Plainfield's Risky Finish

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Larry Dorman examines the big twist at Plainfield for The Barclays: the driveable 18th. Always the weak link in an otherwise fantastic Donald Ross design, Dorman tells the backstory of the decision to shorten the 18th by Gil Hanse with the PGA Tour's Steve Wenzloff doing all of the explaining at headquarters for the skeptical Oxford shirt set.

Dorman observed some play Tuesday and so far, so good.

With a large gallery in tow, Keegan Bradley, the St. John’s product and P.G.A. Championship winner, came to the tee and blasted a towering drive that looked, from the tee, perfect. It wound up in a grass finger in the left bunker, a position from which Bradley pitched to about 8 feet from the hole.

“I think it’s great,” Bradley said. “I think 70 percent of the field’s going to have a chance to go at it and drive it. I hate when they do drivable par 4s that are like an island green. You can legitimately go at this thing.”

Bradley’s line off the tee: driver over the trees right at the green.

“Right at it,” he enthused. “The cool thing is you can definitely make a 2 there if you hit a good drive.”

One player not so wild about the hole has also never met a design feature favoring long hitters that he's liked. Ryan Ballengee reports:

For Paul Goydos, though, the selection is clear on the tee. It’s a long iron for him and, he feels, most of the field.

When asked after his Tuesday practice round how much of the field might take a crack at driving the green, Goydos told me, “Probably 10 percent.”

He explained, “The penalty is too high if you don’t hit a good shot. If you miss, then you’re going to have a hard time making a four.”

The California native added, “I think there are guys who can definitely get there, but just not many. It’s an uphill 285 and at best into a crosswind.”

I had trouble finding pictures of what it looks like from the tee, but you can get some sense in this Brendan Prunty video interviewing Plainfield's Director of Golf, Scott Paris.