I saw a statistic that startled me.

Tiger ranked 49th out of 50 in driving accuracy at The Masters.

I also noticed Tiger and others swinging harder then I could ever imagine a PGA tour player swinging a wood.

Can today's architects present any challenge to the PGA tour pro's driver while not adversely affecting the rest of the golf world ?

If so, how ?

Are cross bunkers the answer ?

Didn't Paul McCartney write a song about this, ahead of his time.  Something about 'Magneto and Titanium Man'.   ;)They wouldn't be swinging that hard with wood (or even steel) at the end of their shaft.

I saw a statistic that startled me.

Can today's architects present any challenge to the PGA tour pro's driver while not adversely affecting the rest of the golf world ?

If so, how ?

Are cross bunkers the answer ?

If conventional wisdom is that they can get more spin out of a modern sand bunker, I think we would have pros yelling "Get in the bunker" on tee shots as well as approaches....

I tend to think that more contour in the fairway is the answer, at over 290 yards or so from the tee.  Features like NGLA's "Hogback" Fairway, that would deflect shots well into the roughs, perhaps, or just greater contour in general, so that they would be hitting off some kind of unusual lie and have a unique shot every time.  

I know some gca types who think they should provide that kind of contour on the TEE to provide the tee shot challenge, not the fairway!

How about a large oak tree not far from the tee that forces the player to work the ball one way or the other?

I think specimen trees are badly under-utilized, and in the proper situation do exactly what needs to be done to bring back the value of controling the ball with the driver.

David Elvins,

The problem with mounting your last line of defense at the green end is that it affects everyone, even the golfers who lack strength, distance and touch, the rest of us.

Also, Woods hit short irons or wedges into greens that others were hitting medium to long irons into, so beefing up the defenses at the green end only helps the long driver who hits a wedge into the green, and not the golfer who hits it in the fairway 50 yards shorter.

With today's wedges, dense, high rough doesn't seem to impede these fellows from 120 yards and in.

AG Crockett,

Tiger layed up with a three wood on # 18.

If the course was meant to play as originally designed, he would have taken a driver and hit a sand wedge from left and short of the green.   Remember, those fairway bunkers are a relatively recent addition.

Marshalling all of your defenses at the green end won't work as it adversely impacts the less skilled player, the vast preponderance of the golfing world.

I'm not suggesting that dense, high rough is the answer,
I"m asking what can be done with architectural features to challenge drives, errant and accurate, in these NEW drive zones.  And, not just at ANGC, but everywhere.

Jeff Brauer,

I've always been fascinated with the "Narrows" hole at NGLA, at both the fairway and green end.

NGLA is replete with the use of spines, in the fairways and the greens, and I think it is a viable defense, despite the need to "construct" the feature and its feeding qualities.

If the theory, that the only way to reward a good drive is to penalize a bad drive, is valid, then why not create havoc in the 280-340 range, a range that will barely affect the rest of the golfing world ?

As much as I dislike the concept of "setting up "a course to help or hinder a specific group of players, perhaps the time has come to pinch in the fairways at a certain length to encourage a little more accuracy.
I fail to agree that rough is not a deterrent, at TPC it certainly served to take rhe long knockers out of the picture once they started to miss fairways. The same was found at Bay Hill.
So I maintain my stance that a more severe rough, with firmer fairways and greens serves the purpose.
ANGC is rather unique however, and I would not want to see the growth of 4 inch bermuda rough just to prove the point.
Firmer fairways at ANGC serve to make the ball run into trouble, but with all the rain last week we were not able to see that.
On the monday the course set up was firm and fast but all the rain took care of that.
So perhaps all the rain helped Tiger win..or was it just the advantage gained from mud gate
Yes Tiger was ranked very low on the accuracy scale, but this is Tiger..he is different from the rest anyway.
There had never been anybody who could play from Tiger's drives and still win...including Seve..so I do not think we should worry about his stats too much

My recall is at an all time low right now, but do Winged Foot or Oak Hill have a few holes on which a large tree not far from the championship tee virtuall forces the player to work the ball one way or the other? I know you can't plant a 70 foot tall tree, but you can frequently find such a tree when building the new back tee. I selected those courses, because I do remember walking off each (Oak Hill East and Winged Foot West) thinking they were phenomenal driving courses, but please don't limit thoughts to simply those two.

George the green complexes are the same every year..so how do you explain this being the only year that all the long knockers were out of contention?

The only thing that seperated this year from a normal TPC year was the inability to cut the rough due to the rains...which also served to soften the greens and make the geen complexes less severe.
I agree that the green complexes are what makes TPC tough..but they come more into play{penalty for missing the greens themslves}when the rough prevents the players from hitting their noral high spinning shots from"semi rough"

What do you think?

What they should do is eliminate rough, especially at Augusta. Driving the ball straight is the least important thing on Tour right now.

So, they should eliminate rough and put some small bunkers (as TEPaul mentions) just like the one smack in the middle of the fairway on 17 at Wildhorse that you can't even see from the tee. I'll be you that bunker has irked a few long hitters in its day!1  

Tony,
Let me get this right..so from your last post...... are you endorsing the philosophy that driving the ball straight should not be an integral part of the game anymore?

Thus that particular skill should no longer be relevant?

Possibly and I hate to say that. I believe I read a stat that the scoring average at holes 11 and 15 at AGNC has gown DOWN since they added the trees.

Didn't Pete Dye once say that if you got a PGA player thinking, you had them. Well, you tell me what thinking is involved with a bunch of tree-line fairways where you have to put the ball in play. If you can give a guy multiple options, he might choose the wrong one.

With today's technology the best way to combat it is by making the ball bounce all over the place. Does St. Andrew's have rough??

I am a huge proponent of openness off the tee as well as firm and fast conditioning, and have no need for the golf course to be "green" at all. That being said, when a course is prepared and set up that way for a single event it is 100% at the mercy of the weather.

Committees place a very high level of pride in their course being tough, and defending par as well as possible, but if it rains alot in the days or weeks leading up the course looses all of its teeth. Courses like Augusta, or Baltusrol, that have always been closely associated with major championships make their decisions the way they do because they can't guarantee weathere

Pete explained in one paragraph what I've been trying to say for a few months now.

Weren't the first two rounds at TPC relatively low, prior to the wind rolling in?

I'm happy to see accuracy restored, I'd just rather see it done through interesting and challenging green complexes than thick rough.

Shivas,

How would you describe Tiger's tee shots on the last 9 holes ?