"Maybe that’s the ultimate compliment for any architect, or maybe it’s an indictment of the modern game that gems like Riviera’s 10th have gone the way of the Dodo."
/Rex Hoggard on where I'll sure spend most of my Northern Trust Open spectating time over the next few days:
If one size fit all there would be no need for 14 clubs, yet just 26 par 4s on Tour last year measured south of 350 yards.
Tour brass will say distance gains have rendered anything less than a pitch-and-putt not worthy of the world’s best, but the real culprit here seems to be modern architecture. How else would one explain a 3.932 scoring average on the fifth shortest par 4 on Tour last year?
Bubba Watson and his ilk weren’t flying the ball 330 yards when George C. Thomas cut Riviera’s 10th hole into a hill in 1926, bunkers littered about the lot guarding a heavily pitched putting surface, yet somehow No. 10 remains relevant.
Maybe that’s the ultimate compliment for any architect, or maybe it’s an indictment of the modern game that gems like Riviera’s 10th have gone the way of the Dodo. Either way, this week’s Northern Trust Open will once again prove that bigger is not always better.
No it's an indictment on the modern architect!