There is a distinct obsession, not only on this site but in the GCA indudstry and profesion tours, with making the game harder for the tour pros. Courses are constantly lengthening holes, bringing in the rough to narrow fairways etc.
But is all this worry completely necessary? So what is Baddeley misses 9 fairways and shoots 7 under? Who cares if Tiger has 40 under for a tournament?
This prompts the question as to why we all care so much about making the game harder for the pros. Is it to limit the number of records that are being set? Is it to make the regular Sunday golfer feel better that a tour pro can have over par too?
I guess it goes back to the question - Would you rather see low scores, or golfers batlling with the conditions to break par? And I guess most would prefer the latter?
JG
In certain parts of the country where the PGA TOUR touches down, the weather hardly ever adds to the challenge of the course where the event is played. Everyone knows weather conditions OFTEN adds strokes to the winning score in the Hawaii and Florida events, the California coastal events, the British Open and some tournaments later in the year. In summer events like Westchester, the US Open, and the PGA (some years) it's the course set-up. All that brutal rough lurking just off the fairway.
If someone like Tiger posts 18-under in the British Open everyone shrugs their shoulders and says "He was lucky–he got St. Andrews when it was laying down". But low scores are usually posted at every event other than the US Open when conditions are benign. The problem is 98 times out of 100 the Hope, the Tucson and the Phoenix events are played in 75-80 degree weather with less than 8 mph of breeze.*
You'd have to make TPC Scottsdale a 7,600 yd par 70 course with tucked pins to make par mean anything to today's PGA pros. Could they even fit that kind of yardage inside the berms?