I am growing weary of saying this but it doesn’t make it any less true – the majority of the courses used on the PGA Tour are too easy.
Of course there are some notable exceptions. Bay Hill and Muirfield Village spring most readily to mind.
But, week in, week out, the tracks simply are not up to the task. You only have to look at the winning scores. If you cannot get anywhere close to 20 under par then you are not going to be winning. And most weeks you need to get to four or five under par just to make the cut.
The same applies, possibly even on a grander scale, with the courses used by the (potentially) soon-to-be-defunct LIV Tour.
Most Golf Courses Don’t Test Top Players Anymore
On the first day of the Cadillac Championship at Doral, Cameron Young struggled to find fairways. So what? It made absolutely no difference. There was no penalty to pay because there was virtually no rough and he ended up shooting a routine 64.
Of course, we all like to see the best golfers in the world making birdies but we also want to see them having to strategise when standing on a tee.
That they are able to reach for driver time after time tells you everything you need to know. By and large, they can swing wildly at the ball and not have to worry if they produce a wild slice or a severe hook.
The lack of rough is bad enough but the so-called Blue Monster course at Doral also offered no penalty whatsoever when it came to fairway bunkers.
I learnt to play golf in Scotland on both links and inland courses and they all had one thing in common – if you found a fairway bunker there was no way that you were going for the green with your next shot. You simply took your medicine and got the ball out and then hoped you could find the putting surface with your next and perhaps single-putt for a par. But more often than not, you knew that at least one shot was going. And you knew that you were ALWAYS going to lose at least one ball in the rough every time you played. The bonus was that you would also find plenty when looking for your own.
The Majors Still Bring Some Challenge
We are in major season. I can’t possibly be the only one who noticed how badly most of the world’s leading golfers struggled at Augusta National during The Masters. The US PGA Championship at Aronimink is just around the corner. It is a beast and all the indications are that it is going to play as a major test should. In other words, the players will face proper, juicy rough.
I hope that the PGA of America do not chicken out, as they did two years ago at Valhalla when Xander Schauffele’s winning score was a scarcely believable 263, 21 under par. And he only beat Bryson DeChambeau by a single shot. Valhalla is a tough golf course but its teeth had been removed, presumably to keep the players happy.
It is surely no coincidence that the US Open so regularly brings golf’s stars to its knees. With its lightning-fast greens and thick rough it offers them a test that they are not used to sitting.
For me, this is the major that consistently provides the toughest challenge. And every year we have to listen to players bleating about how difficult and how unfair it all is. I like to see them hacking out of thick rough, just as the rest of us have to do. I enjoy seeing them being befuddled by the speed of the greens.
These are guys who are used to playing into greens that are heavily-watered, where even poorly-struck approach shots will stop on the putting surfaces.
They want to try the courses that club golfers have to play every week where, during the summer, you have to land a wedge 30 yards short of the green and hope for the best, where if you hit a ball into the rough or trees then you know that your only chance of finding it is if you stand on it.
How Tough Will Royal Birkdale Play at The Open?
The Open Championship is, of course, my favourite major and, as always, I am looking forward to it being played at Royal Birkdale in July. This is a real golf course. This is a links with proper bunkers and with real rough.
But its only real defence these days is the weather. If we have four glorious days you will be looking at a winning score of around 264. The only real chance this course has of battering the field is if the wind blows. Trust me – I know. I have played Birkdale in benign conditions, drove the ball well and actually found it a pretty fair and straightforward challenge. However, I have also played it in a howling wind and driving rain and ripped up my scorecard before we reached the turn.
I hope that we get a decent breeze and that players are forced to think their way round.
Many Venues Don’t Match Quality of Prize Funds
Going back to the Cadillac Championship, it is one of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events and that means it is meant to be a prestigious tournament. The total prize fund was a staggering $20m with the thick end of $4m going to the winner. With fairways as wide as the M1, it’s such a pity that the course did not match the occasion.
Not that this is of any concern to Young. Having been unable to close the deal so many times, having started to wonder if he would ever land a PGA Tour title, he has now won three times in nine months and is arguably playing better golf than anybody else, including Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.
Derek Clements is a seasoned sports journalist and regular Golfshake contributor, specialising in tour coverage, opinion pieces, and feature writing. With a long career in national newspapers and golf media, he has reported on the game across Europe, the United States and Australia. A passionate golfer, he has played and reviewed numerous renowned courses, with personal favourites including Pebble Beach, Kingsbarns, Aldeburgh, Old Thorns and the K Club. His love of the game informs his thoughtful commentary on both professional golf and the wider golfing community.
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