The Pete Dye marvel in the low country dunes of South Carolina has given us two hall-of-fame legends hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy and arguably the greatest Ryder Cup of all time. Joining Rory McIlroy’s record-setting win (margin of victory) in 2012 now is Phil Mickelson’s record-setting win (that Julius Boros citation we’ve heard for decades) and an 18th-hole scene that will go down in championship lore. The recent knock on the PGA Championship is that it’s the one men’s major without an “identity,” a malleable term. The images and sound from Sunday at the Ocean Course will certainly strengthen its confidence.

It was a week that should lend the Ocean Course another shot and barring some future logistical disaster, repeated chances at some set interval. The PGA Championship’s move to a May date has opened up swaths of the country that previously seemed ill-suited for an August major. Kiawah has now hosted in both months with success, but this week proved that late spring is an absolute sweet spot. The temperatures, winds and lack of precipitation were precisely what you want and gave the PGA of America full autonomy of its setup. Some of that is good fortune, but bringing the championship here in May (as opposed to some more water-logged locales during that spring month) put the odds in your favour.

MORE: Phil Mickelson’s most incredible win came by staying true to himself

Setting aside the architectural merits of the course, which also held up this week, the Ocean Course brings aesthetic variety to men’s major championships. The two rotating men’s majors are accustomed to going to the coasts, but rarely are they in actual dunes pressed up against the ocean like this. It brings a different setting, a different region and a different style of golf to American men’s majors. New York is an amazing city, but it’s good to wander outside of the metro area every now and then. Parklands courses are a backbone of golf in the U.S., but it’s nice to see beach golf in the wind every now and then. The wind directions may change, but its presence is so reliably a factor and made the venue stand out in a unique way among American major championships. Kiawah offers a change-up and one that we should see regularly.

Aesthetically, it should have a place in a rota. Architecturally, it should have a place. The elements and layout forced players to get creative and rely on multiple shot shapes and trajectories. Launch-monitor golf was only going to take you so far. The leader board was a mix of games, from modern bombers and shot-makers like Brooks Koepka to crafty veterans considered past their contending prime like Padraig Harrington. The winner had all of the above.

“I have to say, this was probably the best major setup I’ve ever seen,” said Harrington, a three-time major winner who at age 49 finished an impressive T-4. “It may have been equalled in the past but couldn’t have been better. I know the golf course is fantastic, but they really set the course up that there was opportunities to make bogeys and opportunities to make birdies. It really was that case. I’d love to play this style of golf every week, and I would be a bit more competitive than playing a regular tour event, it’s hard.” Bringing more styles of play and variety of games into contention can only reflect well on your test of golf.

In its two times hosting the PGA Championship, the Ocean Course has produced two Hall of Fame calibre champions in Rory McIlroy (2012) and Phil Mickelson (2021). Gary Kellner

MORE: Rory McIlroy delivered quite a dagger at Phil Mickelson before leaving Kiawah

The biggest strike against Kiawah is its accessibility. The Ocean Course sits at the very end of a two-lane road on a barrier island. That became something of a logistical challenge-to-nightmare in 2012. There’s also only so much usable space in the dunes and marshlands to put the infrastructure modern major championships require. While a return to full crowds at sporting events is, of course, preferred, the pandemic-induced limited galleries in 2021 certainly mitigated those logistical challenges. And in the end, nothing about the galleries looked, sounded or felt limited.

The PGA of America now also has another rep to learn from and adjust those logistical operations. There were plenty of changes and preventative measures put in place based on the shortcomings of 2012. There’s now another operation to study. Technology, transportation and communication continue to advance—who knows, maybe the next time a major rolls around to Kiawah, each ticketed fan may be dropped via drone with minimal fuss. The point is, everything else is too good for the logistical operation, which should only get smoother, to be a non-starter.

The sex appeal of a winner does not prove a venue’s worthiness. It helps, but there can be boring slogs at some of the most expertly designed courses and dramatic legends at courses that the sharpest architecture minds mock. So Phil, Rory, and a War by the Shore are not proof alone that the Ocean Course is working, but it doesn’t hurt the argument. That argument as a consistent major championship stop has never been stronger.

The post The Ocean Course has earned its place in major championship golf appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Only once in the last decade has a course yielded a higher scoring average than the Ocean Course’s 74.57 when it last held the PGA Championship (only outdone by the borderline setup for the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills)​.​ For this year’s PGA Championship the Ocean Course added seven new tee boxes and has the flexibility to stretch to nearly 7,900 yards, which with the coastal winds might as well be equivalent to the distance to the sun. It may not ever play that distance, but regardless, Kerry Haigh, the PGA’s director of championships and wizard of course setups, believes the Ocean Course remains “second to none in terms of challenges.”

We used average player data to showcase the myriad ways the Ocean Course is a different challenge for tour players than it is average golfers.

This is, of course, understatement, like saying the Taj Mahal is second to none in terms of Mahals. Haigh is well regarded for finding the most fair of tests for his course setups, but put what he says about the Ocean Course (“the golf course itself is probably one of the most difficult golf courses in the country, depending on if the wind blows”) through Google Translate, and it actually sounds like what a traumatic brain injury feels like. In practical, real-world statistical, deep-dive analytics, the picture of the Ocean Course’s difficulty is much more stark, its relentlessness akin to the evil forces in Tenet. For example, the number of double bogeys/others recorded at the Ocean Course the last time the PGA Championship was played there (339) is nearly three times the average of tour events and major championships on an annual basis. Only three times have more big numbers been posted at an event since—all three being majors. The average score in the second round in 2012 was 78, the highest since the PGA Championship went to stroke play during the Eisenhower administration. There were 52 rounds of 80 or higher, including two in the 90s. Of the final 15 holes, 14 averaged over par for the week. And, again, they’ve made the Ocean Course longer and harder this time. Several holes could play 30, 40 or more than 50 yards further back, including the par-4 finishing hole which could set the markers at 505 yards compared to the 439-yard tee the last time around.

All of this, for those with a sense of history, is not news, of course. The Ocean Course has been wicked hard since it debuted 30 years ago for the 1991 Ryder Cup, whose commemorative video should be filed under Horror in your Netflix queue. Grizzled Ray Floyd, notorious for eating tough courses for breakfast, said at the time, “It’s so hard it’s unbelievable…If you had to play this golf course with a scorecard, I don’t see how you could finish.” That year in the Sunday singles matches, not one player on either side finished under par.

And yet, average golfers, like the Flagellants of the 13th century, continue to flock to it, as Brian Gerard, director of golf at Kiawah Island Resort, told Derek Duncan.

“People didn’t care what their scorecard read—they were there to play one of the most challenging, difficult golf courses in the country. …They would come in and say it was a hard golf course, but they didn’t complain about it.”

Using data from Arccos we can determine the discrepancy between how average players and tour players play a hole like Kiawah Island’s par-5 16th, beginning with their tee shots.

Still, none of those average golfers were stepping to the tee boxes that will be used for the PGA Championship. Indeed, many are not even marked on the yardage book available in the pro shop. Heck, even for the pros at the last PGA the full-length 18th tee that will be in play this year was blocked by a grandstand.

But the Ocean Course’s difficulty is probably best understood not by what the pros have done or what they might face this time around. No, a more practical reference might be what an average golfer might do at the Ocean Course in its full-throated PGA Championship setup. Since those back tees weren’t really open for play, we’re going to do some projections on what us Joes might do from the way-way-backs, courtesy of the crack research team at Arccos, whose GPS sensors track all sorts of average golfer stats. They’ve even dug up some impressively depressing numbers on what Arccos users have done on the Ocean Course. In short, welcome to Thunderdome.

The challenge on long holes like the 16th at Kiawah also extend to where players are laying up to. Average players, according to Arccos data, still leave themselves with more than 200 yards into the green, whereas tour players have a mere wedge.

The challenge on long holes like the 16th at Kiawah also extend to where players are laying up to. Average players, according to Arccos data, still leave themselves with more than 200 yards into the green, whereas tour players have a mere wedge.

According to Arccos data, the average score of its users playing the Ocean Course is 85, with a healthy supply of those being single-digit players. While the average handicap of Arccos users playing the Ocean Course is 11, their strokes gained numbers show they’re losing 10 shots to a scratch on just the tee shot and approach shots alone.

Arccos Caddie, which uses artificial intelligence to estimate the best possible strategy for the lowest possible score on every hole, predicts some very bad things for the average golfer should he or she sneak to the championship tees. As an example, a run-of-the-mill 13 handicapper’s best-case scenario is shooting 94. But that’s playing extraordinarily consistent golf, most especially hitting it relatively long and straight from both the tee and to the green. In other words, a wholly unlikely scenario on a golf course with a slope rating that registers at the USGA’s limit of 155. With massive length, doglegs and danger lurking on every hole and wind that sucks not only the life out of the average golfer’s mishits but his soul as well, every miss that seems compounded for the pros is doubly bad for the average Joes.

For example, on the par-4 4th hole, elite players might have to throttle back on their tee shots to avoid running into the marsh at 320 yards from the back tee. Paying customers, meanwhile, would need three good shots to reach the green, but the odds are not with them. On the tee shot, they’ve got barely a 50-50 chance of hitting the fairway, while the second shot is also missing the fairway nearly a third of the time and the third shot (a wedge from about a hundred yards) only hits the green a third of the time. Average golfers, per Arccos data, are failing to get up and down more than 75 percent of the time, and from one of those greenside bunkers on No. 6, the odds are barely one in 10 that an average golfer will get in the hole in two shots.

What makes a trip to the Championship tees even more intimidating is that average golfers almost never play courses of that length. Nearly 90 percent of the rounds recorded by Arccos users were from tees measuring 6,800 yards or less, more than a thousand yards shorter than the Ocean Course’s full measurement. Furthermore, of course, while the elite player is tested sternly by the Ocean Course’s mammoth length, he is still attacking the green from a much shorter distance with much more skill. In raw numbers from Arccos, an average golfer might play the benign opening hole with a driver and a 3-wood, while the elite player is often at most hitting his tee ball 80-plus yards farther and approaching the green with a short iron or wedge. The average proximity to the hole for the pro might be 20 feet while hitting the green 80-plus percent of the time. The average Joe ends up five times that distance from the hole with his approach shot, and he only hits the green one in 15 tries. Nothing like starting the day wishing you had contracted raging botulism.

A perfect snapshot of the difficulty for the average golfer playing the back tees at Kiawah is its diabolical finish. For elite players, it starts with a reprieve at the par-5 16th, which played as the easiest hole at the 2012 PGA and then wraps up with the terror-laden par-3 17th and the brutish 18th, which might require a final full swing of more than 200 yards.

Naturally, the longer a club a player has into a green, the smaller the chance they have of hitting within close proximity of the hole.

Naturally, the longer a club a player has into a green, the smaller the chance they have of hitting within close proximity of the hole.

For average golfers, however, turning for home at the Ocean Course offers nothing but the lash, especially all the way back. Where average pros most likely are playing those last three holes at an average of half-a-stroke over par combined, average Joes at best typically limp home having dropped nearly four shots to par.

At 608 yards, the 16th hole basically plays as a par-6. It likely would require a drive and back-to-back, well-struck 3-woods, a phrase the average golfer is about as familiar with as the average 8-year-old is with swallows’ nest soup.

The 17th hole might require a driver to reach the putting surface, but Arccos data says that club in the average golfer’s hands is going to produce a mis-hit short or right more than 60 percent of the time, and short and right at 17 is only Aeschylus and Euripides: Tragedy and Sorrow. It also affords the Average Joe the opportunity to do the same thing all over again. It only gets a little better from the drop area, which is one tee box closer and still a full 3-wood to the green. That club is going to be short and right for Mr. Average 58 percent of the time.

If the average golfer hasn’t run out of balls playing the 17th hole, the tee shot on 18 might make him wish he had. From the back tee, it’s likely a 210-yard carry just to reach the fairway, which the average golfer will miss 60 percent of the time. Even with a good shot, it’s still a three-shot hole and Arccos Caddie projects a score of 6 or higher is four times more likely than a score of 5 or lower.

As a final insult, don’t think it gets any easier for average golfers once they reach the vicinity of the greens at the Ocean Course. Arccos data says the average 11-handicapper loses almost five strokes compared to a scratch in terms of strokes gained around the greens and putting. Bernhard Langer’s final putt at the 1991 Ryder Cup infamously just sliding by the edge of the hole seems only as unfair as it is a fitting Ocean Course denouement.

And yet for all its ferocity, the Ocean Course’s allure remains, a golfing Siren song if there ever was. Dye knew it not just because of what the Ocean Course turned out to be, but because of who golfers are deep in their joyously masochistic souls.

“I think it’s great that they say it’s the hardest golf course in the world, but we’re still getting all the play we can handle, repeat play is up, too,” he said on the eve of the 2012 PGA Championship. “Listen, if Pine Valley were open to the public, they would line up all the way to Los Angeles to play it. That’s just what golfers do.”

Looking at these numbers from Arccos, though, the thought occurs: Move up a box.

The post PROS V JOES: How hard is Kiawah for the average golfer? This data says very hard appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers and Greg Gottfried
After a one-off return to August in 2020 due when COVID-19 ransacked the golf calendar, the PGA Championship moves back to its “new” May dates in 2021. The 103rd playing of this championship takes place at The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island in South Carolina and will feature its usually loaded field of top-ranked professionals. Collin Morikawa aims to defend his title from TPC Harding Park a year ago while Rory McIlroy will be trying to repeat his runaway eight-stroke victory at Kiawah from the 2012 PGA. With fans returning, albeit in a limited capacity, this year, the chase for the Wanamaker Trophy will feel a bit more normal, but the golf will be anything but typical.

When the Pete Dye course hosted the PGA nine years ago, it certainly played difficult for everyone except McIlroy, who was the only player to finish 72 holes in red figures. Located hard by the water, making it vulnerable to high winds, and with treacherous bunkers/dunes on nearly every hole, the course could produce a chaotic four days of play. With that said, the usual favorites of Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau are all leading the pack in terms of betting odds.

To prepare for what will no doubt be a surreal week at Kiawah Island, here are some answers to some frequently asked questions about the PGA Championship.

When and where is the PGA Championship being held in 2021?

This year’s PGA Championship is May 20-23 at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, which is considered to be one of the first courses to be designed for a specific event. In this case, it was the 1991 Ryder Cup. It’s a tricky and windy course edged by sawgrass. Golf Digest’s 100 Greatest ranking called it “Pete Dye’s most diabolical creation.” It stretches to 7,849 yards over a par 72 course. If it looks familiar, it also might be because it was used for some of the filmings of the movies “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”

Who conducts the PGA Championship?

The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America conducts the event.

Are the PGA Tour and the PGA of America different?

Yes, the PGA Tour and the PGA of America have been independent of one another since 1968. The PGA Tour is an elite organization of tournament professionals, while the PGA of America is made up of club and teaching professionals who work at on- and off-course golf facilities around the country (and the world).

When and where was the first PGA Championship played? And who won?

The first PGA Championship was played in 1916 at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y. England’s Jim Barnes won, 1 up, over Jock Hutchinson.

Wait, 1 up … so was the PGA Championship a match play event at one time?

Yes, from 1916 to 1957, the PGA Championship was contested as match play with a stroke-play qualifier. During the course of the championship, it was not uncommon for players to play more than 200 holes in seven days. Starting in 1958, the PGA Championship switched to the standard 72-hole, stroke-play format. Dow Finsterwald won the first stroke-play version of the event in 1958 at Llanerch Country Club in Havertown, Pa.

RELATED: 13 things you probably don’t remember from the last PGA at Kiawah

How many players are in the field?

There are 156 players in the field at this year’s PGA Championship, with 20 of those spots reserved for club professionals who are PGA of America members.

How do club professionals earn one of the 20 spots?

The PGA of America fills the 20 spots held for club professionals for the top finishers at the PGA Professional Championship, which was played late last month. Last year, due to the coronavirus, the PGA of America had the top 20 of the 2019 PGA of America Club Professional player of the year points list take the spots.

Has a club professional ever won the PGA Championship?

Not in the modern era of the PGA Tour. According to PGA.com, the best performance since 1970 by a club professional playing in the PGA Championship was a third-place finish in 1971 by Tommy Bolt, a former tour pro who had retired from the tour. The last top 10 also came from a former tour pro—a very famous one—turned club professional: Sam Snead in 1973. Only one club professional has finished inside the top 20 in the last 30 years, Jay Overton in 1988 at Oak Tree. Only three have made the cut in the last seven years: Ben Kern at Bellerive in 2018, Omar Uresti at Quail Hollow in 2017 (he will be playing at Kiawah) and Brian Gaffney at Whistling Straits in 2015.

How are the 136 other spots in the PGA Championship determined?

For a list of ways to qualify for the PGA Championship, click here.

Can amateurs play in the PGA Championship?

The PGA Championship is limited to professionals only, meaning amateurs cannot qualify.

What does the winner of PGA Championship receive?

The PGA champion receives the Wanamaker Trophy, the largest trophy of the four men’s majors. Last year, Collin Morikawa earned a winner’s check of $1.98 million from the PGA Championship’s $11 million purse. Traditionally the winner also receives automatic invites into all three of the other majors and the Players Championship for the next five years, PGA Tour membership for the next five years and European Tour membership for the next seven years. They also become eligible to compete in the PGA Championship for life.

Who won the 2020 PGA Championship?

In a fiercely competitive final round at TPC Harding Park, Collin Morikawa came away the winner, shooting a final-round 64. At one point on the back nine, seven players were tied for the lead. But the 23-year-old Cal-Berkley grad, playing in just his third major, pulled away from the field with a pair of clutch shots on the back nine, a chip-in birdie on the 14th and an eagle on the 16th after hitting driving the green with this amazing tee shot.

Shot of the day/month/year for Collin Morikawa. pic.twitter.com/3TubR6LlQG

— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) August 10, 2020

MORE: Was Collin Morikawa’s drive on 16 the greatest shot in PGA history?

The rest of the leader board was certainly impressive with Paul Casey, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Matthew Wolff, Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Rose finishing behind Morikawa.

Who has won the most PGA Championships?

Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen hold the record for most PGA Championship victories with five. Nicklaus also holds the record for most runner-up finishes in the PGA Championship with four.

How many PGA Championships has Tiger Woods won?

Tiger Woods has won four PGA Championships, the last coming in 2007 at Southern Hills.

Tiger Woods makes his putt for par and to win the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2007. Montana Pritchard/PGA of America

Who are the most famous golfers not to have won the PGA Championship?

There are three players in golf history who have won the other three men’s major championships (the Masters, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship) but have not completed the career Grand Slam by winning the PGA. They are Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Jordan Spieth. Spieth is only 27 so he has plenty of time to try and complete the Slam. This is the fifth year he will be playing the PGA with the chance to do so. After going through a three-plus-year winless drought, Spieth is playing solidly again this year after a breakthrough win at the Valero Texas Open and a T-3 finish at the Masters.

Who is the youngest winner of the PGA Championship?

Gene Sarazen is the youngest winner, claiming the title at Oakmont Country Club in 1922 at 20 years and 174 days old. He defended his title the following year at Pelham Country Club and went on to win his third and final PGA at Blue Mound Golf & Country Club in 1933.

Who is the oldest winner?

Julius Boros is the oldest winner, claiming the title at Pecan Valley Golf Club in 1968 at 48 years and 142 days old. He remains the oldest winner of any of the men’s majors.

What is the PGA Championship scoring record?

The record for lowest 72-hole score in a PGA Championship was held by David Toms for his 15-under 265 total at Atlanta Athletic Club in Duluth, Ga., in 2001, but Brooks Koepka broke that mark in 2018 with his 16-under 264 at Bellerive. Koepka also tied the record set by Henrik Stenson at the 2016 Open Championship for the lowest total in major championship history.

What is the PGA Championship scoring record in relation to par?

Jason Day holds the record for scoring in relation to par not only in PGA Championship history but in major championship history. The Australian was 20-under-par (268) when he won at Whistling Straits in Haven, Wis., in 2015.

What is the highest winning score of a PGA Championship? In relation to par?

The highest total score of a PGA champion is one-under 287, shot by Larry Nelson in 1987 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The highest winning score in relation to par was one-over 281, shot four times: Jay Hebert, 1960; Julius Boros, 1968; Gary Player, 1972; and Dave Stockton, 1976.

What is the largest margin of victory in the PGA Championship?

The largest margin of victory in the PGA Championship belongs to Rory McIlroy, who won by eight strokes in 2012 at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island (S.C.). The Northern Irishman won the event again in 2014 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. That remains his last major championship victory.

If players are tied after 72 holes, how is a winner determined?

In the event of a tie, the PGA of America employs a three-hole aggregate format for the championship’s playoff. If players are tied after three holes it becomes a sudden-death playoff.

How many playoffs have there been in PGA Championship history?

Since 1958 and the move to stroke play, there have been 13 playoffs in the PGA Championship, the last coming in 2011 at Atlanta Athletic Club, where Keegan Bradley defeated Jason Dufner in the three-hole aggregate playoff.

What site has hosted the most PGA Championships?

Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., has hosted the most PGA Championships—four—the most recent in 2007 when Tiger Woods won.

What state has hosted the most PGA Championships?

New York has hosted the most PGA Championships with 13, including three at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., which hosted the 2013 PGA Championship and is scheduled to host again in 2023.

What are the future venues for the PGA Championship?

Future venues for the PGA Championship have been announced officially through 2029. There is also a “TBD” year for 2030, as well as a venue locked in for 2031. They are as follows:

2022 — Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Okla.
2023 — Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, N.Y.
2024 — Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, Ky.
2025 — Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte, N.C.
2026 — Aronimink Golf Club, Newtown Square, Pa.
2027 — The East Course at PGA Frisco, Frisco, Texas
2028 — The Olympic Club, San Francisco
2029 — Baltusrol Golf Club (Lower), Springfield, N.J.
2030 — TBD
2031 — Congressional Country Club (Blue), Bethesda, Md.
2034 — The East Course at PGA Frisco, Frisco, Texas

RELATED: Which course is the best PGA Championship venue? Our “definitive” ranking

Who is the favourite to win the 2021 PGA Championship?

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson leads the betting pack at Kiawah Island at 10/1 with Jon Rahm right behind him at 11/1. Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau sit at 12/1 and 14/1, respectively, and they are then followed up by Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy all at 16/1. Defending champ Collin Morikawa is next at 22/1. After an impressive showing at the Masters, Will Zalatoris is tied for the 15th best odds in the field at 33/1.

What will the weather be like for the 2021 PGA Championship?

It’s early still, but 2021 PGA Championship looks to have favorable South Carolina weather according to the long-range forecast, albeit a bit windy. Predictions calls for a little rain during championship days, but it looks to be in the 70s all week. The wind looks to be in the 5-12 mph range

For a month-ahead look, check out weather.com’s Monthly Weather page for Kiawah Island, S.C.

Stephen Szurlej

What is The Ocean Course known for?

This will be the second PGA Championship at this course on Kiawah Island and its last iteration featured the greatest victory margin in this event’s history. A fierce thunderstorm on Saturday in 2012 and winds gusting on Friday at around 20-30 mph were just a few of the very tough conditions that led to extremely slow play and high scores.

Arguably more famous, however, was the first big event held at the Ocean Course—the 1991 Ryder Cup. Nicknamed “The War by the Shore” because of how competitive the clash was between the United States and Europe, and the gamesmanship that was seen between the two sides. The contest came down to a last Sunday singles match between Bernhard Langer and Hale Irwin. Langer faced a six-foot putt for par on the 18th hole that would have won his match and ended the overall contest in a 14-14 tie. But he missed and the Americans walked off with the wild victory.

Who designed The Ocean Course?

The 7,849-yard par 72 course was designed by Pete and Alice Dye after the couple was hired and given two years to build a seaside masterpiece for the 1991 Ryder Cup. The wild landscape features a course that is just 55 acres, but you won’t hear us complaining.

Who broadcasts the PGA Championship?

This year’s PGA Championship will be broadcast between ESPN and CBS due to a joint contract between the two. ESPN replaced TNT in 2020 and holds rights to all of the early round and weekend morning coverage, including supplemental coverage on ESPN+. CBS will hold all rights to afternoon coverage of weekend rounds and will feature Jim Nantz play-by-play.

RELATED: Omar Uresti, golf’s most controversial ‘club pro,’ just qualified again for the PGA Championship

The post PGA Championship 2021: Frequently Asked Questions appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But seriously, people, stay safe out there. Or, rather, IN there. this is no joke and the sooner we all do our part, the sooner we’ll be able to return to focusing on much sillier stuff like Tiger’s pursuit of Jack, LeBron’s pursuit of MJ, and (gulp) even the Masters. Just listen to the man himself:

There are a lot more important things in life than a golf tournament right now. We need to be safe, smart and do what is best for ourselves, our loved ones and our community.

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) March 16, 2020

Good to hear from him, by the way. It had been a while. Anyway, of course, we’ll still talk about the sillier stuff here. So crank up your Wi-Fi, find a comfy spot to sit, and let’s get to it.

WE’RE BUYING

Playing golf (for now): This might already not be an option where you live—as we are reminded constantly this is a “fluid” situation—but there are also many golf courses taking plenty of safety precautions. And if you walk, carry your bag, avoid all handshakes/fist bumps, and Venmo all bets, you should be fine. As our Mike Stachura points out, being outside playing this great game is also a great way to relieve stress. And as someone cooped up with a wife and a two-year-old for the foreseeable future, let me know if you have a spot in your foursome. Please.

Greg Eason: Believe it or not, there was still some golf being played on the All Pro Tour, where Eason claimed the Coke Dr. Pepper Open—instantly my favourite tournament name ever. But as our friend Ryan French points out, the bigger deal here is that this was a guy who just three years ago failed to break 90 for three consecutive (brutally windy) rounds on the Korn Ferry Tour:

Greg Eason once had 3 consecutive rounds in the 90's on the KFT Tour…
Yesterday he won on the APT after making 26 birdies and just 3 bogeys over 72 holes.
His 68-63-66-68 (-23) beats the 170 player field, and he wins 35K #NeverGiveUp

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) March 15, 2020

Now that’s a bounceback.

Padraig Harrington’s backyard: If you’re a tour pro, you may as well take this time as an opportunity to work on your short game:

Padraig Harrington’s home wedge practice area ? pic.twitter.com/SRb7rhQhSm

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 16, 2020

Nice setup, Paddy. There are certainly a lot worse places to be on lockdown.

Paula Creamer’s pad: As in, I’d love to buy this place and ride out this Coronavirus there if I had an extra $6.35 million. Just look at the fitness center:

OK, I’d still never use that. But how about the game room and the home theatre:

And I wouldn’t even have to do any decorating because that Tiger mural is already up!

WE’RE SELLING

Paula Creamer’s timing: What a month to put your mansion on the market, huh? Probably aren’t going to be a lot of open houses for the next few weeks. But again, at least Creamer has plenty of space and amenities during these crazy times.

Hideki Matsuyama’s timing: Poor Hideki. The dude is trending toward returning to the winner’s circle, then opens with a course-record-tying 63 at TPC Sawgrass to take a two-shot lead, and the PGA Tour’s flagship event promptly gets cancelled.

Cliff Hawkins

Instead of possibly picking up his biggest win, Matsuyama left with the same $52,083.33 check given to all 144 players who teed it up. Let’s just say the two guys who shot 79, Nick Watney and Patton Kizzire, got a better deal.

COVID-19: It goes without saying that in the seven-year-plus history of The Grind, I have never wanted to sell anything more than this devastating disease. And while sports are certainly at the bottom of the priority list these days, we still miss them—not only for their entertainment, but for the way they connect us. Hang in there, everyone. Again, “in” being the keyword.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour was supposed to finish the Florida Swing this week at the Valspar Championship, but, well, you know. It’s unclear when we’ll see the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, European Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, etc. again and that sucks for fans and players, but it also sucks for those who work so hard all year to put on these events and for the communities and charities that profit from them. To that point, here was a great message from Billy Horschel:

Let’s help out the charities and organizations that are effected by the cancellation of the upcoming tournaments! Thank you! @THEPLAYERSChamp @ValsparChamp @DellMatchPlay @valerotxopen @CoralesChamp pic.twitter.com/8e3hU5BNts

— Billy Horschel (@BillyHo_Golf) March 13, 2020

Let’s hope things get back to normal soon.

Random tournament fact: The Valspar has been sneaky-great the past few years, check out these results (just pay no mind to the top one. . . )

Paul Casey’s three-peat will have to wait until next year.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Tiger Woods will win the Masters—at some point this year: 16-to-1 odds (Actual odds)
—Kramer Hickock will win this week’s All Pro Tour event: 7-to-1 odds (Also, actual odds)
—Vegas sports books are going to struggle for the next couple months: LOCK

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

If you’ve ever been to the Players Championship, you know Friday (and Saturday) afternoon is an absolute party. Well, not this year:

An eerily quiet and empty TPC Sawgrass on an otherwise spectacular Friday afternoon after @THEPLAYERSChamp is canceled … pic.twitter.com/KB4nXINXOl

— Brian Wacker (@brianwacker1) March 13, 2020

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

#StayAtHomeChallenge – Golf ???‍ pic.twitter.com/cMsvrllVQ2

— Matthias Schwab (@schwab_matth) March 16, 2020

Impressive, but Matthias better bar his doors because people are going to come after his toilet paper stash.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

A week ago, things seemed relatively normal in the U.S. Sports were being played, stores were fully stocked with toilet paper, and Rory McIlroy was giving great quotes like this on Pete Dye courses:

“Yeah, going on from there [Whistling Straits], winning at Kiawah, winning at Crooked Stick, winning here, I’ve started to quite like them. But as you said, an acquired taste. They’re like beer when you’re younger. You sort of don’t like it but then you think it’s cool to drink it and then you sort of acquire a taste for it.”

Maybe we can keep the Rory press conferences going even when there aren’t tournaments?

THIS WEEK IN DUSTIN JOHNSON-PAULINA GRETZKY PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

going to be a long break for DJ… pic.twitter.com/luXARuCm8V

— Eric Patterson (@EPatGolf) March 14, 2020

Cute, but yeah. . . Pray for DJ.

THIS WEEK IN PHIL BEING PHIL

After arriving home safely and with a month off, I could sense things were going to go one way or the other. I was either going to use this time to workout, get fit and stronger or I was going to lay in bed, watch shows and eat. After day 1, the latter is in the lead.

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) March 15, 2020

I’m with you, Phil. The COVID-19 15 is going to become a thing.

THIS WEEK IN OTHER TOUR PROS BEING QUARANTINED

Marc Leishman has even more time to take care of his lawn:

Marc Leishman is wasting no time getting to work prepping his beloved lawn for the spring. What an absolute Dad legend. pic.twitter.com/mYC1ku8ks5

— Outside The Cut (@OutsideTheCut) March 13, 2020

My father-in-law does the same thing. WILD. And Justin Thomas fired a 65 against Rickie Fowler—and lost. By FIVE strokes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9w9ZbehMK_/?utm_source=ig_embed

Nice job, Rickie, but maybe save those for the Sundays that really count. . .

THIS AND THAT

In addition to Augusta National postponing the Masters, the club is completely closing down until further notice. We’re guessing the members aren’t getting any refunds on this year’s dues. … Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm joined Rory McIlroy in declaring their allegiance to the PGA Tour. With the top three players in the world saying no to the Premier League, RIP PGL. … As of now, the 2020 HGGA Championship is still set for this summer in Pinehurst. Moving our annual golf trip from June to August has never looked smarter. (Fingers crossed.) … And finally, it took my wife and I—brother-in-law through FaceTime—SIX hours to assemble this kids’ kitchen for my daughter’s second birthday:

We finished at 2 a.m. and I have never been more exhausted, frustrated, and proud in my life. Look at that thing! It might be even nicer than Paula Creamer’s kitchen! I just hope the Father of the Year Awards haven’t been cancelled yet.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Who would have won the Players?
What did people do before TV/the Internet?
How long will my soda supply last?

The post Tiger Woods breaks his silence, and Dustin-Paulina dance on, Paula Creamer puts her pad on the market appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Jerry Tarde
Pete and Alice Dye are gone now, less than a year apart, both in their 90s. They were my golfing parents, but I wasn’t an only child. They treated so many of us like their kids—praising us when we did good, disappointed in us when we failed, but always rooting for us. “Golf Digest still the best,” Alice wrote in a note that arrived home the weekend she died. Earlier, she wrote: “Pete doing just OK. He still hits balls, plays 18 some days and still kissing the girls. Just wanted to say hello. We miss you.” We all miss them now.

Over 40 years of friendship, Pete taught me everything I know about golf and a bit about living. Here’s the abbreviated version:

MARRY A STRONG WOMAN. Alice and Pete had an equal partnership, and it worked for their 68 years together. I once commissioned a portrait of architecture’s First Family, including sons Perry and P.B. If you looked closely, Alice was holding a machine gun.

AIM AT THE HAZARDS. On most courses, you steer away from bunkers, trees and water. On Dye courses, you do the opposite. Hit tee shots close to the danger, because that’s where Pete’s approach angles open up best. Isn’t life that way?

IF

SOMEBODY GIVES YOU A PUTT, PICK IT UP. One time Pete and I were partners playing the seventh at Pine Valley when our opponents conceded me a long two-footer for a net birdie. “No,” I demurred, “I think I should putt this one out.” “I’ll kill ya,” Pete shouted, charging across the green. “Pick it up, you SOB.”

EAT A GOOD BREAKFAST EVERY MORNING. Pete’s favourite was poached eggs sprinkled with Grape Nuts, a side of chicken, plain yoghurt and a Diet Coke.

WEAR THE SAME UNIFORM DAILY. Oscar de la Renta, his neighbour at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, sent Pete 100 pairs of khakis at a time. Pete wore khakis, a short-sleeve white or blue shirt, and work boots every day of his life. When dressing up, he put on a blue blazer.

DON’T BUY A CAR, RENT IT. This is one I didn’t follow, but Pete always drove rental cars. He beat up and muddied them so badly during course construction, some rental agencies kept his car on the back lot and delivered it to him at the airport in the condition he left it.

BE JOYFUL IN COMPETING. “Pete loved to play golf with you,” Alice wrote me toward the end. Despite competing in U.S. Opens and Amateurs, Pete derived joy out of beating a broken-down scribe, as he called me. Our last match was at Gulfstream in Delray Beach, Fla. We got to the 17th hole tied. I had a kick-in par left before Pete theatrically pitched in for a birdie 2 and cackled with delight all the way up the 18th hole to win 1 up.

GENIUS IS IN THE CRAFT, NOT IN THE ARMWAVING. “Pete doesn’t talk about designing courses,” said Tom Doak, another of his children. “He talks about building them.” It was typical of Pete to spend 150 days on-site. I once got up at 5:30 with Pete to check on the newly redesigned fifth green at the TPC Sawgrass before the turf was laid. He’d spent seven hours the day before riding around and around on a Sand Pro, a miniature tractor designed to rake bunkers. Every pass moved 1/16th of an inch of topsoil. Still unsatisfied, he rode the Sand Pro for another hour, and then began the tedious process of checking the contours with a surveyor’s transit. He called it “rubbing the earth.”

CREATE GREATNESS, AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT BUDGETS. Pete’s most famous patron was Herb Kohler, who invoked the words of Edward Bennett Williams after hiring George Allen to coach the Washington Redskins: “I gave him an unlimited expense budget, and he exceeded it.” Pete’s version: “Every time I broke a budget, Herb would have another heart attack.”

THE BEST HOLES HAVE HALF PARS. The great equalizers are the 2½, 3½, 4½. He wanted golfers to expect to make a birdie. Then he constructs the area around the green so challenging, an errant shot is unrecoverable. Good players don’t mind making a bogey with a 2-iron approach, but it drives them crazy with a half-wedge. “Now I’ve got those dudes thinking,” he said. “It weighs on their minds the hole before and the hole after.”

TIP LIKE YOU’RE RICH. Especially ice-cream servers who don’t expect anything. It makes them happy, and the ice cream tastes better.

GO WITH YOUR INSTINCTS. When Pete was working on Crooked Stick, he couldn’t decide whether to put a bunker or a lake right of the par-4 16th green and asked the board of governors for its opinion. The board voted to put in a bunker. Pete put in a lake. The club president asked him why he disregarded the board’s decision. Pete replied: “Because the board has never been right about anything!”

UNDULATION OVER SPEED. Pete told me the ideal green speed was no more than 9 on the Stimpmeter, and the challenge should be in the contouring of the greens. He even liked convex greens that repelled shots. He questioned the tour-pro principle that good shots should always be rewarded and bad shots punished. “Only the very best player can survive a bad result after a good shot and compose himself to play the next one,” he said.

WORK LIKE YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT MONEY. When Jack Nicklaus’ design fee was $1 million, Pete’s was $100,000, except when he did it for free. He loved the simple life. He and Alice ate dinner at home every night on side-by-side TV stands while watching “Jeopardy!” He accurately described his thatched-roof compound in the Dominican Republic as “seven orange-juice stands.”

DON’T PUT ANYTHING ON PAPER. Pete never did blueprints or even sketches. He walked the land and improvised. PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman once demanded a drawing of the TPC Sawgrass “in case you die before it’s done.” Pete turned over a place mat and scratched out the back nine that eventually was framed in the clubhouse. His genius will outlive us all.

The post How Pete Dye taught one of our editors everything he knows appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dean Knuth
You might have had the opportunity at some point to play a golf course that is the site of a PGA Tour event, and maybe played reasonably well. But what if you played that same golf course when it was prepared for tournament week? And what if that course was already renowned as one of the most difficult tests the game can offer?

We take you to Ponte Vedra Beach and the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, site of the next week’s Players Championship.

Go in knowing that the creation of the late Pete Dye is a headache for even the best players in the world. The tournament field typically averages about a half stroke to three-quarters of a stroke over par 72 for a round. Now put amateurs of varying handicaps on the same tees—7,189 to 7,245 yards—in tournament conditions with fast and firm greens and deep rough.

There’s history here. Golf Digest has proved in various exhibitions that amateurs have a tough time on difficult courses in tournament conditions.

At the 2007 U.S. Open, Tiger Woods said that a 10-handicap couldn’t break 100 that week at Oakmont. That prompted three Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenges, the first played the Friday before the 2008 Open at Torrey Pines South. Tony Romo, a 2.2 at the time, shot 84; Justin Timberlake (6.0) shot 98; and contest winner John Atkinson, an 8.1-handicap selected from 56,000 contestants, shot 114. The next year, the Challenge again preceded the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, and the round took six hours and 21 minutes. This time the four low-single-digit handicappers were Ben Roethlisberger, who shot 81, Michael Jordan (86) and Timberlake (88). The 10-handicap contest winner, Larry Giebelhausen, shot 101. (Tiger had bet Jordan that Michael wouldn’t break 92, and after the round, MJ proclaimed, “I don’t take checks.”) Before the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, contest winner Peggy Ference shot 118, following Mark Wahlberg (97), Wayne Gretzky (100) and Drew Brees (102).

The December before that competition at Pebble, Golf Digest’s David Owen, a 6-handicapper at the time, played the course from the tips and shot 50-50—100. In 2018, Owen, then a 7.9-handicap (“and rising”) left Connecticut in the winter and played Sawgrass from the shortest tees and from the tips, shooting an 82 at 5,019 yards and a 111 from 7,245 yards.

More perspective: Before the 2009 Masters, Golf Digest asked me to form a team to assess Augusta National Golf Club’s Course Rating after it had been lengthened more than 500 yards during multiple transformations over the previous two decades. Augusta National doesn’t have an official USGA rating. The reason? Despite the fact that almost every member has a USGA Handicap Index from another club, Augusta National maintains its system for members only.

I estimated Augusta National’s Course Rating that week at a formidable 78.1. I estimated the Slope at 137—high, but not off the charts. From the championship tees, most Bogey Golfers can’t reach Augusta’s long par 4s in regulation, but the fairways are relatively wide and the players can hit relatively short third shots into greens, minimizing many of the difficulty factors (water, bunkers, green targets, etc.). I estimated that a player with a Course Handicap of 0 could expect to shoot an 81, a 9 might shoot 91, an 18 would shoot 103 and a 36 approximately 125.

No. 14: At this 481-yard par 4, be prepared to pull some headcovers. (Carlos Amoedo)

• • •

THE DANGERS OF SAWGRASS

In 1985, Golf Digest sponsored a contest to identify America’s Worst Avid Golfer, with the final to be played at Sawgrass. Angelo Spagnolo, then 31, made a 66 at the 17th—including a three-putt—on his way to “winning” with a 257 for 18 holes. After a flurry of line drives at 17 splashed and seven more bounced over the green into the water, Spagnolo reluctantly agreed when his caddie suggested putting onto the green from the adjoining walkway.

So what would you do at Sawgrass? Let’s run some numbers.

Course Rating is a measure of a course’s difficulty level for a scratch golfer—someone who has a 0.0 Handicap Index.

Slope Rating measures the relative difficulty of a course for Bogey Golfers and other players of “varying abilities” when compared with the Course Rating. Though there are no limits for a Course Rating—the par-73, 8,325-yard Pines Course at The International in Bolton, Mass., has a Course Rating of 80.0—Slope Ratings basically range from 55 to 155. Standard playing difficulty is 113.

At the Stadium Course at Sawgrass, the Course Rating issued by the Florida State Golf Association is 76.4 and the Slope Rating is 155. These are ratings for normal playing conditions—so the actual uncapped Slope Rating during the Players would be higher. On a non-tournament week, the average scores for scratch golfers would be in the area of 2.6 strokes over the 76.4 Rating, but under tournament week conditions I estimate the average score as close to 81 by a scratch player. A golfer with an 18-handicap typically would shoot 116, but would be in the 122-124 range under tournament conditions (see accompanying chart).

Rough and slicker greens during tournament week mean almost every hole demands forced carries over water or bunkers—a major challenge for amateurs when compared to pros. Also, some of the greens have a shallow depth, and most of the greens have severe slopes punishing you if you don’t stop the ball near the hole, producing more three-putts than normal. Amateurs are challenged to produce the ball flight and spin needed to approach the greens correctly.

Adding to the challenge of the approaches, many fairways run at angles and then into pine straw, water and sand, causing amateur golfers to struggle with distance control and accuracy. Even a scratch golfer would expect to frequently score an 85.

Producing many double bogeys are four long par 4s—the 471-yard fifth hole, the 451-yard seventh, the 481-yard 14th and the 470-yard 15th—and, of course, the famed 137-yard 17th. A group of 36-handicappers who want to see the back tees that week, besides taking an extra hour or more to finish, would see scores over par almost double their handicaps.

• • •

HOW FAR DO YOU REALLY HIT IT?

Finally, let’s discuss the ability of amateurs to get to the greens in close to regulation from the back tees. A study that I did for Golf Digest a number of years ago produced one of the most telling numbers in how far amateurs are behind pros’ 300-plus-yard drives and how dramatically amateur players inflate their driving distances. In that test, lower-handicappers claimed their average drives went 247 yards, but driving distance stats taken in a pro-am tournament measured 232—a 15-yard exaggeration. Poorer players claimed a driving average of 227 yards but hit it 198 yards—a 29-yard exaggeration. The worse the players, the more they kid themselves about how good (and long) they are. Nobody, it seems, wants to admit he drives the ball less than 200 yards. Succumbing to self-delusion, it seems most amateurs tend to equate their best drive with their average drive. In looking at the self-assessed strengths and weaknesses from the amateurs who hit a fairway and then missed a green, “driving” was named a strength as often as it was a weakness.

It all adds up to a long and exhausting day for amateurs and a new appreciation for just how good PGA Tour pros really are—especially Rory McIlroy’s winning rounds last year of 67-65-70-70 for a 16-under-par 272 total. That score would be out of reach for almost all amateurs even with handicap strokes.

No. 7: The 451-yard par 4 is a potential double bogey (or worse). (Carlos Amoedo)

The post What would you shoot at TPC Sawgrass under Players Championship conditions? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The tournament’s PGA West Stadium Course yielded some low scores in perfect conditions on Thursday, but danger lurks at the Palm Springs track, particularly left of the 16th green. Well, left and below the 16th green. Way, way below.

That’s where you’ll find a 20-foot deep bunker dubbed “San Andreas Fault.” And if you find it with your approach shot, good luck getting out. But not only was Chez Reavie able to escape this evil trap, he was able to finish off one of the craziest sand saves you’ll ever see. Check it out as Reavie—whose diminutive stature makes the situation appear even more daunting—blasts out and over the green before holing a bomb from off the putting surface:

Just your average "sandy" for Chez Reavie. ?#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/zD94Gvoz2s

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 16, 2020

Amazing. After, people were calling the par save “Escape from AlcaChez.” Just kidding. No one was calling it that.

The post This is it, this is the craziest sand save in PGA Tour history appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Before Pete, golf architects mass-produced their products. Assembly lines of bulldozers stretched from coast to coast and chugged out facsimiles of the latest fashions. Some would eventually be deemed top-flight tests of golf, but all bore trademarks of one another.

Pete was a disruptor 50 years before that became a corporate buzzword. We called his style of design “target golf,” for it embraced abrupt change in its landforms, its sink-or-swim choices, its death-or-glory options, its my-way-or-the-highway reasoning.

Pete Dye instilled emotion into a previously staid game. That was an inevitable byproduct of his formative years. He was a teenage paratrooper during the last years of World War II, so he wanted golfers to feel the same sweaty palms and pit in the stomach as they faced their personal moments of truth, off a tee or into a green. He sold life insurance for a living, so he made golfers risk everything for a decent return.

Pete played golf with Donald Ross and Donald Trump and mined nuggets of knowledge from them both. He was a reactionary when golf was especially conservative. Pete threw a monkey wrench into every golfer’s swing. Where other architects strove to make golfers contemplate options before they faced a shot, Pete made golfers doubt; doubt their own eyes, their own capabilities, their own passion for the game. He did so with invention, deception and railroad ties. He found inspiration from Popular Mechanics, Model Railroader and an army manual.

Yes, early in his career he admitted to imitating famous predecessors — MacKenzie, Ross, Langford and Raynor, and contemporaries like Trent Jones. Later, after a tour of Scotland, he claimed allegiance to a far earlier generation. Yet Pete Dye architecture was ultimately original, not quite like anything golfers had ever seen before or since.

Midwest born and bred, Middle American to the core, Pete’s originality conjured up the thrills of a county fair – the Tilt-a-Whirl in a triple-level green that plunged side to side and downhill; the Fun House in a zigzag par 5 with a putting green perched on a fault line 20 feet above a hazard; the Dunk Tank in an island green glaring like the eye of a gator in a deep dark pool.

His wife, Alice, was the more successful competitive golfer, the better writer (ghosting every early article bearing his byline) and the smarter businessperson. Pete owed much his fame and fortune to her tireless promotion, and it was tragic when she passed away in early 2019 at age 91.

Pete wanted those who constructed his courses to be absolutely devoid of any knowledge about golf, lest they shaped holes that would look and play like everything else on the block. Dig me a swimming pool, he’d tell a crew when he wanted a bunker. Build me a giant birthday cake, he’d say when he wanted an elevated green. Occasionally, he’d wander off and the crew would be left to their own devices. A green famously created from dune buggy races in the sand was one result.

What was most impressive about his 50-year design career was that Pete constantly rethought his architecture. He began with a few modest designs where his attention focused on shaping sprawling, rolling greens. Then came some meaningful projects in the Midwest: 36 new holes for the relocated Des Moines Golf & Country Club, Radrick Farms for the University of Michigan and Pete’s first great golf course – Crooked Stick near Indianapolis, which he organized and where he would never stop tinkering. Then he entered a new phase, building ground-hugging, lay-of-the-land layouts, short and tight with greens the size of porch mats: The Golf Club near Columbus, Ohio, which seduced Jack Nicklaus into a second career long before he ever realized he could make money from it, then Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, one of five collaborations Pete did with Jack. It possessed what Dan Jenkins perceptively identified as “instant character.” In the early 1970s he produced the sublime Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic, literally sketched in the dirt and scratched into reality by a legion of Dominicans hand-planting individual tufts of turf.

But when pro golfers became Schwarzeneggers, Pete resorted to utter upheaval of the land, with bazooka-length holes edged by massive battlefields of bunkers, and greens girdled by earth sculptures he called grenade attacks. These are his most distinctive and recognizable layouts: the Stadium Courses at PGA West and TPC Sawgrass, the Straits at Whistling Straits, the Dye at French Lick. Throughout his career, golfers could never play their usual game on his designs; they had to leave their comfort levels at the first tee.

Dye at his World Golf Hall Of Fame Induction
Photo: Marc Serota

Pete’s unorthodoxy captured the fancy of magazine editors and at least one Tour Commissioner, Deane Beman, but it soured many who played the game for a living and expected satisfying results for even those most marginal of shots. Despite that animosity, or maybe because of it, Dye’s designs dominated magazine course rankings and the PGA Tour schedule, with the occasional major at Oak Tree, Crooked Stick, Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run.

Pete never called himself a golf course architect because that implied education and technical training that he did not possess. He didn’t even like calling himself a golf course designer, for he lacked artistic talent and his sketches of golf holes looked like stick figures. Pete called himself a golf course builder, a guy who messed around in the dirt until he’d come up with something different than anyone had played before. He worked by trial and error, a very ineffective manner if you’re footing the bill, but acceptable if you’re looking for true art. It was particularly inefficient when Pete would rip up a fully grassed and playable golf hole because he just had another brainstorm.

He genuinely thought his steep slopes and black hole bunkers could be easily maintained, although countless course superintendents felt otherwise. So he fiddled with unconventional grasses that he felt would need less TLC. Those experiments fizzled and today his courses bear the same strains of conventional turf as anyone else. Likewise, his idea of hooking pumps to underground pipes produced efficient drainage on flat courses but created geysers on hilly ones.

Dye’s inventiveness inspired a baby boomer generation of golf architects who worked for him with near-religious fervour, hence their nickname, The Dye-ciples. Some embraced his approach and style to such a degree that they mostly reproduced his designs over and over – his sons Perry (born 1952) and P.B. (1955) come to mind, as well as the late David Pfaff, David Postlethwait and Tim Liddy. Hence, they never fully emerged from his overpowering limelight.

Others adopted his work ethic but not his schtick and achieved grand acclaim – Bill Coore, Tom Doak, Bobby Weed, Lee Schmidt, Brian Curley. But if any are remembered a hundred years from now, it will be partly because they got their starts working for Pete Dye.

What Pete did better than any other designer before or since was to throw back the curtain and reveal the wizard at the controls. In his mind, Mother Nature was never really a golf course architect. She merely provided foundations upon which humans would endeavour. Other designers tried to fool golfers into thinking Mother Nature truly created their courses. Pete made sure every golfer knew Pete produced his puzzles; Mother Nature would never have puckered a sand bunker atop a giant anthill.

In the end, Dye perished the way many a creative person has, from sheer exhaustion of the imagination. It is both a sad and sobering time. Golf design shall never see another like him.

The post Pete Dye made golfers doubt themselves ‘with invention, deception and railroad ties’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
The Players Championship remains golf’s unofficial fifth major, but it will be the site of a major breakthrough in golf coverage beginning next year. Get ready to watch every shot hit by every player in the field during every round at TPC Sawgrass. Sounds pretty good, right?

The PGA Tour announced this media milestone on Monday ahead of the 2020 Players, which is set for March 12-15. For the first time ever, every (again, we can’t stress every enough) shot struck in a golf tournament will be seen live. That is, if you subscribe to PGA Tour Live, the tour’s digital streaming product, on either NBC Sports Gold or Amazon Prime.

Viewers will be able to select which players they want to watch during the tournament’s four days. The tour hopes this is the next step in bringing this type of coverage to all of its events.

“The PGA Tour is the most content-rich sport on the planet and we have been focused on expanding the amount of content we bring to our fans from our competitions,” Rick Anderson, Chief Media Officer for the PGA Tour, said in a statement. “Our vision is to bring every shot in every PGA Tour golf tournament live and on-demand to our fans, and this is the first step to making that happen.”

According to the announcement, PGA Tour Entertainment and NBC Sports will show more than 32,000 shots over four days at TPC Sawgrass thanks to 120 cameras positioned around Pete Dye’s Stadium Course.

“Every shot of the Players on PGA Tour Live is a natural next step in the innovative partnership between NBC Sports and the PGA Tour that spans nearly 60 years,” said Mike McCarley, president, GOLF, NBC Sports Group. “Super-serving golf fans with more comprehensive coverage of the Players is emblematic of our commitment to elevating this championship and builds upon our success in adding enhancements to PGA Tour Live on NBC Sports Gold.”

But wait, there’s more. The tour also announced the launch of its revamped TourCast product, which will allow people to follow the action with shot trails of every ball hit. Fans will also have access to video highlights on demand and all the tour’s ShotLink Data via the PGA Tour’s mobile apps and website.

This year’s Masters, which is not run by the PGA Tour, was the first tournament to allow fans to see every shot from a golf tournament. Those shots were not live-streamed through the Masters site, although the delay in seeing them (less than a few minutes) was pretty minimal.

In any event, this is great news for golf fans watching next year’s Players—especially those looking for a break from coverage of No. 17. And going forward, if this becomes the norm at every tournament, even better.

The post PGA Tour announces a revolutionary first in golf coverage for the 2020 Players—and fans are going to love it appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Stephen Hennessey
The partnership of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the men behind new Byron Nelson home Trinity Forest, has been one golf’s most respected architectural teams for quite some time. And it all started back in the late 1980s, when the pair visited a site for a course that was never built. This came soon after Coore’s first course opened at Rockport Country Club in Texas, and Crenshaw—who had just won the 1984 Masters—was so impressed with Coore’s work, Crenshaw signed up to partner with the former Pete Dye associate. The talented duo has worked together for more than 30 years, producing some of the game’s most revered designs.

Here’s a look at those courses—ranked in the order our Golf Digest course-ranking panelists scored them based on our most recent America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses ranking and Golf Digest’s Complete 200 Greatest International Golf Courses ranking.

10 . Kapalua (Plantation), Maui, Hawaii
Though their partnership started in 1991, this was Coore and Crenshaw’s first completed design. No. 21 on Golf Digest’s most recent 100 Greatest Public Courses and No. 112 on our latest Second 100 Greatest, the Plantation course hosts the annual Tournament of Champions that kicks off the year on the PGA Tour. The course is set to undergo an extensive renovation after next year’s tournament, with Coore and Crenshaw overseeing most of the work.

Stan Badz/PGA Tour

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9 . Colorado Golf Club, Parker, Colo.
Named Golf Digest’s sixth Best New private course in 2007, this Colorado layout is currently No. 111 on our latest Second 100 Greatest ranking. The venue for the 2013 Solheim Cup will also host the 2019 U.S. Mid Amateur.

Chris Graythen
Azahara Munoz of Spain hits her second shot on the 14th hole at the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colo. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

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8 . Streamsong (Red), Bowling Green, Fla.
This Everglades-meets-Ballybunion layout, which is how Ron Whitten used to describe the Red course at Streamsong after it opened in 2013, is the highest ranked of the three courses at central Florida’s new Streamsong Resort. Coore and Crenshaw worked with Tom Doak on which land each would use for their routings at Streamsong, a rare collaboration among competitors, but not surprising given their friendship. The Red course, which debuted inside the 100 Greatest in its first appearance, is ranked No. 102 on Golf Digest’s most recent rankings.

The 8th hole at Streamsong’s Red course.

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7 . Bandon Trails (Ore.)
Carved mostly out of wooded land though it starts and finishes among massive sand dunes, the facility’s third course, which opened in 2005, is the fourth-highest ranked course at Bandon Dunes—sitting at No. 70 on our latest ranking.

Stephen Szurlej
The first hole at Bandon Trails

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6 . Old Sandwich Golf Club, Plymouth, Mass.
Old Sandwich’s 56th-place spot is the highest place it has held on our 100 Greatest ranking. Carved out of the brush and sand just two miles from the ocean, Coore and Crenshaw utilised some rolling terrain and beautiful landscapes to create another minimalist design (see Sand Hills, below).

he Henebrys/Courtesy of Old Sandwich GC
The 15th hole at Old Sandwich G.C. in Plymouth, Mass.

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5 . Barnbougle Lost Farm, Bridport, Australia
Sitting among towering Tasmanian sandscapes is this links course that was built to be the sister course of Tom Doak’s Barnbougle Dunes, No. 11 on our World 100. Lost Farm is currently No. 26 on our World 100.

Photo by Stephen Szurlej

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4 . Friar’s Head, Baiting’s Hollow, N.Y.
Built on sandy bluffs along the North Shore of Long Island, Friar’s Head is another minimalist success by Coore and Crenshaw, which despite losing out on Golf Digest’s 2003 Best New Private survey to the Club at Black Rock in Idaho and Dallas National, Friar’s Head ranks far above those designs, continuing to rise in our 100 Greatest rankings—up to No. 19, its highest-ever position.

Evan Schiller
The ninth hole at Friar’s Head Golf Club in Baiting’s Hollow, N.Y.

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3 . Sand Hills Golf Club, Mullen, Neb.
Perhaps most architecturally significant out of this group of courses, Sand Hills is regarded as one of the most natural golf courses ever built. As Golf Digest’s Whitten writes: “The golf course wasn’t so much designed as discovered,” and helped guide the later works of Coore and Crenshaw.

Dom Furore
An overview of Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen, Neb. (Photograph by Dom Furore)

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2 . Cabot Cliffs, Inverness, Nova Scotia, Canada

John and Jeannine Henebry
The 16th hole at Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia.

On Cabot Cliffs, Golf Digest’s 2015 Best New honoree, Whitten wrote: “This is the second coming of Cypress Point, which in my mind was previously unmatched in its beauty, variety and thrills.” For a man not known for hyperbole, that is the highest praise. Cabot Cliffs was No. 9 on our most recent World 100 ranking.

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1 . Shanqin Bay, Hainan Island, China
Probably unknown by most casual American golfers, Shanqin Bay has been called by some the best course in Asia. Built on seaside sand dunes on China’s Hainan Island, Shanqin Bay sits at No. 8 on Golf Digest’s most recent World 100 ranking.

Courtesy of Shanqin Bay G.C.
The eighth hole at Shanqin Bay in China

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Other notable Coore and Crenshaw courses:

Sand Valley Golf Course was named the Best New golf course in 2017 by Golf Digest. It will be a candidate for our next 100 Greatest/Second 100 Greatest rankings, to be published in January 2019.

Trinity Forest Golf Club, site of the 2018 AT&T Bryon Nelson, will be a candidate for Golf Digest’s 2018 survey of Best New courses.

Ozarks National at Big Cedar Lodge—same as Sand Valley—has not yet been included on a published set of Golf Digest rankings.

Dormie Club: Narrowly missed making Golf Digest’s latest Second 100 Greatest ranking, and ranking 185th on Golf Digest’s 2015-2016 ranking, Dormie Club is No. 49 on our most recent 100 Greatest Public ranking.

Chechessee Creek in Okatie, S.C.: Like Dormie Club, made Golf Digest’s 2015-2016 ranking at No. 197, and narrowly missed in 2017-2018.

The Golf Club at Cuscowilla in Eatonton, Ga. — No. 11 on Golf Digest’s most recent Best in State rankings, the G.C. at Cuscowilla recently went full-private, previously being a 100 Greatest Public course.

East Hampton Golf Club: No. 28 on Golf Digest’s 2015-2016 Best in State rankings. Did not make the 2017-2018 rankings.

We-Ko-Pa’s Saguaro Course in Fort McDowell, Ariz.: No. 98 on Golf Digest’s 2017-2018 100 Greatest Public courses ranking,

Lonna Tucker
The eighth hole at We-Ko-Pa’s Saguaro course.

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Austin Golf Club: Ben Crenshaw enjoyed his layout so much in his hometown that he actually lives on property.

Bandon Preserve — The fun 13-hole par-3 course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has become one of the most popular rounds to book at the resort.

The post The best Coore and Crenshaw golf courses appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.