That is why and I’m hugely in the minority here I think it’s the weakest of the Majors. The others test so much more of your game than Augusta does as it’s only real defence is its greens.
Mmm Ballesteros was pretty good at recovering from wayward drives, give me a course where it is possible to recover from wayward drives with skill over a course where the only oppportunity is to hack back like at Oakmont last year both to play and to watch.‘Stats are stats’ and everybody above the age of 12 takes them with a pinch of salt…but I dunno…I kind of think driving accuracy absolutely ‘should’ be one of a few key parts of how well you score..
If Augusta is only really penal in its greens, and there’s no real penalty for missing fairways…well, that’s not the mark of a ‘best in the world’ course
Especially so when the green jackets decide to deluge the greens after round one because it’s too firm to soften it beyond belief
Someone needs a coffee
I’d agree it’s weaker from the point of view it’s held at the same course every year and you’d expect the Pro’s know how to play it, in reality though that doesn’t happen.That is why and I’m hugely in the minority here I think it’s the weakest of the Majors. The others test so much more of your game than Augusta does as it’s only real defence is its greens.
That’s doesn’t take away from What Rory is doing though.
[Dons helmet and awaits incoming from the so called purists ]
Well, it kind of does. You do see the same names at the top each year who obviously suit the course and know how to do well there. Names like Rose, Reed, McIlroy, usually Mickelson although not this year of course.I’d agree it’s weaker from the point of view it’s held at the same course every year and you’d expect the Pro’s know how to play it, in reality though that doesn’t happen.
It’s a bit misleading as well though, he isn’t really spraying it around, a lot of those “missed” fairways are in the first cut.
Seems to me that the entire professional golf industry lives and dies by Strokes Gained this and that......
Bryson won a US Open by 6 shots by hitting it as far as he could.
It kinda doesn’t, McIlroy and Reed have both won it once in how many attempts?
He was still hitting it fairly straight at that time though as I remember it. I think people do him a bit of a disservice with that.
. If he hits it further than everyone else and is acceptably OK at everything else then he wins plenty. (see Oakmont). You don't get to the ultra-elite end of any sport in the first place with that mindset though I suppose. I guess it's a hard mindset for these guys to think ... I'm so good at some things just need to be middle of the road with others and that'll be good enough (well, Tour standard middle-of-the-road anyway, which as we know is unbelievably good!), and instead they go looking for something that might not be within their capabilities. See Luke Donald for the classic example of this.
His FIR was under 50% if I remember right. His clubhead speed and power out of the rough was the advantage he had over the field really.
But people talk like he was smashing it all over the park, which is where I think it's a bit of a disservice. Unless I'm remembering it wrong, he was hitting it far and well. I think he was far from the being the most inaccurate driver that week.
He missed fairways more than he hit. The rough was penal but he overcame that by getting as far down as possible and overpowering the rough.
I don’t disagree with this.
