Taking Aim

If the players themselves were allowed to setup the courses, which one would you like to get your hands on in that situation?

I’d probably be accused of setting it up too easy. It depends on the course and if you’re allowed to get the greens as firm as you want. I think golf is more interesting when great shots get rewarded and I think recovery shots are one of the biggest parts of golf. If you cover your course in rough and make it too narrow, you’re basically bringing everyone back to the same place. Everyone can hit a 50 yard hack out of thick rough, the worst player in the field and the best player in the field that week. So I don’t understand why that’s good.

You have short grass down the left side of the fairway on the ninth at Augusta and you can hit a 30 yard hook under the trees onto the green. The best player in the world is going to hit that shot, as Tiger has shown us a number of times, while the worst player in the field is going to hit it way right and make a six, and everything in between. To me, that’s more interesting but not every course is as fun to setup as Augusta.

I’d really like to set Oakmont up. I think it’s an amazing course, probably one of the best golf courses in the world. It’s so hard when we play it in the US Open but it could be so fun too.

The US Open will be played this year at Merion, which for someone like you with such an interest in golf course architecture must be something of a treat. Have you seen the East Course there before and are you concerned how the USGA will go about setting the course up in order to protect par?

Actually I haven’t. I’ve played Pine Valley down the road but not there, so I’m pretty excited about it actually. I’m a little bit scared at how they might set it up because it’s really lacking in length for how we play now, so the word is they might have to go crazy narrow in a few spots.

They’re so adamant that they don’t want us to go really low in a US Open but the great players have always won the US Open so, maybe there is something to be said for the setups. We’ll see. I’m really looking forward to it. Everyone who’s ever been there loves the place so I’m really excited.