#10 at Riviera is not *that* hard of a golf hole. The challenge is that it tests perception and ego more than shotmaking skill. It is a simple matter to hit a 4-iron down the left side and hit a crisp sand wedge to the front of the green. Maybe you lag it close and escape with a par and maybe you 3-jack; in either case, the worse result is a bogey. There is a guaranteed strategy to avoid a train wreck - yet the testosterone fueled ego coursing through the veins of the Tour boys make it a choice between machismo and intellect. Phil Mickelson is the greatest wedge player who ever lived - a man who from 60 yards can literally drop a golf ball out of the sky within a tight circle better than 80% of the time. What can possibly be the reason he'd deliberately select a lower percentage play?
I wonder - even given that as a group they are not great wedge players - how would the LPGA players fare on #10? Most of them cannot pump one far enough to reach the pad, so therefore would be forced to choose a different strategy. My bet is that their stroke average would equal or better the PGA Tour boys taking a rip from the tee. The 10th hole at the Belfry strikes me as a similar proposition - a sucker bet for compulsive gamblers who know the house has a huge advantage, but cannot bring themselves not to double-down with the dealer showing an Ace.
In similar fashion, I just do not understand why #14 at Bandon Trails inspires such plaintive cries of angst from the Hoi polloi. Cheat your tee shot to the left and how high you keep it on the fairway dictates how chesty you get with the wedge. Bailing left on approach leaves the opportunity to putt it onto the green. Again, maybe you get it up and down and maybe not, but the downside is bogey. There is no rule stating that short par-4s are to be an easy par. Tiny #13 at Spanish Bay is twice as nerve-wracking, especially with the wind racing up the valley - yet nobody blinks an eye because it is a par-3.
#4 at Spyglass is five times harder than #14 at Trails because there is no simple bailout where you can play for 4 1/2 and live to fight another day. I don't read about anybody wanting to rip down the dunes and replace it with a Rees Jones pancake. Last time I looked, Spyglass has plenty of "retail golfers" - the vast majority of whom are poor players when compared to Bandon's visitors. Peter is 100% correct, nobody wants to give things time to sink in - or give players the chance to experiment with different strategies. Instead we pander to whining.
If #17 at TOC was built today - maybe the greatest and most unique par-4 on the planet - the dozers would come out after the first week. The whole thing makes me sick. Holes like these are the absolute pinnacle of brilliant strategic geometry - and the ultimate test of verve and nerve in match play. Taking what the hole is willing to give you - which borders between par and bogey regardless of length - is the best test of golfing maturity I can think of. The older you get, the wiser you get about things that you cannot control.
#16 at Pac Dunes is another subject entirely. I have played it seven or eight times and cannot figure out how to make bogey, let alone par. The last time, I managed to place my drive to the left, but with the downwind gusts I was so freaked out I putted it onto the front of the green and three-jacked to a five. That tied my lowest score ever on the hole. If somebody can explain to me how to play it, please elucidate.
All this stated, they had better not dare change it until I figure out how to outsmart the gawdamned thing.