"I’m just saying the jury’s still out. And might be for a while."

John Hawkins feels the verdict is still out on Whistling Straits as a major venue. Not that it matters, with the ink long dried on the contract for the 2015 PGA and the 2020 Ryder Cup. Still...

Some venues are better than others, however, which takes us back to the one we’re at now. I’ve talked to several caddies who spend their summers looping at Whistling Straits, all of whom quickly note its spectacular visual appeal but aren’t terribly fond of the design nuances. Dye has never built courses to win popularity contests, but this particular creation, perhaps more than any other, was accorded “spectacular” status long before it proved worthy of such praise.

I’m just saying the jury’s still out. And might be for a while.

Any serious golfer who walks the grounds at Oakmont or Shinnecock is likely to notice the medley of nuances that add up to a brilliant layout – a sensible, simplistic brilliance that emphasizes strategically sound golf. I’m not sure Whistling Straits has that gear, and from a wide-angle perspective, it leaves me to believe this week’s PGA won’t fully showcase the wide variety of skills characteristic of the world’s best players.

From afar, and in defense of Mr. Dye, it is terribly disappointing once again to see dense rough immediately off most fairways and in some areas that were clearly intended to be fairway. Not that this would open up a tremendous amount of strategy, but the look is ridiculous and the after a few years of the USGA's tiered rough, the site of a player missing a fairway by 10 feet to find 4 inch dark green hay looks sillier than ever.