16th green at Congressional

[Mark Johnson]

not sure if you have seen yet, but this will be "The Story" this week.   Very weird runoff on the back of the green, a bit out of character with the rest of the course.  

http://www.twitvid.com/DVCLN

Fair or foul?

[JNC Lyon]

The runoff areas look great--it's too bad they can't install these areas on what is an otherwise rough-laden golf course.  On a reachable par five, such a runoff is very reasonable.  It should make for some drama down the stretch.

[Doug Braunsdorf]

Was the Reese's pieces comment necessary?  Let the architecture, poor or not, speak for itself.  

I'm not so sure this is a great move.  From what I recall, this wasn't a green that is really accessible in two shots, although I see the yardage is 579 yds, which is, say, a driver and a long iron or hybrid.  Having said that, there are low-hanging evergreens and OB not too far past the rear/footpad of the green.  Not sure if the reward is worth the risk in this case.  I think at PB last year on 14, worse case scenario, the ball rolls to the bottom of the green pad, maybe lands in the rough-no OB hard behind the hole, although I might be mistaken.  

The bunkering short of the green is unnatural looking, and has the end effect of forcing members to play the hole in 3 full shots, rather than encourage options.  

Having said that, I suppose this was the low hanging fruit to do a closely mown area-the green is a little built up, most of the other greens are surrounded by containment mounding, and it's at the point late in the round.  

Additionally, I'm not so sure 6 was the better par 5 to make a risk/reward hole than 9.  6 has the ultimate penalty for those not hitting the green.  9 has the large hill short, it falls away right, and I wonder if playing out of long rough would be more difficult than taking the drop.  Maybe considering television, there is something dark and fatalistic about a ball in the water vs. just landing in rough.  

[Carl Nichols]

I mentioned the 16th green as point #3 in this post.....I think it will cause some controversy.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,48510.msg1093840.html#new

[Howard Riefs]

This video from Geoff posted today shows the scope of the run-off behind 16.

http://twitvid.com/JMZII

[Carl Nichols]

When I played Congressional two weeks ago, I went over the green in the back right and down into the pine straw under one of the pines.  It's a *very* difficult shot from down there.

[Doug Braunsdorf]

When I played Congressional two weeks ago, I went over the green in the back right and down into the pine straw under one of the pines.  It's a *very* difficult shot from down there.

Carl,

  Did you go for the green in two, or lay back to a given distance on your approach?

[JNC Lyon]

On Golf Channel's Morning Drive, they had an interview with Mike Davis about Congressional's 16th.  He talked about why they shaved the back bank (it's the only green on the course that is really pushed up), the types of shots players would face if they caught the collection area (some shots, as you said Carl, would find the pine straw.  He thought the feature would require players to play a low bump and run to recover), and how he would move the tees up some of the days to encourage players to give the green a go and brining these features more into play.

I would much rather see features like the chipping area on Congressional's 16th, which force players to hit a bump-and-run recovery, rather than features, like long rough, that force players to hit a routine blast shot.

[Carl Nichols]

When I played Congressional two weeks ago, I went over the green in the back right and down into the pine straw under one of the pines.  It's a *very* difficult shot from down there.

Carl,

  Did you go for the green in two, or lay back to a given distance on your approach?

Doug:
I hit my drive in the right bunkers, hit a good layup right to 100 yards [the layup shot is actually quite easy], and then bladed a SW over the green.  That's my version of the y*ps these days.

[Matt_Cohn]

Has TV shown one guy who's been in the pine needles there?

[Matthew Rose]

Seems to have been a non-issue so far... but there's still time.