play rounds was 76.452


http://www.usga.org/championships/2016/u-s--senior-amateur/course-statistics.html


Validating Kyle's post above... For the first round of match play, the course is set up at 7,061 yards.

[jeffwarne]

Yardage is from an participant.


Question is mine.

Because Senior Amateurs hit it farther than elite Tour players of 30-50 years ago when that was considered long

[JMEvensky]

Because Senior Amateurs hit it farther than elite Tour players of 30-50 years ago when that was considered long

Agree. I know some of the guys who made it to match play and they are amazed at how far they hit it. When you walk out to play a friendly weekend game with a 4-some of 60 year olds and they automatically walk back to the  7200 yard tee markers,something has changed--and not for the better.

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