The 19^th Hole

June 5, 2006

Not So Perfect Beaches

At this week’s Memorial Tournament in Ohio, PGA Tour officials took up the suggestion of tournament host Jack Nicklaus and decided to make significant changes to the bunkering.  This week, the bunkers were raked in a classical “furrowed” style – meaning that there are 2” wide sand grooves in the raking that make bunker lies more unpredictable and penal.  It may not seem like much until you actually take a look at the bunkers, but it means a lot. 

You see, over the past fifteen or twenty years, bunker raking has been altered on Tour to the point that lies in sand bunkers are often better than leaving an errant shot in greenside or fairway rough.  Ironically, Nicklaus, currently an avid critic of the impact of technology on the game, began the trend to perfect bunkers at this same tournament.  He has done a complete 180 with the help of the PGA Tour and is looking to place an emphasis on accuracy that he correctly feels is missing from the game today.

Of course, many players have complained about the shift this week and the potential that the USGA may adopt the same strategy at the US Open in two weeks.  This is not the first time that players have complained about setup conditions at a tournament site.  Just pick a week and you could probably find a player or two that is unhappy about how the course is playing.  This change, though, may mark a fundamental pullback by the PGA Tour in an effort to take away some of the edge that the bombers have in current course setups. 

With that in mind, the question is this – if the Tour decides to implement this strategy in the long haul, is this a good move by the Tour?  The answer, like most things, is “it depends.”

If you are a purist like I am, then the answer may very well be that it is good.  Since there is no action on equipment restrictions, the Tour can add this into its arsenal of setup changes it can make in an effort to discourage bombing and increase the penalty for inaccuracy.  The problem, though, is that many Tour stops do not have very significant bunkering.  This means that furrowed raking would only be prominent at a percentage of Tour stops.  In essence, it’s a six shooter with two bullets.

If you are a Tour marketer, then this is a terrible idea.  There are only four weeks of the year that fans look forward to the best players in the world being made to look like fools – the major championships.  In particular, the number one week for that is the US Open.  The rest of the year, the fans are looking for interesting setups that reward accuracy, are not too gimmicky, and attract good fields.  If the Tour decides to implement furrowing as part of a larger strategy to counteract technology, then they may actually upset some of the top players in the process.  This could prove to hurt the potential of the FedEx Cup (not that it has any right now) and fly in the face of its goals. 

The Tour has to balance a variety of interests in everything that it does.  It appears that this move is an effort to appease the vocal minority of purists comprised of current and former players and commentators.  Really, furrowing the bunkers in the long term will not have that dramatic of an impact on the Tour and would do little to combat technology.  After all, the bombers these days may not be accurate off of the tee, but any Tour pro can avoid a greenside bunker with a short iron from almost any lie. 

This is really just a move to throw a bone at a certain crowd and likely will not stand the test of time.  The vocal minority knows full well that simply using new rakes will not appease our traditional sensibilities.  After all, technology is the issue to us – current technology, that is.  Turning back the clock to use old technology is not the best way to face current problems.  Rather, crafting solutions to modern issues in the game require modern, comprehensive action.  I’m still waiting for that to happen.

Ryan Ballengee is host of The 19^th Hole Golf Show, found at The Golf Newsnet.com.  You can also get The 19^th Hole on the go through podcasting by clicking here Feedburner.com - The 19th Hole Golf Show.  Contact Ryan via e-mail at the19thholeshow@hotmail.com.

Selected 19th Hole Archives: