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Saudi World Golf Tour 2022/2023 Thread

simosfrostyone said:
This was messed up but USGA officials are far superior to the PGA's and many of them are very good players. Try taking the rules test sometime if you think it's easy.
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And if you think that is hard, try officiating a basketball game, which is a "contact sport" unlike football which is a collision sport, and apply those rules with 3 people trying to make decisions a full speed instantaneously. [with or without replay]
 
Like LK, I really enjoyed Oakmont this time around for its variety of holes. I like seeing a couple of shorter par 4s that make you think on a course. #17 gave Tiger and Furyk fits the last time and gave a few folks including Day fits this time. One of my favorite par 4s on the regular tour is the 10th at Riviera. Though I agree with BtB that 280 is ridiculous for a par 3. Hell, Furyk and Zach can't drive it 280.

My 5 would be Winged Foot, Pebble, Bethpage, Oakmont and Olympic. Pinehurst and Shinnecock narrowly miss out. I include Olympic for its beauty, and last time around Mike Davis set it up a lot more fairly than the USGA had in prior years. Speaking of Davis, I thought he did another great job setting Oakmont up this year. The weather didn't cooperate with him at Congressional or Chambers Bay, but I like his emphasis on fairness when he sets up a course, and he hasn't panicked like his forerunners at Shinnecock when weather hasn't cooperated. I'd also be willing to go back to Chambers Bay as long as they replace the fescue greens with something a bit more heat resistent. I loved the moonscape layout with the Puget Sound in the background. Also looking forward to Erin Hills. I like visually interesting layouts versus cookie cutter parkland courses.
 
liveanddiedeac said:
Exactly, the greens never got where the USGA wanted them.
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This is only true because they didn't firm up enough. Speed-wise they were exactly where they wanted them by Sunday. They just held shots too well and dumbed down the need to land balls short and let them run up. Approach shots were definitely less demanding than Oakmont's standard.

I thought by Sunday it was almost a perfect test. Tough as nails, nerves had guys dropping shots all over the place, but as Furyk and Koepka showed you could make birdies by executing amazing golf shots.

The one thing I still don't understand is the need for "firm and fast" fairways. Sure, you'll have balls run out into the first cut - but that may as well be fairway. The negative is that everyone gains 20+ yards on their drives. Only 2 players averaged over 300 yards off the tee during rounds 2 and 3 when the rain affected most everyone at some point. I stopped counting at 10 for the dry rounds. They were talking about the potential earlier in the week for someone driving #1 at 482 yards - that has nothing to do with ball/club/shaft technology and everything to do with cutting the fairway to twice as fast as a green from 1985.
 
DCDeac said:
This is only true because they didn't firm up enough. Speed-wise they were exactly where they wanted them by Sunday. They just held shots too well and dumbed down the need to land balls short and let them run up. Approach shots were definitely less demanding than Oakmont's standard.

I thought by Sunday it was almost a perfect test. Tough as nails, nerves had guys dropping shots all over the place, but as Furyk and Koepka showed you could make birdies by executing amazing golf shots.

The one thing I still don't understand is the need for "firm and fast" fairways. Sure, you'll have balls run out into the first cut - but that may as well be fairway. The negative is that everyone gains 20+ yards on their drives. Only 2 players averaged over 300 yards off the tee during rounds 2 and 3 when the rain affected most everyone at some point. I stopped counting at 10 for the dry rounds. They were talking about the potential earlier in the week for someone driving #1 at 482 yards - that has nothing to do with ball/club/shaft technology and everything to do with cutting the fairway to twice as fast as a green from 1985.
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To be fair, it's a combination of all those things. You could get the fairways running like they were for the tournament, give every player a steel-shafted persimmon driver and a Titleist K2 and no one would come within thirty yards of where they hit it yesterday.
 
I have a friend who believes that players dropping out of the Olympics over zika concerns is really just a cover to avoid PED testing. Is it that far fetched?
 
PGA Tour 2016 Thread

I bet it's more about a probably shitty course, big inconvenience, less pampered event, great sounding excuse to not go
 
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Liquid Karma said:
The jammed up schedule this summer isn't well received either.
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Unless you and your wife are planning on conceiving in the near future, I don't think zika is the big reason. I'd be more concerned about social unrest and kidnapping. Or if I were a rower. But yeah, for PGA golfers, pinching the distance between the Open, the PGA, traveling for the Olympics and then hitting the playoffs is a lot in a short period. So far, it sounds like most of the LPGA players are going. So I don't think drug testing is the major concern - or zika. Their schedule is not nearly as disrupted or jammed up by the Olympics, and they seem to be looking at it with more prestige. Whereas PGA players seem to look at it as a pain in the ass schedule wise where you're not getting paid. (I'm not placing a value judgment on either view.)
 
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Greenbrier course
 
cville deac said:
Unless you and your wife are planning on conceiving in the near future, I don't think zika is the big reason. I'd be more concerned about social unrest and kidnapping. Or if I were a rower. But yeah, for PGA golfers, pinching the distance between the Open, the PGA, traveling for the Olympics and then hitting the playoffs is a lot in a short period. So far, it sounds like most of the LPGA players are going. So I don't think drug testing is the major concern - or zika. Their schedule is not nearly as disrupted or jammed up by the Olympics, and they seem to be looking at it with more prestige. Whereas PGA players seem to look at it as a pain in the ass schedule wise where you're not getting paid. (I'm not placing a value judgment on either view.)
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Somebody on ESPN made a good point the other I thought. They said the Olympics should really be reserved for sports, where the Olympics is the ultimate career goal or event. For most NBAer's, Tennis players, Pro golfers, etc. the Olympics really don't rate all that high. Certainly behind winning an NBA title or a major tournament in tennis or golf. Sure all those other sports have world championships and stuff, but for track athletes, swimmers, gymnasts, etc. the Olympics is pretty much the ultimate. As much as I love golf, watching golf in the Olympics doesn't interest near as much as watching a lot of the other sports, because it's only once every 4 years that those sports really interest me.
 
liveanddiedeac said:
Somebody on ESPN made a good point the other I thought. They said the Olympics should really be reserved for sports, where the Olympics is the ultimate career goal or event. For most NBAer's, Tennis players, Pro golfers, etc. the Olympics really don't rate all that high. Certainly behind winning an NBA title or a major tournament in tennis or golf. Sure all those other sports have world championships and stuff, but for track athletes, swimmers, gymnasts, etc. the Olympics is pretty much the ultimate. As much as I love golf, watching golf in the Olympics doesn't interest near as much as watching a lot of the other sports, because it's only once every 4 years that those sports really interest me.
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You don't enjoy seeing yet another 72 hole stroke play event featuring the top players in the world? Me neither.

Had they made this into a team match play event it would have a lot more traction among fans and players.
 
Liquid Karma said:
You don't enjoy seeing yet another 72 hole stroke play event featuring the top players in the world? Me neither.

Had they made this into a team match play event it would have a lot more traction among fans and players.
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That's a good point. When they said golf would be in the Olympics I assumed there would be a team event along with individual medalist and was really surprised when it was just going to be individual medals awarded.
 
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