Talk to me about Trinity Forest

[Andy Johnson]

It's an awesome professional golf product. A true test of skill, gotta do it all including think to succeed. Watched the morning wave and it's playing really good. It would be absolutely perfect if the Tour got the fairway cut back to what it is for daily member play. Here's some videos I made for the tournament.


Hanse on TF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C1Tewpj0AM


Coore on #5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAb_B3xLqVo


Breakdown of #6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwS2rkgoVto&t=9s

[Peter Kelly]

Trinity Forest GCS Kasey Kauff addressing the "over-watered" rumor: https://twitter.com/KaseyKauff/status/996919251318517760
 
wind is down..as are the scores.

[Cal Seifert]

Have any players publically complained about the course yet?

[Tim Gavrich]

Have any players publically complained about the course yet?

Matt Kuchar doesn't seem to like it: https://twitter.com/AdamSchupak/status/997176648436015105


“I’m going to follow the lesson if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.”

[BCrosby]

I have only seen Trinity on TV, but it looks a lot like Doak's The Loop.


Bob

[Bill Brightly]

Have any players publically complained about the course yet?

Matt Kuchar doesn't seem to like it: https://twitter.com/AdamSchupak/status/997176648436015105


“I’m going to follow the lesson if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.”

It won't be fun for me if the pros are not complaining! I bet many will keep there (dumb) opinions to themselves out of respect to Ben Crenshaw. Too bad, some of the funniest comments come from pro golfers and low handicap amateurs trying to talk about good and bad golf course architecture...

[Jerry Kluger]

Took Spieth, McDowell and Walker 5 1/2 hours to play their round - is that a reflection of how hard it is to understand the course or just pros being pros? McDowell must have spent 10 minutes trying to figure out his chip shot on 17 and he's a guy who learned to play the game on Irish links courses - they need to do something about this.  OK, I will admit it, it does make it easier to take a nap.

[Cal Seifert]

Took Spieth, McDowell and Walker 5 1/2 hours to play their round - is that a reflection of how hard it is to understand the course or just pros being pros? McDowell must have spent 10 minutes trying to figure out his chip shot on 17 and he's a guy who learned to play the game on Irish links courses - they need to do something about this.  OK, I will admit it, it does make it easier to take a nap.

And after all that time, he pitched it past the pin and let the slope take it back. Spieth looked so done waiting for him to hit.

[Edward Glidewell]

Took Spieth, McDowell and Walker 5 1/2 hours to play their round - is that a reflection of how hard it is to understand the course or just pros being pros? McDowell must have spent 10 minutes trying to figure out his chip shot on 17 and he's a guy who learned to play the game on Irish links courses - they need to do something about this.  OK, I will admit it, it does make it easier to take a nap.

And after all that time, he pitched it past the pin and let the slope take it back. Spieth looked so done waiting for him to hit.

About time Spieth got a taste of his own medicine! He's ridiculously slow. When he and Rory were paired at the Masters a few years ago, it got to the point where McIlroy would already walk and be waiting down by the green while Spieth was still in the fairway trying to plot out his shot.

[Kalen Braley]

Just based on what i saw on TV....it most closely resembled the Olympic Course in Rio from the various camera angles...

[David_Tepper]

"Players Embrace Trinity Forest"
https://www.pgatour.com/news/2018/05/18/players-embrace-trinity-forest-setup-conditions-at-t-byron-nelson.html
 

[Jim Nugent]

Yesterday Spieth drove one of the par 4s... and bogeyed the hole. 

Today he hit his approach on his last hole 11 1/2 feet from the cup.  Another bogey.

That's after finishing the Players with an 8 (quadruple bogey).. and his last tournament before that (the NO Zurich team event) dunking two balls in the water on the last two holes to miss the cut by a stroke. 

I've never seen a top golfer blow up so much.  The flip side is he's a birdie/eagle machine when he's on. 

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Zac Blair is in the field this week. Given his love of classic architecture he should do very well this week. Go Zac!!!

T92 as of right now. Still five holes to make the cut, though.

[Peter Gannon]

I have not lived in Texas for 16 years, but Trinity Forest FINALLY, seems like the course the climate needs. 


Who gives a shite  what the Tour Players "expect".  Anyone coming to N Texas, should expect loads of wind, and not much rain!   (weirdly, too much sleet in the winter times).

[Dave McCollum]

The tour players seem to be embracing the challenge and the course.  These guys are good and can figure out how to score on course as quickly as anyone on the planet.  It's a fact that they're killing it with -15 after two rounds.  Yet, my take at this point is that the new guys on tour are not deserving of our biases about the the old on tour and willing give this place a little thought.  What more could we ask?     

[Peter Pallotta]

As Dave notes, no one 'figures out' a course better or faster than a tour pro. Also, no one knows their own games better -- their strengths and weaknesses and tendencies. But also, IMO, there is never, ever all that much to 'figure out' in the first place. Strategies and options and ideal angles (even relative to wind conditions and pin positions etc) are not secret codes or complex puzzles; they are simple enough to see, and fairly quickly too. IMO, the strength of good architects like C&C isn't in 'introducing' options and strategies into the design -- any & all working architects know how to do that. It's in 'finding' (in the case of true minimalism) ways to have natural/pre existing features serve strategic functions; and/or in 'integrating' (when earth moving from scratch, or as at TF) the options and choices they've created within an overall aesthetic such that the strategies don't come off as a paint by numbers exercise.

[Frank M]

Peter: regarding incorporating the natural or preexisting features at Trinity, I have yet to see any McDonald’s wrappers.

[Jerry Kluger]

I will wait and see how they play Shinnecock and Carnoustie before conceding that they are the best at adapting their play to the course.
To me, the vast majority just want to hit it as far as they can and then hit it at the flag.  Firm and fast drives them crazy as does heavily undulated greens.  We shall see.

[Dave McCollum]

Jerry, I'm the first to say that tour pros have way too much influence on the game.  In fact, they don't play the same game and represent only a tiny fraction of golfers.  And, yes, a few act like spoiled brats.  Some behaviors at Chambers Bay come to mind.  There was a lot of talk before this event that anticipated the pros were going to bitch about the course.  That doesn't seem to have happened, at least not to the degree predicted.  If that indicates a change in the stereotype, and I'm not sure it does, we should give them some credit.  That doesn't change my belief that the people designing courses, equipment, rules, etc. should pay much attention to what these guys do.  If the game they play doesn't work for the larger game of golf, change their game so that it does.  These guys are so good and worked so hard to get where they are, they would adapt to changes in their competitions almost instantly.  Entirely different story for the rest of us.       

[Thomas Dai]

If the Pro’s we watch on TV don’t like it then it’s probably got a lot going for it! Make them play the kind of shots they’re uncomfortable with...ie Pete Dye’s idea of half wedge shot where the bottom of the pin is hidden!
As to relationship to par, well if they can get to a green in two shots then the hole is not a par-5.


Atb

[Dan Herrmann]

I love what I'm seeing on TV.   Golf as it was meant to be

[Cal Seifert]

What a breath of fresh air for the PGA Tour. The more variety in types of courses played, the more I’m interested in watching.

[Matthew Rose]

They all hated Sawgrass too, and now they love it. Of course part of that is because it got neutered a bit, but I still think that they will become kinder over time the more they get to know it.

A lot of famous names didn't like St. Andrews the first time they saw it either.

[jeffwarne]

A lot of famous names didn't like St. Andrews the first time they saw it either.

+1
That and they will be giving a large check out at the end of the week-I don't hear Leishman complaining.


Course looks great conditionwise on TV but is very unphotogenic on TV.
i.e. it's hard for the topography and undulation to shine on TV, but no doubt it looks much better from the ground
I always thought the TPC Los Colinas was hideous on TV so it's at least an improvement on that.


I'd say the PGA Tour and the announcers are becoming increasingly enlightened to GCA, and the firm and fast conjurs up memories of munis in Julyl and seems so much less contrived than say Chambers or Pinehurst .

[Peter Pallotta]

Jeff - an honest question, from an average golfer to a very good one:
With firm and fast, isn't it still target golf, only with different targets?
P