Was lucky enough to spend Thursday and Friday watching Tiger in Shanghai. My first experience seeing the big man and it certainly was an experience. Followed him all day Thursday when he shot 65 with 10 birdies. I thought the tournament would be a walkover for Tiger, but he never really got it going after that.
The course itself was a decent American style half resort/half country club layout. It was solid but mostly unremarkable. Number 4 was a good par 3, the par 5s were interesting, but the best hole by far was number 16, a short par 4
No 16 is 290 yards from an elevated tee. The green is essentially in a straight line from the tee, but because of a collection of bunkers between the tee and green at 150-230 yards, if the hole is played as a lay up it plays as a dogleg right. There is a water filled old quarry all down the right side. The green is small and undulating with a pot style bunker about half way up the green on the left side.
It was a wonderful hole to watch as a spectator -- all sorts of action, as you can imagine. The players had three options -- lay up to the left with a four or five iron, hit a driving iron or rescue over the bunkers to forty yards short of the green, or go at the green with a 3 wood or driver. In the final group on Sunday, all three strategies were used by Howell, O'Hern and Tiger respectively.
Tiger played the hole in +1 for the week. He birdied it the first day when he laid up. He bogied it twice when he went for it. The first time he missed left of the green, fluffed his chip into the bunker and failed to get up and down. And on Sunday he drove it into the quarry. Despite Tiger's troubles, plenty of players made a birdie when they went for it, but many failed to get up and down (and poor Vijay three putted for par on the last day)
Great hole in a great spot and left me wondering why we don't see more of this type of hole in this type of position in the round/tournament. The hole would not be as dramatic if it were the 5th or even 13th hole. (The only other example I could think of was at Pheonix I think where the 17th might be a similar hole). It's also a great way to challenge the players and makes a nice difference from 500 yard par 4s (like the 460 yard par 4 first whcich Tiger played in -1 for the week).
Combined with a reachable but dangerous par 5 18th, the course in Shanghai set up the opportunity for an explosive finish with, potentially, eagles, birdies and bogies deciding things.
When architects design courses specifically for tournament play (eg the TPC courses), do they think enough about this type of grand finsih. We all love the Masters because of the potential for big swings on the back nine, but I wonder if enough tournament courses really deliver the excitement over the closing holes.
Sure Sheshan Golf Club is no Augusta, and would probably struggle to make the top 100 worldwide courses, but they sure got the closing stretch of holes right.
Any thoughts?
Matt