"It doesn't add a huge amount to the second shot. It adds a lot to the tee shot."****
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Because there are 17 other holes of great interest I hate to belabor the Road hole debate any more than is necessary, but I thought Padraig Harrington's comments about the second shot were of interest considering that the R&A's Peter Dawson has stated that the intent in lengthening the hole was to bring the road more into play ("Crucially, the difficulty of the second shot will be re-established.")
Harrington seems to be saying that's not happening.
Now you've got to hit driver. It's slightly -- you're certainly not reaching the bottleneck of the fairway at the end, and you're left with a 5-iron. I hit 7-iron, 6-iron and 5-iron onto the green yesterday all from the same spot. It was obviously a little bit downwind.
It's not that it's a big second shot. The second shot has always been intimidating whether you're hitting, as I said, an 8-iron or a 5-iron, and with a longer club at least it's going to run up there. It's the tee shot that may hurt, not anything else. It really is a tough tee shot, as in, I hit a couple of drives off it yesterday, and they weren't too dissimilar, and one of them was like a long way down the right half of the fairway and the other was out of bounds, and it wasn't like -- I was kind of expecting to find -- I wouldn't have been surprised if the two of them were within five yards of each other. So it's an intimidating tee shot. It's what you're used to seeing on TV years ago. It's exactly what they need.
It doesn't add a huge amount to the second shot. It adds a lot to the tee shot.
**A couple of more views, first Lee Westwood who says the new tee has added two clubs to the second shot.
"It's good, though the one thing I will say is that regardless of where the flag is you tend to only play for the front or certain spots anyway. I was about 30 yards behind where I have been on average in recent years and would say it was a difference of two clubs for the second shot. It was a driver and a 5-iron today."
And from Martin Dempster's story, this gushing endorsement from Tony Jacklin:
Tony Jacklin, the man who finished fifth behind Jack Nicklaus on the Old Course 40 years ago, believes the change will create a "70-30 ratio" of balls in the left rough this week. "You have to bite off more of the hotel now and I suspect the rough to the left will still get worn out even though it is thick over there," said the Englishman. "It was a good hole anyway and is a matter of conjecture whether it was necessary - obviously somebody thought it was necessary."
****Tiger Woods, talking about the 17th and sounding like not a huge fan.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about the Road Hole, you know, your observations of the changes there. Do you like them? Do you not? How is it changing your approach to playing the hole?
TIGER WOODS: Well, it's a tough hole to begin with, no matter how you look at it. I know that they wanted us to hit more club into the greens, into that particular green. They did this whole study in '95, and the average player was hitting a 5‑iron. Come 2000, 2005, I think it was like an 8‑iron, so they wanted to get it back to a 5‑iron in there.
And...
Q. So you don't like it or do you have an opinion one way or another?
TIGER WOODS: I'm pretty neutral on it because you're hitting ‑‑ all you're doing is basically hitting a little bit more club into the green, but it's the same tee shot. It's the same angle. You're taking the same line off the tee.
