Also I'm gonna agree with whoever last year (I think it was Tuq) who said Florida courses are boring for TV.

They really are.

Flat course with a bunch of water Flat course with a bunch of water Flat course with a bunch of water Flat course with a bunch of water Flat course with a bunch of water Flat course with a bunch of water Flat course with a bunch of water Flat course with a bunch of water Flat course with a bunch of water.

Next several weeks gonna be really exciting - not. And TPC Sawgrass might as well be called THE ISLAND GREEN, BRO! It's like enough already. Last year they spent literally 100% of the broadcast on 17 at Sawgrass. CSB.

If I wanted to watch a grindfest I'd watch myself struggle to shoot 75. I watch the best in the world to see something that I can't see anywhere else. I don't understand how people enjoy watching the pros look like average Joe's. You can see that at every course you play.

Really? This is the only non-major tournament I actually care to watch almost all year. It is no over until the last putt is holed. The leader can play the last 5 holes 6 over or somebody could actually eagle the last coupled wth a luckbox birdie before and make up ground.

Is PGA National remotely as good as Pebble or Congressional? No, obv, but the tournament is one of the more exciting to watch on tv IMO. Of course I also would never look away from a pending car wreck either.

And clearly maybe I just enjoyed watching the effers mess up!

To the trained eye tour pros look like the best in the world no matter what course they play.

BO

I agree with BO. Difficult conditions force the pros to hit great shots and really think their way around the course. Watching target practice is OK but I enjoy the more difficult conditions where every shot has more uncertainty

I mean you've probably played this course before and I'm just some dumb hack. I wouldn't listen to anything I say wrt golf.

But I didn't specifically mean this tournament. I just meant Florida courses in general are kind of boring for television. Just not a lot of variety to the landscape is what I was getting at. Though aspects of Torrey and Pebble can be a bit absurd in the other direction. I guess there is something to be said for flatish fairways which sort of even the playing field a bit more and make your approach lie less about luck and more about ball-striking. The SHO course I go to is pretty flat (though the fairways roll up and down from tee to green) so it's a decent course for scoring.

I do really love 18 on this course though. I agree with you about the risk/reward of it coming down the stretch. I like holes that are legit eagle opportunities if you are willing to take on legit risk. Unfortunately the last couple years the leaders have had a bit of a cushion coming to 18 green.

this ... i prefer winning scores in the single digits and players struggling to shoot in the 60s.

i also prefer a 2 to 1 baseball game.

Americans have won every event on the PGA Tour.

Europeans are all struggling with bad teeth and dental pain

I forget who it was but he got relief as the ground was not similar? I can not imagine asking mu buddies for relief as the grass was cut slightly different.

I think what you guys don't realize is that you like both the tough scoring and birdiefests, but one a bit more than the other.

Also, agree with ship--this that while Florida courses can be repetitive, the last few holes of PGA National do allow for a wide range of outcomes. It just happens that 1) the wind direction this year led to 15 and 17 being fairly benign and 2) Michael Thompson was a par-making machine who held himself together admirably, thus avoiding what could have been a trainwreck.

One thing contributing to the finish being better is moving the 18th hole up to ~550 as they have done the last 2-3 years. It was a total anticlimax when they played it to 600 yards and it was a forced layup for everyone. The range of scores in that setup was basically 4-5, whereas now it's more like 3-6.

I realize this isn't PGA news but Patrick Cantlay won the Web.com event in Bogota and @ 20yrs old this kid is just amazing and has a great head on his shoulders along with a solid game. I predict some pretty big things for this young man.

LOL. The entire continent is still hungover from the Ryder Cup win??

Lee Westwood ****ing sucks man. I'm tired of seeing this guy showcased.

No right or wrong, just opinions. I have played that course a ton back in late 90’s/early 00’s when I played the Golden Bear Tour. I never got in contention on that course sadly because I would have loved trying to get it to the house from 15 in. Florida courses as a whole are pretty boring due to zero terrain on the entire peninsula, but the weather is about the best you can get this time of year in the lower 48.
I do like the birdie fests and the brutal courses, probably the birdie fests more though actually. I like Augusta more when it is lights out birdies and eagles than when it is a grind. 18 at 550 vs the back tee is a must IMO as well. 600 yard par 5s that you have no real reward for the risk of going for are just plain stupid to me.

too bad Guthrie melting on 14 tee with snipe OB after birding 13 to get back two down. Who knows what the outcome would have been?

Mark Rolfing changed his tune regarding Thompson's ball flight. after semi-bashing him Sat for not being able to knock down shots into the wind, he commended him Sunday for staying with his normal swing. Like he said, you hit the ball that solid it doesn't matter how high it goes.

Did anyone else catch the replay of the Guthrie drive? It was a terrible break, although the NBC guys didn't catch it. Looked like it was probably on track to stay in bounds but hit a tree and kicked DEAD LEFT out of bounds.

Naturally, he could have avoided such a break by simply hitting the fairway, but it comes back around to something I was reading in the past week about luck in golf. Sure, you make your own luck for the most part but the golf gods do seem to flip some coins. Like Mahan at the match play getting a terrible lie while Kuchar was just fine on essentially the same drive on the 17th hole. Or Thompson ending up in great shape after a huge miss on 10 while Guthrie had a much worse spot pretty close by. Then on 11 (I think) Thompson hit a shot so poor it could easily have gone in the water but it stayed up and he made par.

Thompson probably played the better of the two but he got some big breaks where Guthrie got some bad ones. Kind of like how Lee Janzen got two ridiculously lucky bounces in 1998 at Olympic and Payne Stewart got the divot lie in the fairway which led to a bogey. That's at least three strokes in Janzen's favor and he won by one. Game can be maddening.

knockdown shots are overated. i feel that knock down shots are really only useful in strong headwind. with wind coming from left or right, ability to shape the ball is way more advantageous. i found it very rare to have more than a couple holes with strong direct headwind. when playing in windy conditions im mostly up against some type of crosswind.

however knockdown shots can come in very handy if your inbetween clubs.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, is the only way to control distance in the wind.

Kids these days simply don't know how to hit them properly.

BO

my observations.

strong Head wind you better hit the ball low and solid with as little spin as possible. Down wind ball goes pretty much straight regardless, sometimes a ball can get knocked down when downwind.

In a crosswind I only use the wind as a wall in a one club or so wind. any cross wind stronger then that, ball is going to ride the wind. I try and hit knuckle balls out there and gauge the ride as well as I can.

TW, Rory, and Luke paired together for Thur/Fri this week. Might draw a crowd.

Phil, Bubba, Stricker in another. Gonna be a star-studded week.

11:20AM/12:26PM: Rickie Fowler, Thorbjorn Olesen, Matteo Manassero

I would follow this group.

Rickie is the old man in this group at 24.

tail of the tape

Thorbjorn 5 9 154 lbs D avg 2013 285.5

Matteo 5 11 155 lbs D avg 2013 272.3

Rickie 5 9 150 lbs D avg 2013 287.5


thumbs up for medium sized guys.

meant for most amateurs. if your good enough to saw one off on demand, then by all means, go ahead. most amateurs are better off clubbing up one or two clubs and swing smoothly to get solid contact.

15+handicappers have a hard enough time getting consistent solid strikes. if you dont have good swing and consistently trap the ball with hands ahead its gonna be hard to implement a proper knock shot on demand.

if your a kid learning then of course you should learn knock downs, fades, draws, punch shots, etc.

Phil/Bubba/Stricker group would be interesting.

Phil 300 and 30 yards left on every drive.

Bubba 320 and half in the fairway half left.

Stricker 265 dead center of fairway.

See Langley play in this year's first event? Doesn't hit the ball over 15 feet.. So much control

Tiger GOATing early