Reminder If You're Going To Whistling: Drive Very Carefully!

Going back through the archives of posts from the 2010 PGA at Whistling Straits, I'd forgotten just what a lousy time was had by most.

The combination of the marshaling crew (including one laughing at a media member who seriously injured himself falling), awful crowd control, the scale of the venue, the spectator-unfriendlness of the course and the commute for most, meant the gripes were applenty. But best of all was the effort by local law enforcement to enrich the state and local coffers by setting up a ticket-distributing speed trap, even nailing a PGA of America officer rolling a tad too liberally through a stop where an officer was waiting to write up a citation.

So remember players, drive your ball carefully and your courtesy course even more deliberately.

From my post summarizing the week of phone calls that ensued after the 2010 PGA:

And then there were also many remarks of surprise that none of the post-2004 issues with spectating had been resolved. To which I reminded these folks that it'll only get more awkward when the USGA goes to Erin Hills and Chambers Bay, each of which is just as difficult to navigate for those outside the ropes, if not more problematic.

But we know our ruling bodies don't care about these things. They care about how much money they can rake in and how much affection they'll get for going to venues with cachet. Yet it seems in the aftermath of the Dustin Johnson escapade and above mentioned items, Whistling Straits has lost its cache as an elite major venue. What can Herb Kohler do, if anything, to restore order?

It'll be interesting to see what is done this week to make for a better experience or what the USGA is going to do to make Erin Hills another of the made-for-TV major venues despised by most who visit.