As Wyndham Clark and others were happily pouring in birdies and eagles at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson over the weekend, somewhere in the clubhouse Lanny Wadkins was wincing.
The 76-year-old, 21-time PGA Tour winner oversaw the re-design of TPC Craig Ranch over the past year following last year's 31-under winning score from Scottie Scheffler. The story goes that organizers and folks associated with the tournament wanted a stiffer challenge for the world's best players. That didn't happen as Clark hit 30-under par with scoring records for the field broken along the way.
It didn't help that when Wadkins was asked about his re-design being able to keep scores away from 30-under he confidently said, "Don't worry." It also didn't help that conditions were benign, the turf was soft all week, and lift, clean and place was used for all but one round.
The truth of the matter is that it's extremely hard to know how the world's best players will handle a new (or re-done) golf course.
For the most part, the fact a golf course is the star or co-star of every tournament is what makes golf so unique. In a sport full of variables, the greatest variable is that the arena changes every single week.
Here in Canada, golf fans and tournament organizers are well-versed in fretting over such things. The best RBC Canadian Opens are held at some of our country's most classic courses such as St. George's and Hamilton. Both are golden age parkland designs that have an incredible amount of nuance and charm.
But both also need a helping hand from Mother Nature in the weeks before and during the tournament if they are to provide a solid challenge for players.
Thick rough and complicated green complexes are great defences against touring pros as long as conditions are firm enough that balls are rolling through fairways into the long stuff. And undulated greens can keep golf balls from getting too close to pins as long as the greens aren't overly soft.
TPC Craig's Ranch didn't stand a chance this week because of the conditions, although the rather flat and uninteresting greens didn't help.
Building new courses and trying to weather-proof them is a fool's errand. There is no course too long and there are no reasonable greens too tough for the world's best in this modern age of golf. Building absolute monster golf courses isn't the answer as it's expensive, makes no sense for the game as a whole, and still can't stop these guys.
Golf's greatest irony is that the only current defense against modern distance are the game's oldest courses. Go over to links land and you'll find courses that truly equal the playing field.
When it's wet and soft there, it usually means that it's raining sideways and there is a four club wind in your face. There will be bunkers in places that seem to make no sense until you play it the next day in a different wind.
When it's hot and dry, the bombers and the short players often find themselves in the same spots as any drive not perfectly thought out and executed runs forever, skipping across the sand-based turf, until it finds a bush or some knee-high grass to hide in.
On the odd week when conditions are calm, the sun is out and the grass is somehow still green and not brown, instead of worrying about it everyone just celebrates the year's four days of summer and grabs a pint to celebrate low scores and make up new songs for the winner.
CHIP SHOTS
1) One thing I noticed at Aronimink at the PGA Championship was the pros unfailing ability to hit the smart shot when they got in trouble. The rough there was extremely difficult, but I saw numerous lies that probably would have given a player a one out of three chance to hit a hero shot to the green, yet they never attempted them. The last thing they wanted to do was try a shot to the green and leave it in the rough and have to chip out with their next shot. That's how double bogeys are made.
It's something that the recreational player could learn from. If you want to go from a double digit handicap to a single digit handicap, one good way is to make sure you get out of trouble as soon as you're in trouble. Bogeys are okay, doubles can ruin rounds.
2) While we are talking about recreational golfers, I'll throw in one more tip that has helped my bunker game. It's not a new idea but it's another dead easy way to improve.
A lot of us get tied into using the same club from every greenside sand trap, which can mean making big swings if you're in the front bunker hitting to a back pin, and that can be trouble. As long as you can rather routinely get out of the sand most times, try using a longer club for longer sand shots. Not rocket science, but hitting your regular open-faced sand shot with a gap wedge or even pitching wedge will easily double the distance it goes with zero added difficulty. Take a look at the lip of the bunker first and account for a slightly lower trajectory, but it works great.
3) The club I play at has thick-cut banana bread available at the turn, and I'm a sucker for it. I recently did the math and last season I figured to have consumed more than six-feet of banana bread. Yes, these are the things I think about on the golf course. Oh well, it's better than standing over the ball worrying about your swing.
