Steve P wrote:In golf you gotta watch some of the majors at least IMO. At very least us open and masters. IMO there can be some good drama in modern golf.
If there is competition, there can be drama... but that goes for any sporting event. If they made the hole 2 feet wide, there would still be drama. Lots of chip ins and fairway hole outs. You could make the argument that lower scores would make it more exciting. More hole in ones etc.
I find modern golf a bore because of the limited skill set required to win, particularly in the majors. If you can drive it over 300 with modern gear, hit short irons stiff, chip and putt the lights out, you can win any event in professional golf. It's a big yawn for me.
What I miss is having a course and gear set up to where (for example):
A par four where player A drives down the left side of the fairway to open up his line to a front right pin placement behind a bunker and has to try to work a 4 iron in from that angle. If he plays down the right side there's a bunker in the fairway that would leave him too far back to go at the pin with a long iron or 4 wood. However, there is more room on the right side if he lays short of the bunker. The drive down the left side has a hazard or deep rough that makes that tee shot riskier especially for a right to left driver of the ball. With the fairway sloping slightly right to left, the shot is a faded tee shot that can hug the fairway and if kept left enough can give the player a proper line to that pin placement to attack for a birdie if needed.
The great striker plays the correct shot (drive) then has to execute a 4 iron approach and fade that into the green without having to come completely over the bunker that sits short right of the green. The player is also having to hit this faded iron off a lie where the ball is slightly above their feet making it harder to fade the ball. Any kind of OTT swing would send the ball long left of the green into a nearly impossible up and down as any ball going long left over the green would roll down a slope into a grove of trees and pine straw. So the player can either take the challenging shot at the pin from the ideal angle but with a slightly challenging lie with birdie a possibility, or then can play a safer 5 iron shot to the front left part of the green and play for par.
Player B is a long persimmon hitter that could carry the bunker on the right (260 carry) with a smashed drive but if they don't carry the bunker, the lip is too high for them to go at the green for their second so they would have to pitch out sideways or wedge out short of the green leaving another difficult third wedge shot to a tight pin off a hanging lie. However, successful drive over the bunker would give them an 8 iron approach shot from a fairly level lie and they would be able to attack that pin with the short iron shot coming directly over the bunker. But if the drive is missed right of the bunker, there is enough rough over there that they would not be able to play at the pin, as there would be no way to hold the green from there ....(irons don't have box grooves, milled faces etc) If they draw the longer drive too much, the ball hits the right to left sloping fairway and runs down into the trouble on the left. Only a perfectly struck drive over the bunker yields a slight advantage over the 250 yard drive that is played down the left side with an open shot from a better angle off the slightly contoured fairway.
Get the idea?
In the modern game, any average tour player flies the bunker on the right, and the longest hitters blast one down there 320
and play a short wedge in.. even if way right of the bunker from the rough, and their milled face boxed groove wedges make the hole another drive and wedge shot. All they have to do is swing as hard as they can and make sure the ball doesn't go left. Yawn.
So this is what is happening to all the classic courses. Moving the tees back doesn't solve the problem because the hole was designed not only for creating the proper proportions but also the shape and trajectory of the tee shots to match the slope of the fairways. So even if they move the tees back 40 yards, guys will still fly it 300 over the bunker or play right of the bunker and hit out of light or no rough with a short iron.
So now, they throw away the old courses and build 7400 yard courses that are wide open with huge greens. Yawn.
