Thursday
May242007
McCabe On TPC Boston
The Boston Globe's Jim McCabe files the first review of Gil Hanse and Brad Faxon's TPC Boston redo. Unfortunately, no photos with the story online or at the club's web site.
Dramatic new bunkering with grass that falls back into the sand caught the group's attention at many holes, starting at the first, and a series of "chocolate drops," which are mounds of grass-covered dirt, now lend character to holes. Aesthetically, TPC Boston looks so much better than before that Hanse should be considered a miracle-worker. He has done what any great designer strives to do -- players will not only have to think their way around , they'll have to hit a variety of shots.
Of course, fickle PGA Tour players surely will critique the changes. Those involved are especially eager to hear the reaction to the par-4 fourth, changed from a goofy, dogleg right of 425 yards to a fairly straight and drivable par-4 of 299 yards -- but one that features a green that can't be more than 3,300 square feet and provides demanding shots from just off the green. So, fire away, laddies.
Dramatic, too, are the changes to the par-5 seventh, which now features a cross bunker roughly 140 yards from the green and creative greenside mounding, and to the par-5 18th, to which Hanse has added a strip of rough stretching out from a bunker. The par-3 16th? It is shorter, but now the green sits closer to the pond, so it's a more daunting shot. The par-4 17th? It might just be the best hole on the back nine, a brilliant piece of work that features one large grassy mound on each side of the fairway, but just enough room for those players who feel they can thread a draw between them.
Will some players moan? Sure. It's usually the second order of business at tournaments, after hopping into the courtesy car.
That's one part of the equation that isn't new.
Update on Friday, May 25, 2007 at 08:02 AM by
Geoff
Geoff
Reader Comments (7)
The Barclays moves to THE Gimmick National(e) Club @ Liberty Fields or whatever.
Oakmont shows promise...but they narrow the fairways to 20 yards
The Byron Nelson may leave a TPC course...for another TPC course
Wind makes it slightly "unfair" but really interesting at the Bob Hope, but groaning players who just want driver, 9 iron, putt, complain.
The Masters was boring. The MASTERS! Boring!
The firm-and-fast Sawgrass played like the swamp it's built upon, sans some of the great contouring the greens used to have.
Every course the PGA chooses to play has to have some sort of Tour player stuck to it...Nicklaus, Norman, etc.
10 at Riviera was sadly altered for the worst.
And the stupid FedEx Cup has eliminated almost EVERY Tour event north of the Mason-Dixon line! We need an event in Philly, another in Columbus (America's best golf town), another one in Boston, one in Indiana, Seatttle, and one that's in Chicago EVERY YEAR...not seven in Georgia and Florida.
It has been the only truly good news, course-wise, this season in terms of the PGA Tour...though seeing a weak field play Sugarloaf in crusty conditions last week was...better than expected?
But since it's a cross bunker, its purpose is probably to mess with layups from less-than-ideal lies, i.e., the kind of lies that force a layup in the first place.
If you have to punch the ball out of heavy rough or a bunker, but you're punching it right at a cross bunker, you may have to think a bit.
Umm, isn't all grass pretty much "grass covered dirt"? I mean, if you pull up the grass, you pretty much have dirt.
You've picked up on something there, with Finchem changing EVERYTHING, maybe he should rename it the Red Neck Tour?
Cheers!, to golf course renovation, and uncle Tim's money tree. What's the count at now for TPC Boston, 4 renovations in the past 6 years?