The Brilliance of Pete Dye's TPC

[cary lichtenstein]

Pretty amazing that a 30 year old course, 7100 yards long, keeps today's best players from winning its championship.


I played the course 1 week after its first tournament and found it "impossible", and I have been fascinating by its changes and the way the tour pros are able to overcome its extreme "intimidation". 


My second play more interesting as their where so many penalties, there was virtually no safe way to maneuver around the course, so I just hit away, and did much better.


As good as today's players are, 18 proves simply intimidating, hence all the balls missed to the right.

[Jeff_Lewis]

Why would it be good to keep the "best players from winning"? Often we evaluate courses positively if the best players excel there.


We have to be careful extrapolating from one week.   Over the course of time the list of TPC champs is pretty impressive even if we see the occasional outlier. This guy is 21.  Even though his form has been poor, he could turn out to be a star. 


 It would be interesting to see the distribution of winners at regular tour stops by world ranking percentile in the field.  That way the Masters doesn't get a pass for the limited field. 


Again - no substitute for data, but it feels like the Open has more outlier champs than the other majors. I would love to see the numbers.


If there's a data guru out there- have at it. 

[Alan Ritchie]

It has allowed a number of the worlds best win it in recent years. Chambees comments seem very odd to me

[cary lichtenstein]

I for one, think it is ridiculous to see all these abnormal distances these players hit the ball and turn every course into a driver/wedge, including the par 5's.


There are other skill sets like hitting fairways, chipping, putting, sand saves that came into play and it was nice to see that over this weekend.


Should Dustin Johnson win every tournament like Tiger? At least, Tiger possessed those other skill sets.


It's nice to see Jordan Speith, a throw back to Ben Crenshaw. Great to see Sergio win, a real ball striker.

[Tom Bacsanyi]

I for one, think it is ridiculous to see all these abnormal distances these players hit the ball and turn every course into a driver/wedge, including the par 5's.


There are other skill sets like hitting fairways, chipping, putting, sand saves that came into play and it was nice to see that over this weekend.


Should Dustin Johnson win every tournament like Tiger? At least, Tiger possessed those other skill sets.


It's nice to see Jordan Speith, a throw back to Ben Crenshaw. Great to see Sergio win, a real ball striker.

Crenshaw was one of the rattiest ballstrikers to ever win multiple majors, but that putter though (and short game).  The Speith comparison is quite wide of the mark (consistent ball striker, good putter, good short game, just above average in every skill except for driving distance).

[Steve Lang]

   Cary,


Ever play PD's Oak Tree in Edmond, OK?  Claimed toughest in USA when it opened with 76.9 rating for the par 71 layout.  Look at its history heritage ...


Hasn't treated a lot of "named" pros very well either in some pga events...