"I think the 17th tee has been a great success in terms of stiffening the test of that hole."
Peter Dawson today on the 17th hole's setup and performance:
Q. Just going back to the golf course for a moment, the 17th hole we spoke about before the championship began, and you said, Peter, that players have been very complimentary about the changes that have been made. They were all quite critical of the amount of rough up the left‑hand side and felt it was out of character with what was on the rest of the golf course. What are your thoughts on that? And also, why did you change the boundaries of the golf course so late in the week? What was the thinking there?
PETER DAWSON: Well, I do agree with Graeme that the rough left of 17 ought to have been somewhat thinner, but it grew away very rapidly amazingly in the two or three weeks running up to the championship, having been pretty much how we wanted it two to three weeks ago.
I think the 17th tee has been a great success in terms of stiffening the test of that hole. I said that at the beginning of the week, we were hoping that the road might come more back into play, and by gosh, it did. We had far more people on the road this year through the back of the hole than I've seen at previous Opens in recent times. To that degree we are very pleased with the hole, and the player comments by and large have been very positive.
I heard about Graeme's comments. I was out with Graeme when he was here practising and didn't receive any such comments, so I'm not sure if he's been misquoted or not, but the player reaction by and large has been extremely good.
He definitely was not misquoted, as it appears in the transcript of McDowell's presser:
Q. Can I ask you about the changes made to the Road Hole and what level of influence it will have on determining the outcome of this championship?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Yeah, I mean, the Road Hole has obviously been steeped in drama over the years here at the British Open at St. Andrews, and it's a difficult hole, and they've made it more difficult. I think architecturally the tee box fits in beautifully, just like it's been there forever. It really looks like part of the golf course. It looks really good.
You know, if anything, it's probably going to make me play the hole a little bit more conservatively because you're going in with 4- or 5-iron into a green, which was really difficult to hit with an 8-iron. The wind today was in out of the left, so I hit a really good drive and I had 170 to the front edge. So I had like a 6-iron onto the front edge of the green, and that's going to be my target to probably three out of the four pins.
The left rough there is probably some of the thickest on the golf course. You know, they've taken a hard hole and made it really, really hard. Yeah, there's going to be a lot of drama there. Like I say, I think guys are going to play it more conservative than they have. I don't think they're going to be taking pins on. When you have a 7- or 8-iron in your hand, it's pretty tough to ignore a pin. When you have a 4- or 5-iron you can ignore a pin. I see that as the only change. I see less bunkers because of it and I see less balls in the road because of it. So from that point of view, perhaps it might take the drama out of it. We'll see.
The other press conference highlight, showing a new level of attention to detail to bunker design by architect Dawson:
Q. What's an inclinometer? Obviously it says what it does. But is that a proper name? Secondly, what was the angle of the face in 2005? And who decided and what was the thinking behind it not being the same this year as then? And fourthly, was the face of the bunker reverted three weeks ago? I read something about that before. Are they all connected?
PETER DAWSON: What happened three or four weeks ago was just a tidying‑up exercise. The fundamental construction of the bunker was earlier than that.
An inclinometer is a proper name.
I don't know the answer to 2005; I can't remember, but I think it was three or four degrees steeper. And the reasoning behind it was that we wanted to give the players some kind of chance of getting out rather than no chance.
Monday, July 19, 2010 at 12:40 PM
Reader Comments (16)
It seems (on television) that the pots have gotten rounder and rounder, more perfect.
UGH!
Hell Bunker is just simply wrong. It looks more like a concrete drainage basin in the middle of the course that happens to be filled with sand.
I agreed that the fairway cut was bad, no matter where the tee was placed. As Geoff quite rightly noted long before any of us knew about details on the tee.
There were lots of thrills and spills on 17; but it was simply a matter of survival. How many one-putt 3's were there, the whole week? And how many were there, on the weekend?
Here's a good question for Dawson: "Tom Weiskopf tells us that when the Past Champions were asked if there was any one thing in the game that concerned them, it was unanimous; the failure to regulate golf ball distances is what they said, at least according to Wesikopf. Can you confirm Weiskopf's report of the encounter, and what is your reaction?"
Yielding, in the end, similar total scoring numbers for the week. ?
Did they decrease risk/reward? Did they eliminate the temptation to flirt with the Road Bunker? Leading to more boring bailouts to the front-right?
The Links Trust rebuilt the Road Bunker before the last Open in 05, all the revetting that had been done over a number of years had widened it to the point where it was threatening the structure of the green; look at film of how big it was from 95 and 2000. The dimensions of the bunker were returned to what they were pre 1990.
Along with TW I didnt think the rough on the left looked too bad when I last saw it a month or so before the Open-would it have been so hard to cut it back a bit with a week or so to go?
If I have an issue - it was in the rerouting of the 16th hole oob around the new 17th tee. If it were in my power, I would have Peter Dawson arrested for criminal damage to the 16th hole! How can you possibly run an oob up the side of a hole only to be abruptly halted short of the green resulting in the oob being extended from a few yards from the green to approximately 30 yards at its widest point?
FYI, the bunkers are re-built every few years, that is the way it is with riveted, or sod-wall bunkers, so they are bound to change some.
Q. Between yourself, Rory McIlroy and Darren, you were a combined 7-over on the 17th today.
GMcD: It was very difficult if you missed the fairway left. You know, the R&A have not got much rough out on this golf course but they’ve chosen to let the rough to the left of 17 be extremely thick. Now, I don’t know why they’ve done that. There’s no rough anywhere else on the golf course, so why have they taken one of the most difficult holes on the golf course and thrown some of the heaviest rough on the course just left of it. It’s penal, extremely penal.
They’ve cut a strip of about three yards wide and I was in that today and it’s just as bad because theyre’s some really lush and thick stuff at the bottom of it and I could barely move it. It’s a great hole. They’re looking for drama and numbers and they’re certainly going to achieve it.
I mean, 17 is a great hole, a wonderful hole, but I think they should be encouraging guys to go for the green from the left rough. It shouldn’t be as penal. It doesn’t suit the rest of the golf course.
Q. Peter Alliss said it could still be a 380 yards par four and guys could still be making fives, sixes and sevens?
GMcD: I agree. That was my only negative about the new tee box. I didn’t think it needed it because it’s a great hole with 7-iron in your hand. I agree, it’s a wonderful hole with 4-iron in your hand but it’s still great with 7-iron. Look at the scoring. It wasn’t that bad on Thursday and Friday because guys are playing it so conservatively. They are laying up to the front edge of the green, which is what I’ve been doing, and just two putting and getting out of there.
They’re not actually going for the pin. My game plan this week was not to go for the pin on 17 in any way shape or form. Not even to try and get it up on top. Just to try and leave it on the front edge and try and try and two putt for par.
Today?
Well, I advanced it about 80 yards down the ‘muck’ again. Hit it on the front edge and three-putted.