Remember when?

[Mark_Fine]

The Stadium Course was once so difficult that the Pros didn’t want to play it and it dropped out of the course rotation 


They now rip it up!  Pete Dye is rolling over saying what is an architect to do 


I used to play out there often and know the course well.  It was softened a bit but not that much. 

[Matt_Cohn]

Yeah, it's pretty crazy to see. I think mostly it's just not a long golf course anymore—they're playing it around 7,200 yards, par 72. Holes like 3 and 15 were driver, 2-iron when it opened and driver, 9-iron now. It used to have maybe one reachable par-5 and now it has four.


I guess it's just a flat, modest-length golf course in perfect condition with no wind, rough, or trees right? 

[Jeff Schley]

Yeah I have been shocked myself in scoring there recently.  Length has made it so much easier, the fairway humps and bumps don't seem to affect them as I thought that was unique too.  Ball below or above your feet on approaches with bunkers and disaster around the greens.


I really like the stadium course still myself as it is a test I have played for 25 years.  Not much has changed and enjoy it.

[Tom_Doak]

It was 7300 yards when I drew the plan for Mr Dye . . . one of the least-heard criticisms of the TPC at Sawgrass was that Howard Twitty thought it was too short, and Mr. Dye came around to agreeing with that.


But PGA West was a real estate project, so I tried to make the course space-efficient and the green to tee walks reasonable, and as a result didn't leave much place at all for length to be added in the future.


P.S.  At the players' meeting to vote the course off the rotation, Lanny Wadkins stood up and said they were all a bunch of [redacted] and that he wished they'd play there every year so he could kick all their [redacted].

[Tim_Weiman]

It was 7300 yards when I drew the plan for Mr Dye . . . one of the least-heard criticisms of the TPC at Sawgrass was that Howard Twitty thought it was too short, and Mr. Dye came around to agreeing with that.


But PGA West was a real estate project, so I tried to make the course space-efficient and the green to tee walks reasonable, and as a result didn't leave much place at all for length to be added in the future.


P.S.  At the players' meeting to vote the course off the rotation, Lanny Wadkins stood up and said they were all a bunch of [redacted] and that he wished they'd play there every year so he could kick all their [redacted].

Tom,


Who deserves credit for the bunker left of #16?

[Matt_Cohn]

It was 7300 yards when I drew the plan for Mr Dye . . . one of the least-heard criticisms of the TPC at Sawgrass was that Howard Twitty thought it was too short, and Mr. Dye came around to agreeing with that.


But PGA West was a real estate project, so I tried to make the course space-efficient and the green to tee walks reasonable, and as a result didn't leave much place at all for length to be added in the future.


P.S.  At the players' meeting to vote the course off the rotation, Lanny Wadkins stood up and said they were all a bunch of [redacted] and that he wished they'd play there every year so he could kick all their [redacted].

That’s a great story 


It looks like there’s room for added tees on 7 or 8 holes without too much work. But I don’t think that’s of interest to anyone; I think they actually prefer the courses for the tournament to be of more equal difficulty.

[Wade Whitehead]

Deleted.

WW

[Ronald Montesano]

All a bunch of ... bunnies?

Kick their ... field goals?

I'd get a kick out of playing PGA West. I love trauma.

[Tom_Doak]

Who deserves credit for the bunker left of #16?

Pete said from the start he wanted a very deep bunker on 16.  My first drawing had it guarding more of the front; Pete had me shift it to play alongside the approach and green.

[Tom_Doak]

All a bunch of ... bunnies?

The way I heard it, the first redacted word rhymed with "woosies"

[Tim_Weiman]

Who deserves credit for the bunker left of #16?

Pete said from the start he wanted a very deep bunker on 16.  My first drawing had it guarding more of the front; Pete had me shift it to play alongside the approach and green.

Tom,


Thanks. When I lived in LA a friend and I used to go out to play PGA West in the summer. Thanks to the reduced rates, we were able to cover our hotel as well as golf for the equivalent of playing the course in the winter.


Anyway, in the summer the temperature was about 105-110 degrees and nobody was on the course. So we got to spend an extra 20-30 minutes on #16 playing the famous Tip O’Neill shot. We loved it!

[John Foley]

LOVE the PGA West Stadium!! It's probably the course (along w/ Oak Hill East) that got me deep into the architecture bug. I love the pits, the mounding, the rocks and all that water (and I HATE forced water on a course). It's such a unique experience to know that your going to get punched in the face a few times but as a resort that your there a few days I could appreciate it.


The Palm Desert area sure looks awesome when it's 10degerees and snowing out here in WNY!

[Thomas Dai]

There was an interesting comment made by Frank Nobilo a few weeks ago. Basically he said that relative to other elite sports stars male pro golfers are hugely overpaid.
Time to give them long-nosed, whipping shafted wooden clubs, a ball made of leather and feathers, jackets and ties, hobnail boots etc and make them play from A to B and back to A again over some rough and rugged terrain littered with sandy scrapes, humps and hollows for no or little money. Or send them to work long hours for limited pay in a factory or do manual work. Maybe they might, might, realise how damn lucky they are. But then again some will still whinge and moan.
Atb

[cary lichtenstein]

i loved playing the course, the only interesting and challenging course in the desert when I was playing there in the 80's