Tom Watson: "Golf courses...have to adjust to the distance that guys hit it."

It’s a short list of people who have both designed courses and suggested it’s ok to ask courses to adjust to modern distances. Golf architects Rees Jones, Tom Fazio and Steve Smyers have all been ok with that notion, but I never expected Tom Watson to join that list. Especially since just three years ago he was saying the ball goes too far.

From his Q&A with Golfweek’s Adam Schupak:

When I designed golf courses, I first started at 250 was my turning point.  Then it became 267. Now it’s like 280 is the turning point, back tees on championship golf courses.

Again, golf courses I think have to adjust to the distance that guys hit it. I would think the wrong thing to do would be to make the golf ball go shorter. If they did, they ought to make it go shorter for everyone, you, me, Aunt Alice, everybody.

GW: You’re not a bifurcation guy?

TW: No.

Bad news Tom, we have two rules in place this week that spell b-i-f-u-r-c-a-t-i-o-n.

There was also this:

GW: Did you like the changes to the Rules of Golf?

TW: Yeah, very much. Yeah. Spike mark was the best one.

GW: How do you think your pal (former USGA President) Sandy Tatum would have thought of the changes?

TW: He would have thought it would be sensible.

For giggles I cracked open Mr. Tatum’s A Love Affair With The Game to double check that this is the same Sandy Tatum I’m pretty sure was a big “play it as it lies” guy.

Yep, same Sandy!

He called Winter Rules a pervasive intrusion on the “True Spirit” of the game and called the PGA Tour playing preferred lies “the most heinous departure from the true spirit of the playing of the game.”

Not feeling like he’d be a pro spike mark tapping guy in a game with few spikes and better conditioning than ever before.