As soon as described as a “torture chamber,” Pete Dye’s well-known design shouldn’t be as terrifying because it as soon as was. However it seems to be like its outdated self.
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It’s taken as golf gospel that Tour professionals of the previous had been a more durable breed than right now’s entitled stars; scrappier, extra stoic.
But when that’s the case, tips on how to clarify the whining that went on 37 years in the past this winter, when the sport’s greatest gathered within the California desert?
“I don’t just like the seems to be of it and I don’t just like the playability,” eight-time main winner Tom Watson sniffed. “And that’s my diplomatic reply.”
“Spiteful” and “hateful,” famously hard-bitten Raymond Floyd grumbled.
“It isn’t any enjoyable,” Ben Crenshaw complained.
The supply of their displeasure: the newly constructed PGA West’s Stadium Course, in La Quinta, Calif., first-time host, in January 1987, of what was then often known as the Bob Hope Desert Basic. Pete Dye designed it, and if participant commentary was any indication, he’d made good on the mandate he’d been given to create the “hardest darned course on the planet.”
Birdies may very well be made, however not within the regular bunches, and solely by a relative few. The eventual winner, Corey Pavin, managed a 67 en path to a four-day whole of 19 below (then, as now, the rounds had been unfold throughout a number of programs), edging Bernhard Langer by a shot. Each males had been outliers. The ultimate-round scoring common was 73.97, an elevated quantity for a event with a pro-am format and a popularity as a shootout within the solar.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than dozens of professionals signed a letter to the PGA Tour commissioner, insisting that the Stadium Course be faraway from the event rota. It additionally wasn’t lengthy earlier than the course was modified to appease these gamers — bunkers softened, targets widened. However no cube. The Dye was forged.
The next 12 months, the Tour steered away from the Stadium Course and stayed away for practically three many years. By the point it returned, in 2016, the sport had modified. So had perceptions of the course. Beneath the assault of contemporary gear, a structure as soon as described as a “torture chamber” was now not thought to be probably the most fearsome of event assessments. It nonetheless isn’t. Difficult? Certain. However not overly so for golfers who can hit it 320 on a string.
This week, although, when play will get underway at what’s now the American Specific, the Stadium Course will supply a reminder of the previous. Greater than it has since its very formative years, Dye’s famed design is again to trying like its unique self.
The transformation is a part of a multimillion-dollar venture geared toward sharpening the property’s Dye options whereas bettering sustainability and playability. Together with new, drought-and-cold-tolerant turf on the placing surfaces, the greens themselves have been expanded and restored to their earlier dimension and contours. Greenside bunkers have additionally been introduced again to Dye’s unique design.
Over time, a few of what Dye constructed had been deliberately mellowed. Different parts had pale over time. Tim Liddy, a former Dye collaborator, dealt with the restoration. He likened the venture to an “archaeological dig,” a lot of which was carried out by hand round bunkers and greens to unveil finds that had been lined over by years of buildup.
To followers accustomed to the Stadium Course, probably the most noticeable of these adjustments is apt to be on the venue’s most recognizable gap — the par-3 seventeenth, often known as Alcatraz for its rock-ringed island inexperienced. Over time, that inexperienced had shrunk two ft round its total perimeter, leaving a large collar between it and the rocks. With the latest restoration, the placing floor has been pushed out to its unique boundaries, bringing the rocks extra carefully into play. 5 inches of natural buildup was additionally stripped away, decreasing the inexperienced, in order that the rocks now rise extra prominently, teeth-like and imposing. Evaluate the variations then and now, and also you’ll word that the seventeenth now seems to be a lot because it did over Thanksgiving weekend in 1987, when Lee Trevino, competing within the Skins Sport, jarred an ace on Alcatraz.
Ten months earlier than he struck that historic shot, whereas working the NBC broadcast of the Bob Hope Desert Basic, Trevino had stood up for the Stadium Course. “There’s been a whole lot of controversy about PGA West this week. Some professionals say it stinks, it’s a monster, it’s unfair,” he stated. “Nicely, I wish to ask you, what makes a golf course unfair? Is it unfair as a result of you must hit the tee ball down the center of the green and good iron pictures into the inexperienced? Or is it truthful as a result of you may hit the ball all around the car parking zone and make birdies?”
The very fact most golfers hit the ball all around the car parking zone and don’t make birdies raises one other level. The Stadium Course is public-access. As necessary as it’s to pose an acceptable event check, it has to stay playable for on a regular basis golfers. Amongst different objectives, the latest adjustments additionally attempt to strike that stability. Enlarging the greens creates larger targets — extra secure touchdown house — even because it permits for more difficult gap places nearer to water and different hazards.
Nonetheless, there’s solely a lot that may be accomplished. The hole between skilled and leisure golf has by no means been better, and the Stadium Course is a reminder of that gulf. From the guidelines, its course ranking is 76.1. Scratch gamers aren’t anticipated to smell par. In contrast, when the Tour arrives this week, you may financial institution on two issues: the winner will end a pair dozen below, if not decrease, and nobody will whine about it being too laborious.
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