"If we lose Match Play, Tucson will surely turn to dust and be blown to El Paso."

Greg Hansen makes a plea to Accenture to keep the Match Play in Tucson beyond 2011 when they can take it elsewhere. Love the hometown spirit, but the event falls painfully flat as a form of entertainment and it's hard not to blame a soulless, spread-out and not-particularly engaging Nicklaus course as the main problem. Throw in small crowds and it just isn't working.

These insecurities became manifest about 10:47 a.m. Saturday when sunshine was replaced by a wintry mix of hail, rain and wind estimated by finalist Ian Poulter as "blowing 30 mph."

About 1,000 revelers camped at the Walter Hagen Club put down their bloody marys and headed for home. Hours later, as Paul Casey and Camilo Villegas played into the darkness, on-site attendance was probably no more than 1,500.

Hansen also reveals that the course was much better received this year by players thanks in part to this;

 In 2009, many players, including Tiger, had a litany of complaints about "tricked up" greens. The Ritz people acted swiftly; by April, they had reworked and modified 17 of 18 greens at a cost near $100,000.

"They're flawless now," said quarterfinalist Stewart Cink.

Comments

[jmr]

$100K to redo 17 greens? Not a chance.

[Geoff]

jmr,
That is an odd number. They are USGA greens and it's hard to redo them without a total blow up, which would be about $100k PER green. I sense no one wants to talk about what was done there out of respect for Nicklaus, which is perfectly understandable. After all, when tour players complain about architecture, there's a 50/50 chance they're way off base!

[BigSky]

Geoff, so true. Tour players seem to want it as easy as they can get it, relatively speaking. Two perfect examples were at the Hope. Several years ago the players complained that Dye's PGA West Stadium course was too difficult, so the tour relented and it was pulled from the rotation and replaced by an easier course.

And recently, Arnold Palmer and his design company designed and built an outstanding course specifically for the event: The Classic Club. It was dropped from the rotation after, I believe, three years for the same reason: the players, led by one well-known left-handed player, thought it was too difficult and "unfair" since the wind might blow there more than the other courses.

[Fred Jones]

The event should move around the country to high end courses. It should move throughout the year, It should also move between the USA & Europe. As a TV viewer, every hole looks the same !

[JohnR]

None of those desert courses look very gallery friendly with all that empty space and cacti between holes. They always look like a made for TV event, which I guess they are, to me. Moving it around, like the old Tour Championship, is a great idea Fred. Too bad most of the country is under snow.

John

[Press Agent]

Moving it around does sound like a good idea.

In this case "redoing 17 greens" doesn't mean what you guys think it means. I think they probably just stripped the grass and tweaked the slopes with the greens mix - not altering the gravel layer etc. Geoff, your number of $100,000.00 per green is high. They can be built from scratch for just over half that amount - if you factor in that there are tons of hungry golf course contractors on the verge of going out of business, the price will get even better.

[Jim]

Put me in the camp that believes that PGA players define a "fair" course as the one that best mimics a driving range--perfectly predictable and consistent. If they whine and complain until they get courses that offer little strategy, random kicks, or creative shots, then--

--oh wait, that's where we are. And we wonder why golf isn't that interesting unless Tiger's in the field.

[tlavin]

I could see where they needed to alter some of the internal contours in those greens, especially if they wanted to run the greens at 12 or higher. I thought the golf course looked great and that the greens were positively Doak-like in their humpy, hillocky, rollicking way. Looks like a fun course to play, from the middle tees, of course!

[Tighthead]

tlavin - of course, they aren't required to stimp the greens at 12., but try telling that to a pro.

The fact that the changes were made shows just how little tolerance there is for variation amongst the pros.

[CBell]

Love to hear what Ogilvy thinks of the course. From champ to chump in one year, but always thoughtful about design.