"I wonder if the members of the Green Bay Packers when they won the very first Super Bowl in 1967.."

The bigwigs gathered to plug the upcoming Deutsche Bank event at TPC Boston, and they even included my pal Gil Hanse to talk about the course architecture. Even though you and I know we'll be watching to see those exciting FedEx Cup point permutations unfold.

RIC CLARSON: I wonder if the members of the Green Bay Packers when they won the very first Super Bowl in 1967, which wasn't even called the Super Bowl then, realized their place in history. The fact of the matter is they knew it was a big game and an important game, but they didn't realize that the way that New England's fans realized it when the Patriots won the Super Bowl. Thus we embark on a new era in golf called the FedExCup.

Wow Ric, how long did you spend sculpting that gem? 

Adam Scott, the very first winner of the Deutsche Bank Championship, you never get a second chance to be first, and we're delighted on behalf of the PGA TOUR after 24 years to actually have a season now that is structured like other sports where our athletes have the chance to not only perform over a 33-week regular season but a four-week Playoffs.

Some of the greatest moments in sports come from Playoffs. Some of the greatest moments in golf have happened right here at the Deutsche Bank, and when you combine those two ingredients, we think we're in for a great new era in golf.

Some of the greatest moments in golf have happened at the Deutsche Bank? And you say you don't learn things coming to this website?

BRAD FAXON: I just want to say here, I've been part of the TPC since day one when we broke ground here. It's been six or seven years ago we broke ground. We always needed a facility like this, and I'm proud to say that the TPC of Boston is the best TPC in the country, especially now with what's been done, with everybody partnering now to make this tournament, the Deutsche Bank tournament, Seth, the TPC, the PGA TOUR, to go ahead and let us make changes to make this tournament-worthy golf course.

Easy Brad, let's break 'em in slow!

Like Seth said, everybody knows Deutsche Bank is on Labor Day. We're going to have an unbelievable field, and I'm pretty excited to see the reaction of all the players when they come here and see a course that was maybe liked but not super-well-liked, and hopefully the changes that you're going to get to see now, you're going to say, wow, this is different, this is a New England-style golf course, this looks old, it looks like it's been here. The bad lies and the bad shots that you get today are going to be Gil's fault (laughter).

And from Gil:

As Brad mentioned, what we were really hopeful of doing was trying to create a golf course that looked and felt a little bit more like New England. So I think the touches that you'll see out there will really be reflective of we borrowed literally and liberally from The Country Club, places that are close to our hearts, great old New England golf courses, drop mounds, some blind shots, fescue edged bunkers, fescue out in the rough areas. So hopefully the golf course will feel and look a little bit more rustic and a little bit more like New England.

From a playability standpoint, these guys are so good that I'm skeptical that there's anything we can do from a physical standpoint to limit or restrict what they do. You can always make bunkers so deep, you can only grow rough so thick and tall and you can only have greens so fast.
But what we really tried to concentrate on is the place where I think is the most vulnerable is the mental aspect, trying to make them have to think significantly of different options and different ways to play golf holes, making them feel uncomfortable over shots because they can't quite see the bottom of the flagstick or they might have been in a bunker or on an island and they don't quite have a perfect lie. I think these are the things that architects are going to have to rely more and more on as we go forward with technology and as good athletes as these gentlemen are and the way they play the game.

So hopefully you'll find more strategy, more areas -- I think Pete Dye has a phrase, "Once you get these guys thinking, they're in trouble." I think that's what we're hoping for is we can make them think a little bit more as they go around the golf course and explore different options and opportunities.

Tiger then joined in at this point and he artfully sidestepped questions about the course changes he hasn't seen yet.

Update on 2007-07-31 15:22 by Geoff

The Boston Herald's Joe Gordon played the renovated course in the post press conference media gathering and came away impressed.

With help from Barrington, R.I., tour player and budding architect Brad Faxon plus input from some previous winners of the Deutsche Bank Championship (including defending champ Tiger Woods), Hanse has succeeded admirably.

At yesterday’s media day, the course looked ready to take on a field of 120 players on Labor Day weekend in the second event in the four-tournament playoff series.

The project on the par-71 layout began last September, and work actually proceeded under flood lights.

The course was shortened from 7,488 yards to 7,257, with the par-4 fourth going from a 436-yard dogleg right to a straight, drivable par-4 of 298 yards. The par-3 16th was reduced from 211 yards to 161 with a pond expanded toward the front of the green.

The number of bunkers was reduced from 103 to 52. The greens were made smaller. More than 600 linear feet of dry-stack rock wall was constructed. Chocolate-drop mounds were incorporated, while ridges were created on fairways to force those who miss the desired landing area to face problems in visualizing the next shot.

The bunkers now have a hand-made appearance, rather than machine-made look. They appear more natural, unkempt and less manicured. The reconstruction of several holes will affect the playability in that the ground game can be introduced, especially on holes 5, 9, 11 and 17.

Hanse credited colleagues Jim Wagner and Matt Staffieri for their work and raved about TPC of Boston superintendent Tom Brodeur.

Lucky '13 for TCC?

Jim McCabe notes Trevor Immelman's ace on the par-3 8th in practice and says this about The Country Club and the 2013 U.S. Amateur.

When US Golf Association officials meet today with reporters, expect confirmation of what has been reported by some publications -- that the 2014 US Open will head to Pinehurst No. 2. Nothing will be announced about the 2013 US Amateur (dates for that are out only through 2010), but all indications are it will go to The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., as a way of commemorating the centennial of Francis Ouimet's historic US Open victory. As most Bostonians know, Ouimet walked across the street from his home to win the 1913 Open, a stunning triumph that is credited for popularizing the game in this country. The 50th and 75th anniversaries were saluted with US Opens at TCC (in 1963 and 1988), but the National Amateur would be a fitting tribute, for Ouimet was a lifelong amateur and twice the US Amateur champ. Architect Gil Hanse, his star on the rise for his design of The Boston Golf Club in Hingham, Mass., is working with TCC officials on whatever changes will be necessary for the 2013 US Amateur and possibly the US Open several years after that. Since a second club is always necessary to help accommodate a large US Amateur field, look for Charles River CC in Newton to fill the bill in 2013.

McCabe On TPC Boston

The Boston Globe's Jim McCabe files the first review of Gil Hanse and Brad Faxon's TPC Boston redo. Unfortunately, no photos with the story online or at the club's web site.

Dramatic new bunkering with grass that falls back into the sand caught the group's attention at many holes, starting at the first, and a series of "chocolate drops," which are mounds of grass-covered dirt, now lend character to holes. Aesthetically, TPC Boston looks so much better than before that Hanse should be considered a miracle-worker. He has done what any great designer strives to do -- players will not only have to think their way around , they'll have to hit a variety of shots.

Of course, fickle PGA Tour players surely will critique the changes. Those involved are especially eager to hear the reaction to the par-4 fourth, changed from a goofy, dogleg right of 425 yards to a fairly straight and drivable par-4 of 299 yards -- but one that features a green that can't be more than 3,300 square feet and provides demanding shots from just off the green. So, fire away, laddies.

Dramatic, too, are the changes to the par-5 seventh, which now features a cross bunker roughly 140 yards from the green and creative greenside mounding, and to the par-5 18th, to which Hanse has added a strip of rough stretching out from a bunker. The par-3 16th? It is shorter, but now the green sits closer to the pond, so it's a more daunting shot. The par-4 17th? It might just be the best hole on the back nine, a brilliant piece of work that features one large grassy mound on each side of the fairway, but just enough room for those players who feel they can thread a draw between them.

Will some players moan? Sure. It's usually the second order of business at tournaments, after hopping into the courtesy car.

That's one part of the equation that isn't new.

Update on 2007-05-25 15:07 by Geoff

Mike Kirby in The Sun Chronicle offers his own take along with more descriptions of the changes.