Search This Blog

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Long, tough test ahead on PGA Championship course

Atlanta Athletic Club's Highland Course, host of the 93rd PGA Championship beginning Thursday, will be a treacherous, 7,467-yard, narrow march through trees and unwelcoming rough and water hazards in the last major championship of the season.
That's more than 250 yards longer than in 2001, when David Toms won the PGA Championship here by one stroke over Phil Mickelson. Toms finished at 15-under-par 265 — a score many players said will be unattainable, especially because, as some players said, the course is "stupid" long.
The course underwent a major makeover since Toms one-putted the final hole to win in '01. In addition to the added length, three types of grasses — Diamond Zoysia for the fairways and two types of Bermuda for the greens and rough, all three of which thrive in heat — replaced the old turf.
The fairways are perfect, the players said, the greens are pure, and the rough won't allow them to control their golf balls and in many cases reach the green.
"The course is in fantastic shape," reigning Open Championship winner Darren Clarke said Tuesday after playing the front nine. "The fairways, you could almost put them down as carpet in your house, they are that good."
Bunkers were added and repositioned to pinch landing areas for tee shots, fairways were narrowed and the green complexes were reshaped to add pitch, slope and undulation. All told — and with the course firm and fast and the greens already lightning quick — a demanding test awaits the best players in the world.
"It's a good golf course," world No. 1 Luke Donald said after playing the back nine. "Very fast, sloping greens, which are going to be quite challenging, especially if they get any firmer and faster.
"The last holes are very challenging coming in."
Those would be the 260-yard, water-protected par-3 15th, the 476-yard par-4 16th, the 207-yard par-3 17th that is guarded by more water, and the 507-yard par-4 18th that features an island green.
The 16th and 18th holes are two of eight par-4s that measure at least 450 yards.
"It's a tricky hole," Donald said of the 18th. "You would like to have a few-shot lead playing the last hole."
Toms, who used a 5-wood to ace the 15th from 243 yards in 2001, said he doesn't know what he'll use off the tee this year if they play the 15th all the way back.
"If it's into the wind, maybe driver, but you don't want to hit that club there because there is so much trouble around the greens," Toms said. "The course is much, much longer than in 2001, and because of that extra yardage, you'll be hitting longer clubs into the greens, and you won't be able to hold the greens on some shots.
"But not one player will complain about the course conditions. The course is in great shape, the greens are putting true and the fairways are perfect."
Adam Scott, who won last week's World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, a similar track in that it is tree-lined and home to fast, sloping greens, got a taste for what's in store this week by playing the back nine.
"It's quite long," he said with a laugh. "And it's quite demanding off the tee. I think driving the ball into the fairway this week is certainly going to be the only way to create opportunities for birdies. You must be in the fairway.
"So, I think a premium on driving is a key, and from there, you know, it's just going to require a lot of good golf, too.
"It's a very demanding golf course."

No comments:

Post a Comment