I didn't watch quite as much of the tournament as I'd hoped... I have a hard time staying awake when golf is on, especially when I turn it on after teeing off at 7a that morning.
But how do we think this hole played?
I liked what I saw. I'll stand by my impression that it's perfectly fair to ask for two very well-played, accurate shots from a player closing out a round in a major. And I like that this is a hole that asks for those accurate shots without also asking that the player cover 450+ or whatever yards of distance.
I'd even say that, with modern equipment, there's an argument that the driver might be the easiest club for a high level player to hit under pressure. Huge face, tons of forgiveness. By asking for two well-struck shots with shorter clubs, you're also asking for more precision in the swing while mitigating the pure advantage of a power player.
I thought the rough was an appropriate penalty. Clearly not unplayable. The fairway is probably on the small side, but in this case I'm not sure where I'd want it widened. Maybe widen to the right, but the tree is still going to block out a lot of shots... short grass lies might open the door for some amazing recoveries though. But I don't think I'd want the left side widened a whole lot further, at least relatively speaking. I think I like that, on a shot where you need to keep it left to avoid the tree, the landing area to catch a fairway lie is pretty small.
Still, 22 yards just seems tiny.
Part of what I like might just be that it's a hole that poses some of the same questions my home course does. We have a handful of short, tightish par 4s (all wider than 22 yards though!). They're not hard holes, but they come with plenty of uneven lies and bad spots that are easy to get into with an almost-good tee shot and can bite you if you get out of position. I felt like I recognized the challenge presented, and recognized it as a much more manageable one than the more common long par 4s that major championships tend to get built around. There's something sorta refreshing about a more technical finisher.