[John Kavanaugh]

Listening to this Paulson dude on XM ripping Whistling Straits was refreshing in it's ignorance. Is the lid off?

[Jon Sweet]

Listening to this Paulson dude on XM ripping Whistling Straits was refreshing in it's ignorance. Is the lid off?

I’ll have to give it another look but doesn’t seem super appealing and a must play to me. Not sure what his take is as I’d never pay for XM. I’m no giant Pete dye fan but I did enjoy Pete Dye GC more than I thought I would but the bunkering was as bland as it gets. Loved the 17th green and that seems to be what gets all the criticism.

[Buck Wolter]

Listening to this Paulson dude on XM ripping Whistling Straits was refreshing in it's ignorance. Is the lid off?

I’ll have to give it another look but doesn’t seem super appealing and a must play to me. Not sure what his take is as I’d never pay for XM. I’m no giant Pete dye fan but I did enjoy Pete Dye GC more than I thought I would but the bunkering was as bland as it gets. Loved the 17th green and that seems to be what gets all the criticism.

If you pay for XM you get Jeff Warne, worth the subscription

[Carl Rogers]

How many remodelings - re-works has WS undergone?  Which holes have changed the most from the original?

[Peter Flory]

Except for #5 and #18, the course has grown on me a lot over the years.  I think that it will come off as a great venue for Ryder Cup play- unless it plays soft and windless.

[Jason Thurman]

I'm with Peter. At the risk of contradicting a guy who saw it on tv a couple times, I liked the Straits after one play. After a second play, from a more reasonable set of tees, I loved it.


An engineering marvel. A fabulous routing. Far more subtlety than noticed at first glance. A cohesive aesthetic but holes with individual character.


I mean, the aesthetic is sorta... a lot. But writing with a view over Lake Michigan at the moment, I'm not bitching that the beach could look better.


And 18 is a pain in the ass. But I'll defend 5 as a good hole that feels out of place because it is... but surely everybody at least can understand why by now.


And I gotta think it'll be more volatile in match play than the average Tour course.

[John Kavanaugh]

I just seemed odd to hear a guy without a $100 haircut slamming Pete Dye.

[Jason Thurman]

Did he have anything new to say? Or was it some version of the old "too narrow, too cluttered, too manufactured, too soft to play like a real links, 5 and 18 really suck, but the bathrooms are nice" schtick?


I'd also be curious to know if there's anyone on the forum who would like to offer criticism of the course after neither playing it nor watching on tv, but based only on heading criticism on the radio. Seems like a natural next era of course analysis.

[John Kavanaugh]

He talked of the sharpness of the features. It was quite detailed. Him and his partner then got in an argument about the worst hole every built. Whistling Straits vs PGA West.


I don't believe they would have been so brutally honest if Dye were still around. The guy is 50 and probably grew up playing Dye designs. A Gamecock so to speak.

[Jason Thurman]

Seems tough to call features sharp on a course where the best golfer in the world on a given week might not realize he's in a bunker.

[cary lichtenstein]

I played it twice, loved it but thought 18 was severe and out of place but a great finishing hole for the Ryder Cup or any PGA event. Engineering marvel considering it was once a flat airfield, would never ever know it

[Matt Kardash]

Not sure how this will be seen as a bad course or venue for the Ryder Cup when the previous venues were
2018: Le Golf National
2016: Hazeltine
2014: Gleneagles
2012: Medinah
2010: Celtic Manor
2008: Valhalla
2006: The K Club
These previous venues were pretty brutal in general. Not a single course I would say is better than WS. Most are not even on the same planet in terms of quality.

[James Brown]

Whistling Straits is an interesting course, but I thought it had a lot of similar holes and I was turned off by the gratuitous bunkering way off onto hillsides that were not in play.  Those bunkers seemed like PD caving to the owner somehow.    It has some features that seem really interesting in a Ryder Cup setting, like the green side pit bunker on 6.  We’ll see. 


Whistling Straits seemed like it was a routing and concept that was trying to attain what the Ocean Course attained, but on a site that was just that much less good for golf. 

[John Emerson]

Not sure how this will be seen as a bad course or venue for the Ryder Cup when the previous venues were
2018: Le Golf National
2016: Hazeltine
2014: Gleneagles
2012: Medinah
2010: Celtic Manor
2008: Valhalla
2006: The K Club
These previous venues were pretty brutal in general. Not a single course I would say is better than WS. Most are not even on the same planet in terms of quality.

Never is the Ryder Cup looking to play “the most architecturally sound” or “best”courses.  It’s about putting on a show, and setting up holes for the home team to take advantage of in the RC format. Fan experience is a huge deal for this event also.  More so than other pga tournaments.  Valhalla isn’t the greatest course in the world, but it is a great tournament golf course for fan experience, especially the RC format.  Azinger and Floyd came down and spoke with a couple of us at the start of the week in 2008 and PA said “you all set this place up for us to win and we are going to put on a show”. They did exactly that. 
I may have misremembered but, I believe that the RC is the most profitable event for the pga…by a whole lot!

[Carl Nichols]

Not sure how this will be seen as a bad course or venue for the Ryder Cup when the previous venues were
2018: Le Golf National
2016: Hazeltine
2014: Gleneagles
2012: Medinah
2010: Celtic Manor
2008: Valhalla
2006: The K Club
These previous venues were pretty brutal in general. Not a single course I would say is better than WS. Most are not even on the same planet in terms of quality.

Never is the Ryder Cup looking to play “the most architecturally sound” or “best”courses.  It’s about putting on a show, and setting up holes for the home team to take advantage of in the RC format. Fan experience is a huge deal for this event also.  More so than other pga tournaments.  Valhalla isn’t the greatest course in the world, but it is a great tournament golf course for fan experience, especially the RC format.  Azinger and Floyd came down and spoke with a couple of us at the start of the week in 2008 and PA said “you all set this place up for us to win and we are going to put on a show”. They did exactly that. 
I may have misremembered but, I believe that the RC is the most profitable event for the pga…by a whole lot!

How much do the players get paid?  I believe the total purse for the PGA Championship was $12 million; eliminating a substantial portion of that expense is very helpful to the bottom line.

[John Emerson]

Not sure how this will be seen as a bad course or venue for the Ryder Cup when the previous venues were
2018: Le Golf National
2016: Hazeltine
2014: Gleneagles
2012: Medinah
2010: Celtic Manor
2008: Valhalla
2006: The K Club
These previous venues were pretty brutal in general. Not a single course I would say is better than WS. Most are not even on the same planet in terms of quality.

Never is the Ryder Cup looking to play “the most architecturally sound” or “best”courses.  It’s about putting on a show, and setting up holes for the home team to take advantage of in the RC format. Fan experience is a huge deal for this event also.  More so than other pga tournaments.  Valhalla isn’t the greatest course in the world, but it is a great tournament golf course for fan experience, especially the RC format.  Azinger and Floyd came down and spoke with a couple of us at the start of the week in 2008 and PA said “you all set this place up for us to win and we are going to put on a show”. They did exactly that. 
I may have misremembered but, I believe that the RC is the most profitable event for the pga…by a whole lot!

How much do the players get paid?  I believe the total purse for the PGA Championship was $12 million; eliminating a substantial portion of that expense is very helpful to the bottom line.

12 mil is a drop in the bucket when talking about how much money the pga rakes in for the RC.  We are talking revenues are well into 9 figures. 

[John Kavanaugh]

Saying that these guys don’t get paid at the Ryder Cup is like saying a whale doesn’t do the backstroke because he can’t breath through its navel.

[Jeff Schley]

Not sure how this will be seen as a bad course or venue for the Ryder Cup when the previous venues were
2018: Le Golf National
2016: Hazeltine
2014: Gleneagles
2012: Medinah
2010: Celtic Manor
2008: Valhalla
2006: The K Club
These previous venues were pretty brutal in general. Not a single course I would say is better than WS. Most are not even on the same planet in terms of quality.

Never is the Ryder Cup looking to play “the most architecturally sound” or “best”courses.  It’s about putting on a show, and setting up holes for the home team to take advantage of in the RC format. Fan experience is a huge deal for this event also.  More so than other pga tournaments.  Valhalla isn’t the greatest course in the world, but it is a great tournament golf course for fan experience, especially the RC format.  Azinger and Floyd came down and spoke with a couple of us at the start of the week in 2008 and PA said “you all set this place up for us to win and we are going to put on a show”. They did exactly that. 
I may have misremembered but, I believe that the RC is the most profitable event for the pga…by a whole lot!

How much do the players get paid?  I believe the total purse for the PGA Championship was $12 million; eliminating a substantial portion of that expense is very helpful to the bottom line.

They don't and I don't believe they ever have. There is some charitable giving in their name, not sure how much.  However, can't the games best players give up one payday for the benefit of the organization responsible for all the PGA pros around the country? 

[John Emerson]

Not sure how this will be seen as a bad course or venue for the Ryder Cup when the previous venues were
2018: Le Golf National
2016: Hazeltine
2014: Gleneagles
2012: Medinah
2010: Celtic Manor
2008: Valhalla
2006: The K Club
These previous venues were pretty brutal in general. Not a single course I would say is better than WS. Most are not even on the same planet in terms of quality.

Never is the Ryder Cup looking to play “the most architecturally sound” or “best”courses.  It’s about putting on a show, and setting up holes for the home team to take advantage of in the RC format. Fan experience is a huge deal for this event also.  More so than other pga tournaments.  Valhalla isn’t the greatest course in the world, but it is a great tournament golf course for fan experience, especially the RC format.  Azinger and Floyd came down and spoke with a couple of us at the start of the week in 2008 and PA said “you all set this place up for us to win and we are going to put on a show”. They did exactly that. 
I may have misremembered but, I believe that the RC is the most profitable event for the pga…by a whole lot!

How much do the players get paid?  I believe the total purse for the PGA Championship was $12 million; eliminating a substantial portion of that expense is very helpful to the bottom line.

They don't and I don't believe they ever have. There is some charitable giving in their name, not sure how much.  However, can't the games best players give up one payday for the benefit of the organization responsible for all the PGA pros around the country?

Hell no.  Why would they give up money?  Would you work for free?  I know I sure as hell wouldn’t.

[Jeff Schley]

Not sure how this will be seen as a bad course or venue for the Ryder Cup when the previous venues were
2018: Le Golf National
2016: Hazeltine
2014: Gleneagles
2012: Medinah
2010: Celtic Manor
2008: Valhalla
2006: The K Club
These previous venues were pretty brutal in general. Not a single course I would say is better than WS. Most are not even on the same planet in terms of quality.

Never is the Ryder Cup looking to play “the most architecturally sound” or “best”courses.  It’s about putting on a show, and setting up holes for the home team to take advantage of in the RC format. Fan experience is a huge deal for this event also.  More so than other pga tournaments.  Valhalla isn’t the greatest course in the world, but it is a great tournament golf course for fan experience, especially the RC format.  Azinger and Floyd came down and spoke with a couple of us at the start of the week in 2008 and PA said “you all set this place up for us to win and we are going to put on a show”. They did exactly that. 
I may have misremembered but, I believe that the RC is the most profitable event for the pga…by a whole lot!

How much do the players get paid?  I believe the total purse for the PGA Championship was $12 million; eliminating a substantial portion of that expense is very helpful to the bottom line.

They don't and I don't believe they ever have. There is some charitable giving in their name, not sure how much.  However, can't the games best players give up one payday for the benefit of the organization responsible for all the PGA pros around the country?

Hell no.  Why would they give up money?  Would you work for free?  I know I sure as hell wouldn’t.

Work?  Or invited to be part of a team voluntarily? Have you ever given back via volunteerism to a non-profit?

It is how you view this event. Does everyone need to be paid for anything and everything in the world?  I sure as heck hope not, as the empathy and unselfishness we all demonstrate for others are some of the biggest emotions that binds us together. They aren't curing cancer by giving up a payday once every 2 years, but it sure makes an impact in the game they are professionals in.

[Jon Sweet]

Listening to this Paulson dude on XM ripping Whistling Straits was refreshing in it's ignorance. Is the lid off?

I’ll have to give it another look but doesn’t seem super appealing and a must play to me. Not sure what his take is as I’d never pay for XM. I’m no giant Pete dye fan but I did enjoy Pete Dye GC more than I thought I would but the bunkering was as bland as it gets. Loved the 17th green and that seems to be what gets all the criticism.

If you pay for XM you get Jeff Warne, worth the subscription

Jeff Warne to my knowledge is here for free...

[Jon Sweet]

Not sure how this will be seen as a bad course or venue for the Ryder Cup when the previous venues were
2018: Le Golf National
2016: Hazeltine
2014: Gleneagles
2012: Medinah
2010: Celtic Manor
2008: Valhalla
2006: The K Club
These previous venues were pretty brutal in general. Not a single course I would say is better than WS. Most are not even on the same planet in terms of quality.

Never is the Ryder Cup looking to play “the most architecturally sound” or “best”courses.  It’s about putting on a show, and setting up holes for the home team to take advantage of in the RC format. Fan experience is a huge deal for this event also.  More so than other pga tournaments.  Valhalla isn’t the greatest course in the world, but it is a great tournament golf course for fan experience, especially the RC format.  Azinger and Floyd came down and spoke with a couple of us at the start of the week in 2008 and PA said “you all set this place up for us to win and we are going to put on a show”. They did exactly that. 
I may have misremembered but, I believe that the RC is the most profitable event for the pga…by a whole lot!

How much do the players get paid?  I believe the total purse for the PGA Championship was $12 million; eliminating a substantial portion of that expense is very helpful to the bottom line.

Wonder if they charge for those polo shirts and gear?

[John Kavanaugh]

I hope the Rickie Fowler ads run during the broadcast so at least someone is getting paid.


I put the value of being on the Ryder Cup team at 3 million dollars. Jeff Overton is a perfect example. Never won on tour. He will ride that Ryder Cup horse the rest of his life.

[Mike_Trenham]

The Ryder Cup is the most lucrative event for a club/course to host by a big factor.

[Kalen Braley]

And even when you get left off its hurting you! 

https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/32177937/patrick-reed-likes-tweets-disparaging-captain-steve-stricker-ryder-cup-snub

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