Third Ryder Cup Question: Did The Course Setup "Backfire"?

I've seen and heard in several places how the course setup (fast greens and no rough) backfired on Captain Davis Love. Before the matches, there had been suggestions the USA had a few tricks up their sleeves while Lee Westwood said he saw the approach favoring neither team.

Now, the match was decided by a point. The U.S. played particularly well in the foursomes and four-balls where they historically haven't been as strong.

The only impact I saw was in the way the setup tactics possibly inspired the Europeans to overcome a perceived obstacle. There may have been many other instances we'll learn about in time from players about little things that were done to aid the Americans.  Otherwise, Curtis Tyrrell and team's beautifully conditioned Medinah seemed to reward shots from both sides and allowed skill to dictate the outcome instead of rough or the actions of PGA setup man Kerry Haigh.

Thoughts?

"The Americans haven't really been using the tees that they'll be using during the matches because they're trying to throw off the European spies."

Michael Collins reports some last minute course tweaks that may just raise the bar on home field advantage efforts: a tree removed and an area of rough on the 10th hole cut so Bubba Watson can find a good lie over a fairway bunker 290 from the tee.

In addition, Medinah director of golf Mike Scully said that a tree was removed Wednesday that would make the tee shot easier on a hole, but he would not specify which hole. Having trees removed is not within Love's rights as captain, and Scully would not say why the tree needed to be taken down.

Medinah has lost several hundred trees over the past year. In fact, the tree on the 16th hole, made famous when Sergio Garcia closed his eyes and blasted a tremendous shot from its base in the 1999 PGA Championship, had to be removed. 

Dave Shedloski talked to the Open Doctor Thursday and Rees Jones about all things Medinah and he says the Americans were careful not to reveal some planned setup ploys during their practice rounds.

"It used to be that the golf course was a certain yardage, and that's what you had. But here they can do just about anything." Jones said. "The Americans haven't really been using the tees that they'll be using during the matches because they're trying to throw off the European spies. I mean, we've heard a lot about players laying up on the 15th hole [a drivable par-4]. A lot of Americans have been talking about that. But Bubba Watson said today he can reach it with a 4-wood. So that tells me he knows something."

We shall see!

Captain Love was pretty cryptic about the setup on Thursday, but I love the jab at the PGA's Kerry Haigh.

Q.  What's your latest thought on the length of No. 15, especially since Mickelson came in and said he doesn't anticipate it being drivable; and also, do you think you'll move around the tee much on the weekend?

DAVIS LOVE III:  Well, it won't be drivable if Phil doesn't hit driver, if he hits an iron off the tee.
I think you'll probably see a variety of things at 15.  You know, it all depends on the wind, too.  If it's cold or windy, not many guys can get there no matter where you put the tee.  The front of the tee is‑‑ I think the shortest you can get it is 285 front, so if it's cold and windy coming in, not many guys out there that will be able to get there.  Maybe Dustin and Tiger and Colsaerts.  But I think you'll see a variety.

You know, it's different in different formats, and Kerry is‑‑ I think the great thing about what we have seen Kerry set up PGA Championships and Ryder Cups is he gives you a variety.  It's fun; fun to play any course that Kerry sets up.  I'm just glad that I got to Curtis Tyrell and got rid of Kerry's four‑inch rough.  (Smiling.)

R&A Presser Wrap Up: Forget Portrush, Lytham Draining, Slow Play Killing Game, Twitter & Polo A Fine Partner

Team Ralph Lauren, a.k.a. the Royal and Ancient's Peter Dawson, Jim McArthur, Johnnie Cole-Hamilton and Malcolm Booth held court sporting great Polo sweaters fresh out of the package (the standards today...manufacturer creases...dreadful).

Some highlights from the annual R&A press conference. Starting with the British press letting no mundane detail slide by…

Q.  Do you have more bunker rakers than usual?  If so, could you put a number on the bunker rakers, and also can you tell us where these bunkers are that are causing concern?

    JIM McARTHUR:  Good questions.  Peter?

    PETER DAWSON:  No, I don't think we have more bunker rakers than usual.  Each group has a bunker raker that walks with them, and that should be adequate for the purpose.  The bunkers that are causing concern at the moment are on the 16th and 17th holes in particular, and there is some concern also on the 14th and on the right of the 2nd green.

    When I came here myself ten days ago, thereabout, on a Friday evening, it was much wetter then after the cloudburst than it is now.  And two days later of good, drying weather you would think the golf course was in normal summer condition.  It was very firm and there was no standing water anywhere.

Dawson called fairways ranging from 18-28 paces on windy linksland...reasonably generous.

The champion on Sunday I doubt will have won from the rough.  I think he'll be winning from the short grass, so there's a premium on hitting fairways this week, obviously.  But if you stray a long way off the fairways, and the fairways are reasonably generous.  If you stray a long way off, then you're going to be penalized.

I later asked about that as a few players who know the course have grumbled about narrowness.

Q.  You mentioned that the fairways are generous.  Some of the players have noted that the course is narrower than last time and some of the landing areas are under 20 yards.  Why has it been narrowed, and does it concern you if we get some of the high winds forecast that it will be too narrow?

    PETER DAWSON:  I don't believe it's factual that it's been narrowed since last time, I just don't think that's the case.  I don't know where that comes from.  We have not narrowed any fairways here that I can think of in the setup of the golf course.

It seems the security this week is being handled by the same security firm under fire for their handling of London 2012. And we know how that's going.

JOHNNIE COLE‑HAMILTON:  All the managers, the supervisors, the guys in charge who we've been using for many, many years are back with us.  The numbers that myself and my team asked for are all here.  We have no issue whatsoever with the group force coverage of the golf course.  As I understand it, it's a separate part of the business, and it's the event's item.  We have no issue at all with the coverage that we've got, and everybody is present and correct.

Here's your first of a few answers on Royal Portrush-as-Open-venue-in-the-future questions that spell its doom.

The Championship Committee looks at many, many factors in determining the course choice for The Open Championship.  And we'll just have to see how we go.

    There is a great deal and a huge amount of money would need to be spent, in my estimation, to make Royal Portrush a sensible choice. 

It requires The Treatment! Go on...

That's not a criticism of Royal Portrush; it's a wonderful golf course.  But the commercial aspects of it are quite onerous.  And obviously The R&A would need to be sorting those things out as well as just simply the logistics of the whole affair.

    It's going to take some time to come to a view, and the view may be no.  We'll just have to wait and see.  I can't give you a time scale.

    JIM McARTHUR:  Not before 2016.

Or ever!

And another blow to Portrush hopes here from Dawson:

We don't feel short of Open venues now, let me say.  We're not rushing to look for more; we don't feel that pressure.  But what did impress hugely about the Irish Open was the logistics worked well, the traffic flows and all of that.  But above all, I thought the enthusiasm of the spectators was something not to be forgotten, and that's a very strong point.

Some fantastic stuff here from McArthur, in stark contrast to the other governing body and the tours when it comes to understanding the role of slow play in the game, as influenced by tournament golf.

I have to say to you, we are intent on doing what we can to improve the pace of play in golf.  I mean, I think we feel that particularly maybe not so much at professional golf but certainly amateur golf that slow play is, in some ways, if not killing the game, is killing the club membership because of the time it takes to play.  And whatever we can do in our events, and bear in mind that we are not seeing the players week in, week out.  We see them two or three times a year, professionals once a year, amateurs two or three times a year, we're doing whatever we feel we can in the circumstances to contribute to improving the pace of play.

But it needs to be a concerted effort, not just the R&A, not just the Tours, but the golf unions and other golf organisations to, I think, come to a coordinated effort to improve the speed.

And I think we should ‑‑ personally I think we should be aiming in club amateur golf for three and a half hours maximum for a threeball, perhaps elite amateur four hours.  These should be maximum times, and we should be trying to improve these at all times.

You go Jim!

Of course, the R&A also has to stop adding back tees and suffocating setups that slow down play, and also make it so that not ever par-5 and a shocking number of par-4s are driveable, therefore clogging up courses.

Dawson on Twitter, rescued sturdily by spokesman Malcolm Booth.

Q.  Peter, do you have any concerns about the players' and caddies' use of social media, such as Twitter, given that it seems to be causing more and more travesty in other sporting fields?  Will you be monitoring this Championship?

    PETER DAWSON:  Malcolm, can you take that?  This whole subject is entirely beyond me, I must confess, why people feel the need to Twitter, but I'm old‑fashioned.  Malcolm, I will hand this question to you.
Q.  Do you have an account?

    PETER DAWSON:  I couldn't afford it.

    MALCOLM BOOTH:  Well, we do monitor Twitter.  We have our own Twitter handle that is pretty successful out there.  And of course, we keep an eye on what the players and caddies and connections throughout the game of golf are saying.  I can't say I've noticed a huge influx of tweets from the golf course, and I suppose if that started to happen we might take a look at it, but we haven't observed that at this stage.

In an refreshing twist, the R&A is more bullish and proactive then the other members of the Five Families when it comes to people watching coverage on their phones, but they also understand the limitations of current technology. Booth again:

But for the first time people up and down the UK will be able to watch the BBC's domestic coverage wall‑to‑wall Thursday through Sunday on our apps and website, and in America they'll be able to watch ESPN's coverage on our website, and I think that allows us to work closely with our television partners to engage with our audience globally.

    And then on a local level, ultimately that will lead to people being able, we hope, to watch television pictures on their mobile devices in the grandstands.  That's not something that we will expect to happen for this week, because they'll be reliant on a 3G network, which will only have a certain capacity to watch video, but we hope they'll be able to get live scoring on their devices, as will you, we hope, as you walk round the golf course, but there is every chance that the 3G network ‑‑ we'll have to see how that works.

    But over time, as we see how this performs, it's going to become a much‑valued tool to spectators and media around the golf course, and we're very optimistic that it can be a real enhancement at the championship. We're trialling Wi‑Fi on one of our grandstands on 18 to see what the capabilities are of putting Wi‑Fi out in a manageable way out on the golf course, where it actually performs well.  And that's something we'll observe over this week, and see what we can do for future years.

And finally, a question about Team Ralph Lauren's matching sweaters! This should make for fun reading in the tabloids tomorrow.

Q.  You're all looking very smart.  Was there a bidding war to outfit The R&A?  Just how much did Ralph Lauren pay to take over the merchandising tent?

    JIM McARTHUR:  Peter, could you answer that for me, please?

    PETER DAWSON:  Well, I'm not sure we're all looking very smart.  No, we're delighted to have Polo, Ralph Lauren as a patron of The Open Championship.  And it goes without saying that when you have that sort of commercial relationship, you do expect officials, referees, volunteers, et cetera, to be clothed by them.  And that's terrific.  Their support of the game of golf, not just here, but other events has been strong, and we're delighted to have them as a partner.

    In terms of the financial number, that's obviously confidential and would actually depend on the outcome in the merchandise sales this week, anyway.  So I couldn't give you a number even if I wanted to, which I don't.

    Q.  How many complaints have you had from other merchandisers so far?

    PETER DAWSON:  Personally I have had none, but I would be surprised if there weren't some flying around.

Update on 2012-07-18 15:47 by Geoff

**John Huggan on my Team Polo's performance Wednesday.

Update on 2012-07-18 16:03 by Geoff

**Rex Hoggard on how the pace of play situation will be enforced by the R&A, with "words of encouragement."

“We have a pace-of-play policy which we intend to apply stringently,” said Jim McArthur, the chairman of the R&A’s championship committee.

Officials will allow for rounds of 4 hours, 30 minutes for Thursday and Friday’s three-ball groups and 3 hours, 45 minutes for the weekend’s two-ball times, which are ambitious by PGA Tour standards.
After an initial warning, or words of encouragement, players will be penalized a stroke for the second bad time. The third bad time will lead to a two-stroke penalty and a fourth penalty will result in disqualification.

And Yet More Observations From Rainy Lytham...

Longtime readers know I have a simple rule to determine whether a major championship course setup crosses the goofy threshold: if the fairway landing area off the tee and then leading into a green is narrower than the green complex itself, you have a stinker.

Sadly, more than a handful of key holes at Lytham and St. Annes have been vandalized by paint cans, with a few fairways reaching an unprecedented 18 paces wide, which is as narrow as anything I've seen in the modern age of trying to stifle distance advances through setup.

On a positive note, I spent some time with the holes furthest from the clubhouse and the stretch of eight, nine and ten is magnificent. Meanwhile, the splendid weather drawn up by the Blackpool Tourist Board means the course will never be too fast and firm, making the silly fairway widths slightly more palatable. But if the wind blows, that's another story. Look at longshot bets if some wind creeps into the forecast.

On an even more positive note, I've never seen a club with a greater and more sophisticated devotion to its championships than Royal Lytham. As you'll see below, they have some of the simplest and best displays celebrating past championships that I've ever seen. Pity that the golf course here, so clearly loved by its members and treasured by players for generations, will be tainted this week by a combination of Mother Nature and regulatory ineptitude.

Here are just a few photos from a another gorgeous day in this summer beach resort town. Cheers!

Videos: Explaining The Many Dangers Of Olympic's 13th

The 199-yard 13th has the players flummoxed and with good reason. There's one shot to hit and anything else is likely to find some sort of trouble. This has always been an unusual par-3 but never were things like this said about it...

Q.  Compared to other U.S. Open courses how does Olympic‑‑ what kind of special shots does it favor or require?

BUBBA WATSON:  Not that I know this in my head, but 13, what is that, the par‑3, 13, the par‑3 they shaved all the grass on the left side of the hole.  So if you hit it‑‑ you could actually hit the ball on the green and end up in the hazard.  I don't understand why they did that.  But they did it.

And from Phil Mickelson's transcript:

PHIL MICKELSON:  I think that 13 provides the most challenging shot, because it's a long, narrow green with wind blowing right‑to‑left.  It's pushing the ball left.

If you miss it right, you've got a chip that's downhill, downwind, you're not going to get it up and down.  And if you miss it left, it's off to Hartford.  You may as well pack your bags, and we'll see you next week at Hartford (laughter) because that ball is going to go down the creek, in the rough, under the trees, and you may still be there on Monday.

I think that provides the most difficult, penalizing challenge to where a lot of people are going to get knocked right out of the tournament the first two days because of that one hole.

In the first video, I start by looking at the tee shot issues:

A view of the issues facing players who hit their tee shot in the right bunker.

And finally, that tightly mown back area that has been introduced this year and which is creating much of the consternation. How much this comes into play will depend mostly on firmness and wind. Today it was manageable because of the morning fog and tight mow having gone uncut for two days.