It’s back!
Twenty years later Tatra Press has kindly allowed me to bring back Grounds For Golf now that golf architecture is of more interest to the masses. A new Introduction looks at what’s driven the interest growth and two new chapters I had a blast adding (plus a few edits to keep things up-to-date).
The Amazon purchase page for the book arriving June 15, 2026.
Back to 26 players averaging over 300 yards after dropping to 24. 30 over 300 yards is still very much within reach.
The PGA Tour topped 289 yards for the first time, with the tour average at 289.1 yards.
Just a friendly reminder (again): in 2004, 14 players averaged over 300 yards. 9 players averaged over 300 yards in 2003. John Daly was the only player averaging over 300 yards for the 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons.
In advance of this week's Funai Classic, Steve Elling explores the trend of lengthening Tour courses. Warning, I'm quoted.
Highlights:
With a record tour 25 players averaging over 300 yards per drive -- that's 10 more guys than last year's all-time high -- courses are going long, too. Next year at the Bob Hope Classic, a new layout called the Classic Course at NorthStar will be added to the four-course rotation. It'll be 7,536 yards.
Driving distances have grown so quickly that there has been talk of using a standardized tour ball, the golf equivalent of NASCAR's restrictor-plate racing. For years, the equipment makers operated with relative impunity, making clubheads the size of toasters, graphite shafts as long as fishing poles and balls so hot that the world's plutonium supply probably dwindled. Before golf's governing bodies, the U.S. Golf Association and Royal & Ancient Golf Club, finally put some limitations on club performance characteristics, setting actual limits three years ago, the horsepower was out of the barn.
And for the first time, Frank Thomas is more direct on his final years as USGA testing director, with a direct reference to his interest in curbing optimization while at the USGA.
"They failed to act for legal reasons, not for the best interests of golf," said Orlando's Frank Thomas, the USGA's chief technical director from 1974-2000. "I warned them, but nobody wanted to face a potential lawsuit [from manufacturers]."
More Elling:
Of the 39 primary courses in continual use on tour over the past decade, Disney became the 16th to add at least 100 yards; another dropped its par by two strokes to keep pace. In the same 10-year period, driving distance -- the average of all tour players -- has risen 25 yards, to 289 yards. Disney simply counter-punched.
This from Tiger, who tries to dispel the myth that longer players would be unfairly targeted by a rollback or increase in ball spin:
"The further you hit, the more technology is going to help you," Woods said last month. "Hey, I am one of the guys that if they did roll the ball back, it would help me out a little bit. Any long guy who hits the ball long and high would have more of an advantage because now we're having to hit longer irons into the greens, while other guys are having to hit hybrids and woods."
And just as you might have been praising Thomas for bold and direct comments, he offered this to Elling:
Thomas argues that changing the ball is "rewriting the whole rulebook for perhaps the top 400 people in the world, or the top one-thousandth of 1 percent of the golfing population, which is insane." Instead, he favors pinching the width of fairways and growing the rough, which would make players think twice before mindlessly bashing a driver.
Because that has worked so well and will do so much to enhance enjoyment of the sport.
What Thomas doesn't say is that the equipment rulebook could be re-written to deal with those top 400 in a way that would slow down the madness of lengthening and narrowing courses, without significantly impacting 99% of the golfing population. His proposed optimization testing would have done just this.
He's [Thomas] also pushing a semi-heretical notion -- trimming the number of clubs a pro can carry from 14 to 10.
Now that is one anti-corporate, technophobic cure that is guranteed to effect 99% of the golfing population.
Doug Ferguson's AP story on Annika's win at the Samsung and Michelle Wie's DQ.
“I learned a great lesson,” Wie said, her voice choking with emotion. “From now on, I’ll call a rules official no matter where it is, whether its 3 inches or 100 yards. I respect that.”
Wie hit a 5-wood shot into a Gold Lantana bush Saturday and was barely able to find it. She told her playing partner, Grace Park, she was taking an unplayable lie, dropped away from the bush, then chipped to 15 feet and made the par. It was a critical save, and Wie steadied herself to get within five shots of the lead.
Michael Bamberger, a reporter for Sports Illustrated, told tour officials Sunday afternoon that he was concerned about the drop. Rules officials Jim Haley and Robert O. Smith reviewed tape from NBC Sports before taking Wie and caddie Greg Johnston to the seventh green after the tournament ended Sunday.
“If I had to make the ruling based on the videotape, to me it was inconclusive,” Smith said.
He had Johnston and Wie show him where the ball was in the bushes, then where they dropped. They paced it off, then used string to measure the distance and determined it to be slightly closer.
“The Rules of Golf are based on facts,” Smith said. “They had to tell us where it was. The fact was, the ball was closer to the hole by 12 to 15 inches.”
Steve Elling on the lengthening of Disney World's Magnolia course, host of this week's Tour event. And here's a list of the ten longest courses on Tour.
Adam Barr looks at the TPC redo and writes, "You’ve got to admire anyone who wants to reengineer a brand while things are good, instead of waiting until problems crop up."
Reengineer a brand? I bet the Commissioner will like that euphemism.
Gerald Ensley in the Tallahassee Democrat on the history and A.W. Tillinghast design involvement in Tallahassee's Capital Club.
Damon Hack in the NY Times looks at the parental entourages on the LPGA Tour.
Golfweek's Rex Hoggard looks at other Tours going global as the PGA Tour's World Championship events are played largely in the U.S.
E. Michael Johnson looks at whether distance measuring devices will make their way to the PGA Tour.
Just in time for Christmas...golf's equivalent to the fruit cake and it's only $59.95. Thanks to reader Josh for this week's sign of the apocalypse.
Ron Kroichik talks to Sandy Tatum and Chris Gray about Harding. Tatum is hoping for a U.S. Women's Open, which will be tough with Pebble Beach getting one in the near future and David Fay not exactly chairman of the Tatum fan club.
Meanwhile, Gray is having to defend the 18th hole and he raises a good question:
"As I said before the tournament, No. 18 is an awkward drive and somewhat of an uncomfortable hole," Gray said. "The question is, is that a bad thing?"
Peter Fontaine/Wire Images
The Guardian's Lawrence Donegan puts the R&A-women-in-the-Open ruling into perspective.
The R&A announced that it is paving the way for women to enter the Open Championship.
"Our Championship Committee pledged to review entry conditions and to assess how women golfers might compete on equal terms with men for a place in The Open. As a result, I am delighted that a qualification route has now been established for the best women players to gain access to the Championship, competing alongside men on the same courses and from the same tees."
Male professional golfers and male amateurs (whose playing handicaps do not exceed scratch) may now be joined at Regional Qualifying by the top five women and ties from each of the four major championships in the women's game. In addition, any women meeting the entry requirements for International Final Qualifying, Local Final Qualifying and The Open itself can enter at these stages directly.
A frantic follow up press release indicates that they are now moving an Open Championship qualifier to accomodate women playing at Newport in the U.S. Womens Open.
I'm not making any of this up. Just check the links.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
