[Evan_Green]

In watching the PGA, I have been struck by how the course is not playing like a Links, but rather an American course. Shots are backing up and 60 degree wedges seem to be the way to go most of the time.

Can Whistling Straits be made to play firm and fast? Or is there something about their specific soil/turf there that makes this impossible? I know they've had a lot of rain, but is there anything that could have been done to make the course faster? Or was it a systematic decision by the PGA to make the course as green and lush looking as possible?

If it could be made firm and fast for the PGA, with conditions similar to an Open Championship, I think the course would be 10x scarier and the scores would be about 3 shots higher. It would also be fun to watch (not saying I'm not enjoying watching it now, would just be even more fun).

In particular many of the pros are getting up and down from around the greens in short sided positions and are easily saving par from places where it seems they should either struggle to save or make a bogey. Were these shots hit on a British links in the Open, they would would have been no closer than 20 feet to the hole.

Thoughts?

[Craig Sweet]

Evan...the Super was quoted in the NY Times as saying the rain this week totally knocked out all his work to get the course playing firm and fast...I believe they had something like 3" of rain the days before the tourney...

[Phil McDade]

Evan:

Rain has had alot -- actually, almost everything -- to do with how soft the course is playing.

It can absolutely be made to play F&F, and in fact played much faster in '04, when the winning score was -8.

I'm virtually certain it was playing very F&F in late May of this year, as two regular GCA contributers played two courses in the same state at the same latitude and said they played as fast and firm as they'd ever seen. But that was the result of a very cool and dry early spring in these parts. Since June, Wisconsin has been pretty much deluged with a major storm or two a week. (Sheboygan, WI averages 6.2 inches of rain in June and July; this year, it received 12.5 inches of rain in those two months). WStraits got more rain the Monday and Wednesday before the tournament started, and it rained again last night before today's play.

Fast and firm, with four days of wind of the sort that popped up Friday afternoon when the weather was moving through, and WS would play incredibly tough at 7,500 yards -- I'm not sure you'd see many players under par. But this soft and green, without much wind, and it's playing as something of a target golf course, with most high scores on holes resulting from poor decisions or poor execution, as opposed to conditions and weather.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Thanks guys for it is disappointing to see it play so soft. It is comical to listen to the tv guys talk about how this is like home to Rory.

[Jeff Doerr]

I really hope they can figure it out at WS as the weather does not seem that out of the ordinary. The other big challenge I see is that the shot just in the rough is finding that lush thick stuff, while the wayward shot may be playable if not on the downslope of one of the zillion bunkers. It seems to be the price pf being green as much as the recent rainfall.

[Richard Choi]

If you want firm and fast, just wait till the US Amateur. Guaranteed it will be plenty firm and plenty fast.

[Phil McDade]

I really hope they can figure it out at WS as the weather does not seem that out of the ordinary. The other big challenge I see is that the shot just in the rough is finding that lush thick stuff, while the wayward shot may be playable if not on the downslope of one of the zillion bunkers. It seems to be the price pf being green as much as the recent rainfall.

Jeff:

The weather has been out of the ordinary -- twice as much rain as normal in the two months leading up to the tournament is conducive for lush conditions, not F&F conditions. In the six days (three practice, three competition) the course has been open to the players, it's rained three of those days.

Lusher and thicker rough immediately near the fairways, as opposed to further out (where specators trample), is a pretty common occurence at majors.

[Tom_Doak]

I can believe that Whistling Straits could get firm and fast in the fairways, but not around the greens.  It's all bentgrass from 30-40 yards in, and they are just not going to get those approaches tight and firm enough to accept a running shot ... which is the whole joy of firm and fast to me.

I've been busy in Montana and have seen very little of the coverage, but I did hear one of the announcers Friday say something to the effect that "thank God it isn't firm and fast" as though that would make the course impossible.  Not sure that I agree.

[Phil McDade]

Tom:

I think (recalling from memory) the suggestion was that if the course was really F&F, with the winds up to where they were Friday afternoon (20 mph?), combined with the length (7,500+ yards), it would make it extremely difficult if not verging on unplayable. Right now, the course is playing quite long, with not a lot of roll-out on drives, because of the soft conditions. That makes it easier to hit driver, or safely use a fairway wood off the tee for fairly exact placement, but it's leaving players with a lot of long approach shots.

I don't know if you'd ever see WS play as F&F as, for instance, Hoylake at the Open a few years ago, where Tiger essentially bunted his way around the course for four days. But I don't think there's any question it'd play much tougher if it was really running; it was semi-F&F in 2004, and the winning score was -8. I'd be surprised if the winner tomorrow isn't at least -12.

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