The PGA Tour is usually great to watch. A lot of great competition between a lot of great players in the world. However, one thing that makes it wasy to find contempt for the PGA Tour is the way they always manicure course setups to make them easy and scoreable for the pros. What they don't realize is that fans don't necessarily want to see low scores. They want to see realistic golf. See the pros get challenged by the courses.
The practice of moving up tees has been present for a long time, but this began becoming really felt at the US Open at Congressional, where the setup was so easy that players were making birdies by the bunches and shooting rounds in the high 60s. They had rough that wasn't deep enough because of the heat. And the greens that were softened by rain. And benign weather conditions with almost no wind. But those were not the only reasons for so many low scores, but also, the ill-advised decision to move up many tees throughout the tournament. HELLO?! A US Open is not supposed to have tees moved up so frequently. ESPECIALLY on Par FOURS. But that's what they did, and as a result, the US Open played a lot more like a PGA Championship instead of a US Open.
The decision for the PGA Tour to move up certain teeing grounds for tournaments has been, in my opinion, very bad practice. That takes a lot of challenge away on holes, and artificially inflates all the low scores. The main reason for all those 20-under-par scores are NOT mainly because the players are good, but rather, the courses were set up far too benign and because of the benign setups, the new technology makes a lot of golf courses obselete and too easy.
This has become an even more obvious issue at the AT&T National at Aronimink, a course that played very difficult in all the champioships it's held, including the 1962 PGA and 2003 Senior PGA. Even in the 2010 AT&T National it played nice and difficult, but in 2011, the PGA Tour crossed the line and did one of the most ridiculous and most repulsive setups ever.
After two days of them setting up Aronimink very well, with me giving them a scale of 9 out of 10, Saturday's setup deserved a 2 out of 10.
They watered all the greens before the third round, making them MUCH softer and receptive than the first two days, and the scores really reflected that. Nick Watney shot a 62 and a whole bunch of players shooting scores in the 63, 64, 65 range. And they MOVED UP SO MANY TEES!!! It played so easy that 8 players tied or beat the previous 2010 record in that one round alone (64).
They set up the pins in the easiest possible locations. Setting up pins in the front of the green when there are no hazards short. Moved up the 8th hole from a 238 yard hole to a 196 yard hole. Who cares if it's a tough front left pin location? And the moved up the 10th hole from a 454 yard hole to a 435 yard one. In fact ,all week they never played that hole to its backmost tees. This resulted in a lot of unnecessary birdies. And they moved the 393 yard par 4 13th to 316 yards and forced out a drivable par 4 out of a par 4 that wasn't supposed to be drivable. And the most ridiculous and stupidest move of all? Moving the 215 yard par 3 17th to 144 yards. Sure, it's a tough pin location, but so what? Everybody played the same hole.
Then, fortunately, the course played difficult on Sunday, much more difficult than Saturday. That was what saved grace and prevented the tournament setup to be completely bogus.
And then the immediate week after, at the John Deere Classic, the PGA Tour yet again manicured the course and made it much easier than it could be played. Here is a list of holes they moved up for the John Deere and how utterly ridiculous was the moves.
3rd hole: Moved up from 186 yards to 135 yards for the third round. 135 YARDS!!! WHAT?!? Well, the pin location for that hole was front, a difficult spot just before the greenside bunker. But still, a 186 yard par 3 is NEVER hard for the pros and they had NO reason to move up the tees by so much. Considering that a 186 yard hole is merely a 6 iron for most, the pros getting it on the green close should NOT have been any problem. And even if the hole is difficult they still don't need to move the tee up more than 50 yards! Thank goodness they only moved it up one day, the third round.
7th hole: Moved up from 226 yards to 184 yards for the FIRST THREE DAYS. Geez. Honestly, when they move up one tee by SO much forward for SO many days, then what's the point of having the hole 226 yards on the card? And why must they always make those 230 yard holes birdie holes? The pin locations aren't really that tough. A player hitting a high draw could get it close for a reasonable birdie chance even when the tee is moved well back and with the pin tucked behind a bunker. Thankfully the PGA Tour was sane enough to move back the tee to 226 in the final round when the pin is not behind a bunker hazard.
9th hole: Moved up from 503 yards to 485 yards for the first two rounds. What's the point of moving tees up for undrivable par fours? To encourage players to hit driver-short iron or driver-wedge? It's about time the game stops being a bomb-and-gouge game and starts to be a game of finesse again. A hole of length is NOT too challenging for players since a lot of them only need a mid to short iron to reach the green anyway. If the players are unable to hit the green in 2, it's not because the hole is too long, it's because the player didn't hit a good enough shot.
10th hole: Moved up from 594 yards to 566 yards for Rounds 2 and 4. Okay, this move is reasonable and fair enough, because they want more players to try reaching the green in two, which could be a risky move with water left. But still, even without moving up the tees all the big hitters would still have a chance of reaching in 2. And the short hitters would still commit to their decision and lay up. Moving up the tee just gives the big hitters an EASIER second shot since they have a SHORTER second shot. It does not necessarily entice more players to go for the green.
12th hole: Moved up from 215 yards to 194 yards for all but the third round. Here we go again, another Par 4 moved up. And another unnecessary move. What makes this move so unnecessary and superfluous, is the fact that there aren't really that many hazards on this green! The green is quite deep so it is still quite receptive to shots. There is one significant bunker short, and that's about it. That's a long iron shot. Since on this course it doesn't really require that many long iron shots, this would have been a great test for long irons. Rather than moving up the tee and changing it into a mid iron, or even short iron, shot.
14th hole: Moved up from 361 yards to 316 yards for the first and third rounds. Okay, what is the PGA Tour with drivable Par 4s? Well, what makes a drivable par four a good hole is if a good drive is rewarded with a potential eagle / easy birdie, and a bad one is punished with a very difficult birdie chance and a potential to make a bogey. This hole however, players who went for the green and hit a crooked drive almost didn't come close to making a bogey, unless they duff their pitch shot. If a drivable Par 4 is so scoreable, they might as well call them long par threes. Though I have to admit, this Par 4 is not the worst drivable Par 4. I've seen some on the PGA that are much worse.
15th hole: Moved up from 484 yards to 466 yards for round 2 and 4. Again, see my analysis for the 9th hole. On the second round, Steve Stricker hit driver-wedge on this hole. It's just so weird seeing the PGA make long and strong par fours driver-wedge holes.
16th hole: Moved up from 158 yards to 144 yards for the first two rounds. Okay, let me get this straight, the main reason for the PGA to move up par threes is because the pin location is making it too difficult. Sooo, if this is the case here, that means tha PGA must have thought that the 158 yard par 3 was too difficult to play 158 yards. REALLY!!! A 158 YARD PAR 3 BEING TOO DIFFICULT!!! HUH???? What are they even trying to accomplish? A 158 yard Par 3 is an 8 or 9 iron for most players already, and stronger players maybe a pitching wedge. It's as short a Par 3 as it gets. Yet they make it even more shorter so that everybody is hitting a WEDGE into it. What's the point besides artificially inflating the low scores??? Not sure why they love birdie barrages so much. After all, golf courses on the PGA are supposed to be CHALLENGING. This is NOT what golf courses are supposed to play like.
18th hole: Moved up from 476 yards to 461 yards in Rounds 2 and 3. Again, see same argument on Hole 9 and 15.
So that is the analysis of the holes with the tes moved up. Again, in conclusion, the PGA Tour manicuring the courses by making them benign for scoring, and moving up the tees is not a good move, and in the long run, this move would just reduce the amount of fans watching specific tournaments. A lot of top players do not like birdiefests, and when there are so many birdiefest tournaments, the players would tend to opt OUT and play a different event (such as this week at the Scottish Open). And as a result of players not playing there, the fans would decrease too.
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