From the perspective of Nebraska's young and super long John Hurley, a hole such as Philadelphia C.C's #1 has become a long par 3. The hole is a bit of a right to left open dogleg of sorts heavily bunkered much of the way to the green on the left and around the green.
Since Long John had such a disasterous first round in qualifying at Merion I told him at PCC he should just attack all the rest of the holes that weren't par 3s with a driver.
I forgot, however, that PCC's 310 yard first hole is not exactly a driver for him, matter of fact it's probably about 30-40 yards (or sometimes a lot more) too short for his driver. So, on that hole he took out a 3 wood and although I was standing well over to the left he hit a great 3 wood with a necessary draw. As the ball was in the air (for a long time
)he kept encouraging it to turn, turn, turn.
Yep, basically the ball was right at the front of the green!
What happens when Long John really catches his drive on a par 4? The 8th at PCC is the best example (and something that's bound to become legend at PCC). On that somewhat uphill par 4 of app 400 yards Long John really caught a drive and the ball ended up one step from the left greenside bunker that's essentially the front of the green!
Some on here will inevitably ask if examples like this will ever get the attention of the USGA/R&A? I can tell you Long John most definitely got the attention of the USGA Tech Center fellows during Amateur week. During practice the USGA Tech Center guys had a very impressive array of ball and club and distance testing equipment lined up behind the super long par 4 5th at Merion (504 yard par 4).
When Long John's numbers popped up on the USGA's Tech Center's computer it causes a certain amount of alarm and surprise. As Long John walked back to check the read-outs the head Tech Center guy exclaimed; MY GOD, HOW FAR DO YOU HIT THE BALL??
Long John, who's about 6'4", lean and muscular with a rather short swing and a swing plane that looks remarkable like IRON BYRON HISSELF said with a big bright Nebraska corn and beef grin---very, very, VERY FAR!
And off down the hole we all went where Long John hit a fine looking 8 iron to the green which came up slightly short on the false front roll on the front of the green and filtered back into the approach from where Long John made a nice bogie!
A 242 yard Ross par 3 for Long John? That would be a 5 iron and certainly no more than a 4 iron---that is unless he pushed one pretty much dead right as he is occasionally wont to do!
As with many power hitters Long John gets particularly disturbed if he hits one left (as Nicklaus used to get particularly disturbed if he ever hit one left). Most who play good golf know a draw or pull will go quite a lot farther than a fade or push and unbelievably for the length Long John hits all his clubs he pretty much always does try to hit a fade!!
I asked Long John's father if Long John felt comfortable hitting a draw on call. His Dad said; "Oh sure he can". This was as we approached the 14th hole at Merion that really does look to call for a real draw off the tee if a golfer of Long John's length is going to bring the ball back around to the fairway that far out (that is if he doesn't want to hurt someone on the 15th tee).
And so Long John did hit a beautiful draw out there to within a 60 degree L wedge range of the green from where Long John inexplicably proceeded to hit that L wedge fat about half way to the green!
When Tiger Woods said a few years ago that if people think he's long they should wait to see some of the kids coming up behind him. At the time I thought that showed a certain amount of false modesty on Tiger's part but apparently not. I suppose Tiger knows better and he must have been envisioning the Long John Hurley's of the world! I have the feeling if Long John stepped onto any tee with Tiger he'd probably have that big bright Nebraska corn and beef grin on his face just before he made virtual mince-meat out of Tiger's best shot with a nice controlled slight fade out there into the next zip code!