Make the 17th Harder?

John Hawkins' latest blog entry is a bit head scratcher. He says the 17th at TPC Sawgrass isn't hard enough because it's a "stock pitching wedge" and that: "it’s probably too easy at least one round each year, sometimes two. Changing the hole without a compromise of its character would raise blood pressures even more, which is precisely what the hole was meant to do."

Help me here. I can't think of another sport where people want to see it made tougher, even at the expense of entertainment. Football? Hockey? Baseball?

When those sports have been perceived as off-kilter, less interesting or compromised by changes in equipment, they went in search of ways to make the sport better and more interesting.

Hawkins brings up good points in the story about altering the angles of attack to add interest, but I'm not sure if they are for the reasons that say, Bobby Jones would like to have seen variety on a day-to-day basis (to better test the player). They seem to be ideas designed to raise scoring averages.

Since equipment has made it easier for the top players, many expect courses to keep up or inflict torture because the players have it easier. I guess I just will never understand the admiration for trainwreck golf that has overtaken the game. Especially when it would be a lot easier to change the ball.

Update on 2006-03-21 18:21 by Geoff

A few respected players say #17 is hard enough. From Ron Whitten's excellent story last year on the evolution of the TPC:

"It's a great finish," says [Brad] Faxon. "As a player, there aren't many times when you get more nervous than hitting that second shot into 16, hitting to that island green on 17 and hitting that tee shot on 18."

And, Steve Elkington:

"At Augusta, once you get past 15 and 16, you feel it's over. Not at TPC at Sawgrass. I once stood on the 17th tee with a six-shot lead and I was still worried about getting it across the water. I know if I put one in the drink, I might put 10 in. It's one of those feelings."

Sawgrass and Rough

With stories mentioning the restoration of "shot values" (whatever they are) to the TPC Sawgrass when the "layer of Gore Tex" is installed this summer, I could not help but wonder if the changes will mean the Tour will take down the US Open style rough. (See the recommended questions for Commissioner Finchem.)

Last year, Tom Kite made a strong case for the rough stripping the course of its character and even difficulty in Ron Whitten's Golf World cover story:

"It was probably as strategic a golf course as maybe we've ever seen," he says. "It reminded me a lot of St. Andrews in that there were so many options and ways to play it. It was designed to play firm and fast, and you knew you were going to have to play some creative shots. But now it's like the U.S. Open, with lots of deep rough, trees totally out of play. Nobody hits it into the trees anymore. Nobody ever misses a green by more than two or three yards anymore, because it doesn't roll anywhere, it just hits that wall of rough."

The problem is that they overseed the course in winter, says Paul Azinger. "Whenever you overseed in Florida, you have to water it to keep it alive, and that makes everything softer and easier," says Azinger. "I'm not suggesting that it's easy. I love the course, but it's not what it was, not what Pete Dye intended it to be. It's just not that hard anymore."

Why do I have the funny feeling the rough will not go? 

Fifth Major Watch, Vol. 3

I wonder if in making the push to declare The Players the greatest golf tournament on the planet (and therefore, a major), anyone in Ponte Vedra realizes that the near desperation only lessens the chance of it becoming a major? Or that the Grand Slam can only ever have four events to be, well, a Slam.

Well, maybe Dave Shedloski at PGATour.com understands. Amazingly, he got this line by those guys with the little red pens who sit in some back room at Ponte Vedra headquarters:

Whether the PLAYERS is deigned a major or not is immaterial. It plays like one.

Fifth Major Watch, Vol. 2

We'll go easy on Ron Sirak's fifth major declaration since the Carolyn Bivens-Golf Digest credential form battle is forcing him to avoid LPGA Tour coverage.

Still, we must have our fun...thanks to reader Marty for the heads up.

For at least a decade, the question that has refused to go away concerns whether The Players Championship is the fifth major.

And I bet we're reading articles about the debate in another ten years!

That debate will gain even more momentum next year when the tournament moves to May and it is contested on a rebuilt Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. The new date and the new playing characteristics for the course will focus even more attention on the Players, and will intensify the discussion as to its status.

Perhaps most importantly, the new spot on the schedule will semi-formalize the Players' position as the fifth major.

Yes, key word: semi-formalize.

Enjoy this year's Players Championship, and smile when it is over knowing that next year it will be even better.

Or smile because it'll be 14 months before we resume the annual fifth major debate!

Fifth Major Watch

This Scotsman story says "it is hardly surprising that the Players' Championship is commonly referred to as 'the fifth Major'. Golf's powers-that-be have yet to give it that status but they may as well." 

Meanwhile, Dermot Gilleece reports that Johnny Miller says the status of the event is "getting to be a real issue." 

Please Johnny. It became an issue when won Craig Perks won. That's when I thought, "this is the fifth of four majors!"

Anyway, Gilleece talks to Padraig Harrington who noted a change in the TPC Sawgrass:

"Sawgrass used to be fearsome, but it is now quite a normal test of golf. There's nothing extreme about it anymore. But if they get the greens really firm and fast, which they can in May, now you're talking scary course, especially with the rough up."

Would this strengthen its major aspirations? "Maybe," he said. "But I believe that if there is to be a fifth major, it should be the Australian Open, provided you get the right field. Most of the great players have played it; it's been around for more than 100 years (instituted in 1904) and has a choice of some wonderful courses. So all that's missing is the right field."

Oops.

Fifth of Four Majors Watch

Last year, this site commenced on the 1st annual "fifth of four majors" watch, where our  radar searched for the inevitable Players Championship stories that,

A) Proclaim the 72-holes of swamp golf to be Golf's Fifth Major (sometimes capitalized)

B) Said the Players is deserving of "fifth major status," whatever that means...it could be ninth major too if it wants!

C) Or quite simply, called it a major because the Players displays major-like tendencies (the worst of which is an uncanny tendency to mimic the best attributes of the other four majors...well, the other three in the U.S., which explains the azaleas, the rough, and the blinding white sand).

This annual rite of spring, which has become a fallback column or Wednesday story, has even earned The Players a mention in a golf glossary under "fifth major."

Contending stories in our "watch" inevitably include mentions of the field being the greatest ever assembled, the course the finest of its kind, the PGA Tour deserving of its own major, and the list of champions incredibly diverse. (After all, how else do you deal with Jimmy Roberts' favorite, the Craig Perks win?)

PGATour.com references do not qualify. 

Amazingly, none of the credentialed scribes filed a genuine fifth-of-four majors story last year, though we did get several fifth-of-four references, and even a few "so-called" fifth major mentions (those cynical European writers).

Yet here we are on the eve of the Players, no one has even had a chance to get bored sitting around the press room in search of a story, and we have 2006's potential Grand Prize winner!

Let the mundane stories begin!