Is Whistling Straits too easy?

[MikeJones]

Too easy in comparison to what - scoring total?  We can't have it both ways, people say that the USGA often toughens up the courses in a ridiculous fashion in order to keep the scores within a certain range and we complain. When a course is setup to be attacked with fairly easy pin positions and the scoring is low - we complain...


If the goal of a tournament course and setup is to identify the best golfers can anyone really say that the best golfers were not identified or that it wasn't an exciting spectacle?


Personally I thought the course and tournament was a triumph and line between disaster and reward meant that double bogeys or birdies were available on almost every hole. I can't wait until the Ryder cup comes to Whistling Straits it's going to be epic.

[David Davis]

in benign condition for those guys there are a lot of scoring opportunities out there. The afternoon of day one proved a lot different with only a couple guys significantly under par. For them there has to be some other elements to make them sweat however, I enjoyed watching it wight he low scoring. It's pretty cool to see them take apart a fairly long course that seems visually intimidating.


I found the course quite fun though I can't say I'm blown away by the routing necessarily. I think one of the things I don't like that much is how almost always have a flat lie if you are in or close to the fairway. As Bill said, being straight is important (almost always).


The tee shot of 17 when I played was the most memorable shot on the course. Was playing like 210 yds with a pretty good afternoon wind against off the sea. The drop off to the left I found quite intimidating but I didn't know there was a fair bit of room to the right past the mound either.

[Matt Kardash]

Soft conditions, little wind and a relatively easy setup makes for low scores.
They played quite a few up tees. The 1st can play 490 but they play it from 410. There was a back tee on 2 that was removed.  They removed the 4th tee at the bottom of the bluff. They played up tees on 6 all week, and two of those days  even more of an up tee.  On 10 they played the up tee. On 11 they played a tee that made the hole 60 yards shorter, thus allowing players to reach the downslope and get an extra 50 yards.  On 17 they never played the back tee.
You guys seeing where I am going with this?
I find it annoying that every major has to have driveable par 4s. WS already has a bunch of short par 4s, they don't need to be made even shorter just so they can be driven. I thought shortening 6 and 10 made the holes play way more boring.
Thw biggest culprit still was the soft greens and fairways. If the ball doesn't roll it takes a lot of the trouble out of play. The most fun thing about WS to me is watching pros hit recovery shots out of those treacherous spots.