The worst course to ever host a Major.

[JR Potts]

AAC kicks Congressional's ass on any given day and twice on Sunday.  Anyone who says AAC is the worst is clearly NOT "one of the finest minds in golf."

Congressional has better internal green contours and more diverse holes, though its shorter.  PGA National, Kemper lakes, then medinah

Probably because of Robert Trent Jones Sr.'s work at Medinah, right Jay?

Pat - when was the last time you played Kemper?  I played it a month ago for the firs time in decades and really liked it.  The ball has made the course quirky and fun.  When I was in High School though (early 90s), it was just long, penal and hard.  Not anymore!

[Andrew Summerell]

Not sure what it is/was like as a championship venue, but as a golf course, Sahalee must be among the worst.

I've got to agree with this. Extraordinarily poor course for a major championship & one of the least ‘fun’ courses I’ve played.

[Kevin Pallier]

As far as the Open is concerned it has to be Musselburgh. A basic nine holer with some good fun golf but not necessarily great golf. However being bottom of the list doesn't make it a bad course, and it is good fun to play.

Niall

Agree Niall

[Jay Flemma]

Sam - never seen Sahalee, but will later this year when I go out to WA.  Didn't get much of a look at it at all during Vijay's win, and I haven't had the time or inclination to study it in depth yet, but I will when I get the time.  I also just don't see it enter into the mix of the discussion of best courses, so you may be right.

[Pete_Pittock]

Cherry Hills, Oak Tree possible, but my vote is Sahalee.

[Joe Grasty]

I don't know if AAC is the worst course to host a major or not, but jeez, look at the leaderboard.

This PGA is going to be a train wreck.  I'm thinking the winner is in a car leaving the course for the airport only to find that the five groups behind him had major train wrecks on the way in.  That'll be a hoot!

[Sean Leary]

I am not a huge Sahalee fan but to have it be called the worst course ever to host a major is over the top. Its actually a god course for the pro's as trees they can't hit over actually provide a challenge for them.

Manito in Spokane held a PGA in the 40's and isn't anywhere nearly as good as Sahalee. I am sure there are plenty others as well.

[Kalen Braley]

There are a lot of courses on this list I don't recognize.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGA_Championship

I suspect there have been plenty of majors played on "dog tracks".  I certainly would play most of the munis in Spokane over Manito...its a really boring course.

[Jud_T]

Keller Golf Course?

[Phil McDade]

Keller Golf Course?

A solid track! A fun course, now a muni -- the Minnesota guys who know it better than I should chime in, but it's not a dog. And that was some 80 years ago.

[jim_lewis]

Tanglewood.....1974 PGA won by Trevino  Not among the top courses in NC...They played a slightly modified course combining a few holes from an adjacent course.

[Mac Plumart]

There appear to be some interesting ones that hosted the PGA back in the day.  Perhaps they qualify.

[jim_lewis]

Sam Snead won the 1949 PGA in the Hermitage CC in Richmond Va. The course was later abandoned by the club as they built a new course (now 36) west of the city. I think the course became a muni.

[Dan Kelly]

I thought Hazeltine looked pretty decent in recent PGAs and Ams.

George:

Recent being the operative word; most everyone concedes the course was not ready for the US Open 40-some years ago.

As usual, most everyone does not include me.

The course was ready then. The professional golfers \weren't. They were a bunch of whining crybabies -- led by Mr. Hill.

The course was, IMO, more interesting then than it has been since the USGA started fiddling with it. (Disclaimer: It's had some very recent work that I haven't seen.)

P.S. I'm sure that it was a GORGEOUS farm. It's a fine golf course.

[Sandy Smith]

I totally agree with Sean. All you Sahalee haters should just calm down.
It's far from being the worst course to host a major.

[Jud_T]

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the finish today at AAC is likely to be exciting.  I have to admit that this type of penal architecture is an interesting challenge for players of this caliber.  The real problem is when everyone tries to emulate this type of GCA for the rest of us.  Everyone whines about the bomb and gouge set.  Well, like it or not, Rees has effectively neutered them.  It's simply too penal to have a couple water balls and a bunch of mediocre lies in fairway bunkers and score well.

[Mark Saltzman]

I totally agree with Sean. All you Sahalee haters should just calm down.
It's far from being the worst course to host a major.

Probably true, but of the major championship venues I have played, it's the worst. 

[George Pazin]

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the finish today at AAC is likely to be exciting.

I vote unfortunately.

[Niall C]

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the finish today at AAC is likely to be exciting.  I have to admit that this type of penal architecture is an interesting challenge for players of this caliber.  The real problem is when everyone tries to emulate this type of GCA for the rest of us.  Everyone whines about the bomb and gouge set.  Well, like it or not, Rees has effectively neutered them.  It's simply too penal to have a couple water balls and a bunch of mediocre lies in fairway bunkers and score well.

Jud

As stated on another thread, I haven't seen a lot of the coverage and don't know the course. What makes it penal, is it proximity of water to greens or long thick rough ? The little coverage I've seen they don't seem to be commenting on it being particularly brutal rough, and as for the bunkers surely they are easier than the rough, no ?

Niall

[Phil McDade]

The rough doesn't seem all that bad. What I've seen:

-- Lots of bunkers, strategically placed near landing zones on fairways, with really soft sand that leads to uncertain outcomes from fairway bunker shots. Stricker topped one out of a fairway bunker the other day; I doubt he's topped a shot in two years.

-- LOTS of water, and everything it seems is mowed short from the fairways to the water's edge.

-- In addition, everything seems to move toward the water - lots of closely mown slopes that feed balls to the water. Kind of reminds me of how many links courses have "gathering" pot bunkers in the line of play, ala the 12th at The Old Course.

-- It's a long course, and the water and penal bunkers in play effectively narrows the fairways, thus players seem to be in the positon of a) taking driver off the tee, because they are not long, and need to be near-perfect with their drives (Dufner, to his credit, has played really well with his driver off the tee); or b) taking less than driver off the tee, leading to longer approaches into greens surrounded by trouble. Even some of the greens not sided by water seem to have severe penal areas, esp. long.

[Andy Troeger]

I totally agree with Sean. All you Sahalee haters should just calm down.
It's far from being the worst course to host a major.

Fair enough. Worst in the last 25 years still makes the point.

[Kalen Braley]

I still think there is a lot of sillyness in how we try to tie who is in the hunt on Sunday... to the architecture.

I use ANGC as the main case in point.  There have been some absolutely spell binding Sundays at the Masters when all the best of the best were chasing Tiger that one year and he held them off.  Or the year Phil won his 1st major there.

And there have been some absolute dull fall asleep finishes like when Trevor Immelman won.

The course and the strategy were the same with two very different outcomes/finishes.

I can guarnatee that if Phil, Rory were playing in top form and Tiger had rejuvinated the time machine and they were all chasing each other down the stretch today...that we'd all be glued to our seats and whistling a different tune about AAC.

[Phil McDade]

Kalen:

I tend to agree; I don't think much of Valhalla, but the PGA duel there between Tiger and Bob May was pretty riveting.

One thing I don't like about the course is that it seems overly penal in terms of people being able to sustain a move up the board. Donald had a great round going yesterday, and two slightly miss-hit shots killed it for him. I think Feherty referred to the ending of the course yesterday as a "buzz-kill," which seems about right.

[Kalen Braley]

Kalen:

I tend to agree; I don't think much of Valhalla, but the PGA duel there between Tiger and Bob May was pretty riveting.

One thing I don't like about the course is that it seems overly penal in terms of people being able to sustain a move up the board. Donald had a great round going yesterday, and two slightly miss-hit shots killed it for him. I think Feherty referred to the ending of the course yesterday as a "buzz-kill," which seems about right.

Phil,

Fair enough.  But courses like WFW and Olympic are also very penal, (as I understand them having not seen them 1st hand),.....and they have also had some epic finishes over the years as well.

I think at the end of the day, its like playing poker.  Sure there is plenty of strategy involved, and knowledge and experience in the game is critical to finishing well too.  But at the end of the day, even at the pro level, whether one takes down the big pot or you go home empty can be simple dumb luck of the draw of the cards. You may go all in with A-A and your opponent calls you with King - 8, and then two 8s come up on the flop.  You were in the right position, you had a massive statistical advantage, and you just got plain unlucky.

I see the same for Donald...just had a couple of untimely shots on a pair of holes where you can't afford it.

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