Casper on Course Lengthening Trend
/Add Bob Casper to the list this week saying that lengthening courses is a mistake. His solution:
No doubt, distance is an advantage off the tee. But firm greens and flyer rough negates the upper hand of the power game. It's a scary notion that millions of dollars can be spent for renovations and restorations to courses in hopes of affecting a tiny percentage of players known as bombers. The formula for success for all golf's governing bodies should be firm -- and unchangeable.
Firm is good, firm is good.
And thankfully, Casper never once mentions narrowing the courses any further (he, unlike some, apparently realizes that there is a point when 20 yards is closer to a walkway than a fairway). But it is interesting how there continue to be more calls for rough when this year's flogging approach has only become more accepted despite efforts to stop it. The more they narrow fairways and the more rough that is harvested, the more the players just swing away.