‘AM I ALONE IN WANTING TO SEE (AND PLAY) MORE CRAZY GOLF ON TOUR?’
The last few weeks of professional golf have stoked plenty of debate among both players and fans. Bay Hill brought the question of when does difficult course set-up become unfair; the Players Championship brought the debate of when is a tournament ‘too important’ for luck of the draw to play such a pivotal role. It also contained smaller arguments of whether a hole should always have a bail-out area (the 17th), and why a player can take relief from their own embedded ball, but not from someone else’s previous pitchmark (Paul Casey).
One thing I will say, though, is that it’s a welcome relief to be having debates about the nature of this sport, rather than about which players are being tempted by which tour and by how much money.
Like a lot of people, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the best players in the world have to deal with the fascinatingly difficult conditions on the Saturday of the Players. The chaos was relentlessly brilliant. Having once been caught in the most lopsided of draw biases I have ever experienced – the 2019 Women’s Scottish Open – I did have sympathy for those whose tournaments were ended by that chaos – but it didn’t stop me loving it from the comfort of my couch.
For those interested, the 2019 Women’s Scottish Open was at the Renaissance Club, a co-sanctioned event between the LPGA and the LET, meaning it had one of the largest purses of the year for LET players. The day in question was the second round, and it was one that only ever seems to happen during links golf, though the pure timing of the shift in weather was quite extraordinary. The morning wave played in the most brutal combination of rain and wind I have ever experienced. There’s a video of me somewhere taking my shoes off to wring the water out of my socks. Another time I almost fell over at the top of my backswing on a particularly exposed par 3 before play was finally suspended just as the afternoon wave was about to begin. Fast forward three hours and play resumed with clear skies, no wind and at most three holes left for any bedraggled morning wave survivors. The differential between the two waves ended up being a staggering 350 shots.
But like Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson’s bogey-free rounds that day at Sawgrass, the great Dame Laura Davies produced an extraordinary round of 69 at the Renaissance Club which proved that good scores are possible, even in the most brutal of conditions. The skill and mental fortitude it takes to produce them is something we rarely get to see in professional golf.
Playing in conditions like that can be infinitely enjoyable. To me, it strips everything down to the essence of the sport; the truest test of what golf demands. Do you have the skill to control your ball flight, in the face of constantly changing demands? And do you have the skill to do it for hours on end, knowing that one mistake or lapse in concentration can undo everything? The satisfaction gained from pulling off shots when you have to rely purely on instinct is immeasurable to me. With all of the advances in technology over the years, manipulating shots in a way that has nothing to do with Trackman numbers or smash factor is a throwback to a different era – and perhaps one that we, as fans, would gain more enjoyment from.
I will say that battling the elements in such a way is a different animal in tournament golf. The enjoyment is lessened somewhat by knowing how quickly things can unravel. Despite the purity of the skill it exposes, only ever being one poor swing or one ill-timed gust away from calamity is mentally exhausting. I think professional golfers would limit themselves to about two tournaments a year if they knew they would always be facing such demands.
Despite the unquestionable element of luck involved, the 17th did provide a glimpse into a mastery of skill we don’t often get to see in professional golf. The television graphic highlighting the apex of balls hit throughout that Saturday showed exactly what was necessary: Hit a lower ball flight and you will probably find the green. Whatever the sport needs to do to put those skills of ball and flight control on display a little more often would only be a good thing… in my personal opinion.