Why, Oh Why Files? Senior LPGA At Pete Dye's French Lick Mountaintop Mess

Earlier this week Ron Sirak wrote for LPGA.com how the second of two senior women’s majors was vital to growing the game.

Any golfer who tuned in to the first two rounds of the Senior LPGA, they would have been treated to the silliness that is legends and other former LPGA greats trying to navigate a mountaintop mess in rural Indiana. On top of French Lick Resort’s “intense” Dye course, the overall look would make no one want to play this distance-fueled iteration of the game: a dearth of spectators, players taking carts kept on the paths, caddies sending them off with a couple of clubs (because who needs broken ankle?), and no shortage of ridiculous sidehill stances leading to drop-kick hybrids. There was even defending champion Laura Davies taking a tumble in round two (she’s ok, video below).

Here’s the worst part: the resort features a charming, lovingly restored Donald Ross course that would seem more fitting than the 8,102 yard (80.0 Course rating/148 Slope) Dye course that was built in hopes of attracting a modern-game major.

Why aren’t these LPGA greats playing the walkable Ross?

Why would anyone think any tournament should be played on a mountaintop where players are constantly at risk of broken pride or a broken ankle? (Especially two years in a row.)

Scale is everything in golf. We revere a walkable course that gets the most out of its acreage. We want to play those places and spectate on them. Tournament golf should not be an undertaking in survival. Mountain goats, we are not.

But hey, on that note, Juli Inkster leads after a second round 69 and Golf Channel has final round coverage starting at 3 pm ET.