Some Southern Hills Setup Thoughts

The one glaring weakness of Southern Hills is a lack of flexibility that might have given the PGA's Kerry Haigh a chance to move up some tees and encourage drives at a short par-4 (the par-5's proved reachable thanks to the heat and the remarkable athleticism of guys like John Daly). Still, it seemed like the hole locations were nicely varied throughout the week and offered a great mix of both easily accessible and tucked.

However, two hole locations looked a bit silly Sunday, and I'd love to hear from those on site if they agreed.

Number 6 was tucked so close to the creek and shaved bank that there seemed to be no rational reason to attack it. It made 12 at Augusta on Sunday look accessible.
(click to enlarge)

Same deal with No. 12, which was hidden behind the front bunker.

To achieve some element of temptation, and therefore risk/reward scenarios that make for captivating golf, both holes probably saw their best Sunday locations on...Saturday. For round three, the sixth was cut in the center left while No. 12 was cut in the center back right near the shaved bank leading to the creek.

That's quibbling though. Once again, the PGA Championship left me feeling like the players faced a tough test and yet were able to display their skill at the right times. Sure, they were on the defensive quite a bit due to the narrow nature of Southern Hills and there were still plenty of irons off tees, but the opportunity was there to attack at times during each round, as opposed to select times chosen by the committee as we see more and more at the first two majors.

Thoughts?