6,565 yards

[Ben Hollerbach]

This was the card yardage for Marco Simone during the most recent Ryder Cup.
3 par 4's under 305 yards, no par 4 over 500 yards, all 3 par 5's on the course playing less than 550 yards.

If you compare the yardage to the most recent US Opens, the course could have played as a par 68.

While I saw comments wondering why they were playing the Ryder Cup on an executive course, I really enjoyed watching the best in the world play on a relatively unusual length setup. Being match play it really didn't matter if the 277 yard 5th or 16th was being played as a par 3 or par 4, it presented an interesting problem to the players to figure out.

While I fully expect Bethpage to bet the return to over 7,200 yards It does ask an interesting question in the Euros have found something in this type course setup and if this opens the door to explore more interesting courses for future Ryder Cups. Presumably the answer is no, as these venues are also being used by the DP Tour for regular season events, but one could hope.

[Mark Pearce]

This was the card yardage for Marco Simone during the most recent Ryder Cup.
3 par 4's under 305 yards, no par 4 over 500 yards, all 3 par 5's on the course playing less than 550 yards.

If you compare the yardage to the most recent US Opens, the course could have played as a par 68.

While I saw comments wondering why they were playing the Ryder Cup on an executive course, I really enjoyed watching the best in the world play on a relatively unusual length setup. Being match play it really didn't matter if the 277 yard 5th or 16th was being played as a par 3 or par 4, it presented an interesting problem to the players to figure out.

While I fully expect Bethpage to bet the return to over 7,200 yards It does ask an interesting question in the Euros have found something in this type course setup and if this opens the door to explore more interesting courses for future Ryder Cups. Presumably the answer is no, as these venues are also being used by the DP Tour for regular season events, but one could hope.

Driveable par 4s do allow for drama in matchplay.  I thought there was enough variety in these, and the risk/reward well enough balanced, to enhance the level of excitement.  So yes, maybe......

[David Cronan]

I saw an interview with Viktor Hovland (I think) in the days leading up the The Ryder Cup, where he stated that he didn't care for Marco Simone for a stroke play event on the DP Tour but that for match play, he loved the course.

[Kalen Braley]

Ben,

You may have gotten meter measurements, because the 18th was definitely over 600 yards, even if it did play downhill

Their site shows 18 at 570 meters, which is 623 yards.  Total course length is 6674 meters or 7298 yards.

https://www.golfmarcosimone.com/ryder-cup-2023-course/

[Ben Hollerbach]

Ben,

You may have gotten meter measurements, because the 18th was definitely over 600 yards, even if it did play downhill

Their site shows 18 at 570 meters, which is 623 yards.  Total course length is 6674 meters or 7298 yards.

https://www.golfmarcosimone.com/ryder-cup-2023-course/

I pulled the yardages directly from the Ryder Cup website. Which listed them as YDS under each matches scoring:



I did find it unusual that the same distances were displayed for every session, so they may have been the "stock" distances used for the week, even if the tees were changed up a bit for each round.

[James Reader]

These are definitely metres rather than yards. Not the only mistake on the website/app.

[Robin_Hiseman]

I was at Marco Simone and can can confirm these measurements are metres. 100%

[Charlie Goerges]

It's fair enough that the course wasn't quite as short as Ben thought, but it was still pretty short (for these guys) at 7200+ yards.


I think the discussion is still worth having about making the game more exciting. The course clearly wasn't a "test" in that old-fashioned sense. The difference in fun here seems to be the fact that there aren't par figures being tossed about all the time (as in so-and-so is -8 or -14 or -25 or whatever). It's almost as if when you don't worry what the final par score will be, it's fine that lots of birdies are made.