"Whenever you have golfers making decisions they don't want to make, golf is a better game to watch."

From Geoff Ogilvy's WGC Match Play defending champion press conference:

Q. Is there such thing as a good match play course? And if so, what elements go into making a good match play course?

GEOFF OGILVY: I guess there probably are good courses for match play courses. Four par 5s that people can get to. If there's holes that people have to make decisions, it's going to a good match play course because there might be a guy who might want to lay it up on a par 5, and if his opponent has pulled a 3-wood and hits it on the green then he has to go for the green. I mean that sort of stuff; it's interesting, whereas if it's just an obvious everyone lays it up and everyone hits the same shots all day, then it's not going to create the excitement and the decisions.

The funnest part about golf is watching us struggle with the decision whether to go over the water or not go over the water, should I go for it or not go for it, then go for it. That's the funnest part about watching golf, isn't it? If you've got four par 5s that you can reach and two par 4s that you can drive it on, then you've got decisions. It's nice to have a few holes like that, but this one you're going to have more holes like that I'd suggest. Whenever you have golfers making decisions they don't want to make, golf is a better game to watch.

Comments

[F. X.]

Exactly as you predicted, Geoff, when Ogilivy won the US Open, he is becoming an articulate spokesman against the marketing-maven driven world of bomb and gouge. Finchem and the rest could learn a great deal studying now only what this PRO GOLFER has to say, but how he says it.

[JB]

I know Geoff's Australian but since when is "funnest" a word?

[Smolmania]

How long will a round take if all par 5s are reachable (with groups behind waiting for green to clear), and two par 4s reachable (ibid)?

[John G]

Smols - no longer than "usual."

Your statement could be used to describe most any Tour course now, thanks to the distance gains...

[Steven T.]

I'll report first hand from Tucson on the South Course at The Gallery.

[MP]

Ogilvy is a an articulate and intelligent man - you had another link from an interview when he was talking about thinking through a hole backwards before some goon asked him about his favourite colour. I am not sure that the PGA Tour or many Journos welcome the novelty and the challenge presented by guys like him, but I will follow him from now on.

[keith86]

JB the drunkest person has the funnest night in Australia

[JR]

Odd...I make a decision I don't want to make every time my group has to play our Rees Jones course but nobody thinks it's fun to watch.

[Tim]

If it's match play, what's par got to do with it? Doesn't low score win the hole?