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Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +2/-1
How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« on: September 05, 2011, 07:01:14 PM »
If ever someone may have a chance to impact the future of golf course architecture, the Olympic golf course in Rio seems like a good place to make a statement.

Forget all the politics of it, for now.  If we want to see the best players in the world challenged -- how long should the course be?  Is it going to be 8000 yards plus, and what would that say to the world?  Or should it be 7000 yards, or even less, to make a statement about what's important in golf?

I'll reserve judgment for now.

Kalen Braley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2011, 07:23:40 PM »
I vote for 7000 or less

Ronald Montesano

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2011, 07:34:00 PM »
6800 sambas
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

David Royer

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2011, 07:45:16 PM »
I would think distance is secondary to a host of other factors including soil composition, altitude, terrain or topography, natural vegetation, and prevailing winds during the season of the event.  I could imagine a very long or medium length test given these more important factors. 

Peter Pallotta

Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2011, 07:47:13 PM »
Tom - The course will be over 8,000 yards, of that I have no doubt.  The kind of architect who gets such an assignment won't be concerned with what that says to the world, only with making sure that he can't be blamed (by the mainstream power brokers) for designing an easy course and/or one that produced an 'undeserving' winner-gold medalist.  Also, that kind of architect will know that the only publicity to be had will come before/during the Games -- afterwards, no one but the gold winning golfer/country will be thinking about the golf course or the Olympics for another four years. And the only way for that golf course to garner any publicity (from the mainstream power brokers) is via the simplest of sound bites or most banal of press releases, e.g. "The best golfers in the world will be competing for gold on the longest golf course in the world. For the first time ever, golfers will test themselves and their games against a brutish 8,600* yards of uncompromising challenge".    

Peter

* That's the course from the very back, from the tips, stretched out to its full length of brutish challenge.  But, since each hole will have seven sets of tees, the course will cater be to golfers of all ages and skill levels, providing an interesting and challenging test to the beginning golfer and to Olympian both.  
« Last Edit: September 05, 2011, 09:15:17 PM by PPallotta »

Mark Saltzman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2011, 07:54:21 PM »
I'm not sure the length of the course is really the important question.  The question is how difficult should it be setup. 

Mac Plumart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2011, 07:55:58 PM »
Think 8,000 yards par 70 with lots of water.

Golf course architecture at its finest!!
Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

Jud_T

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2011, 07:57:05 PM »
Is there a match play component to the format?  
Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Mike Sweeney

Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2011, 08:10:53 PM »
Just a reminder, women (right now) are playing on the same course in 2016.

Top 15 in the world are in automatically and then a max of 2 per country to round out the 60 person field for the 72 holes of stroke play.

Brazil will probably be given 2 slots as host. The bottom 10-15 players may not necessarily be world class players.

http://www.olympic.org/igf

My first suggestion is the designer should contact Bernard Russi who has laid out every Olympics downhill skiing course since the 80's, with very few hitches.

My guess is GCA.com will be very disappointed with the Olympics golf course.

Mac Plumart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2011, 08:13:14 PM »
My guess is GCA.com will be very disappointed with the Olympics golf course.

That isn't a guess; that is the stone cold lead pipe lock of the century.
Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

Kalen Braley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2011, 08:18:06 PM »
My guess is GCA.com will be very disappointed with the Olympics golf course.

That isn't a guess; that is the stone cold lead pipe lock of the century.

I agree with Mac, thats not saying much.

All you have to do is attach the designer name of Nicklaus, Fazio, Jones, etc, etc...to a new course and its pretty much guaranteed it will not get a good reception on GCA.com

Frank M

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2011, 08:20:04 PM »
7643.26 yards....if even a tenth of a yard off it will be a miserable failure  ;)

Sean Leary

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2011, 08:24:30 PM »
There is no history to protect scorewise so it shouldn't matter.

But I would guess 7700 for the men.

Richard Chamberlain

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #13 on: September 05, 2011, 08:28:10 PM »
I don't care, golf should not be played at the Olympics.

Jud_T

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #14 on: September 05, 2011, 08:28:55 PM »
One would have to have expectations in order to be dissapointed.  
Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Pete_Pittock

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #15 on: September 05, 2011, 08:38:37 PM »
Men about 7000, women about 6400. Emphasis on risk/reward, half-par holes. should be a birdie-fest rather than a survival contest.

Bill_McBride

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #16 on: September 05, 2011, 08:57:22 PM »
Men about 7000, women about 6400. Emphasis on risk/reward, half-par holes. should be a birdie-fest rather than a survival contest.

Sounds like Celtic Manor!

Brett_Morrissy

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #17 on: September 05, 2011, 09:00:37 PM »
whatever distance puts hazards: at, just short of, or just long of the players driving zones off the very back markers. if that is 320 yards - so be it. ...As long as the rest of the tee blocks are much shorter.

not sure of the format - but my vote would be for Matchplay, country vs country.
@theflatsticker

Brett_Morrissy

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #18 on: September 05, 2011, 09:07:55 PM »
...and post Olympics, those tees should be closed and turned into small shrines on each hole - a symbol of where golfers used to hit their tee shots from. ;D
@theflatsticker

Pete_Pittock

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #19 on: September 05, 2011, 09:27:11 PM »
whatever distance puts hazards: at, just short of, or just long of the players driving zones off the very back markers. if that is 320 yards - so be it. ...As long as the rest of the tee blocks are much shorter.

not sure of the format - but my vote would be for Matchplay, country vs country.

Earlier link has it as two 60 person fields , 72 hole stroke play events.   
The Olympics will run from August 5-21, so on the men's side they have to consider the schedule with the PGA Championship and a WGC event

Terry Lavin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #20 on: September 05, 2011, 09:32:41 PM »
Hit the snooze on Olympic golf.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.  H.L. Mencken

Matt Kardash

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #21 on: September 05, 2011, 09:34:21 PM »
I think quality golf holes is primary and distance is secondary, but a decent amount of length must be considered when designing holes for the pro game. Pete Dye has an interesting approach to thwart the pro game by designing par 4's that are either really long (500 yards) or really short (less than 400).
A 6800 par 72 golf course does not pose much of a challenge to the pro game, unless the site is severe or there is a lot of wind. This is just a fact...denying this would be to deny reality.
I am less troubled about the length of modern courses and more troubled with the reasons why we have gotten to this point.
the interviewer asked beck how he felt "being the bob dylan of the 90's" and beck quitely responded "i actually feel more like the bon jovi of the 60's"

Randy Thompson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #22 on: September 05, 2011, 10:12:54 PM »
If the land site doesn´t dictate or scream out a particular routing and therefore allows for some give or take, than I would shoot for 7200 to 7400 yards and probably closer to the 7400 yards. If designed correctly that distance should allow the cream to rise but so would a little less than that if done really right.

Gary Slatter

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #23 on: September 05, 2011, 10:33:49 PM »
I vote for around 6600 metres!  The field will not be the world's best golfers, and my hunch is this will be a one off, golf should not be in the Olympics IMHO, and after one experiment it will be difficult to get professional golfers to participate again.  Many might fail the drug testing.   Golf is too pure to be in the private world of the Olympics, unless IMG becomes part of the Olympic Committee, pros will  be hard to sign up to play in the summer.
Gary Slatter
gary.slatter@raffles.com

John Kirk

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: How Long Should The Olympic Course Be?
« Reply #24 on: September 05, 2011, 10:37:27 PM »
I'll suggest 7300-7500 yards, designed with several long iron approaches to greens.

Is this a test?

 :D

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