Erin Hills Longest Course In USGA History Even Though Distance Increases Have Stabilized Since 2003

The USGA released the course info for next week's U.S. Amateur and announced that Erin Hills is the new back tee yardage champion!

RECORD YARDAGE: For the second consecutive year, the U.S. Amateur will be the longest course in USGA history. At 7,760 yards, Erin Hills surpasses the 7,742 yards played at Chambers Bay at the 2010 U.S. Amateur. Chambers Bay had overtaken the South Course at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, Calif., which measured 7,643 yards for the 2008 U.S. Open, and 2006 U.S. Amateur host Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., which measured 7,473 yards.

And this is fun:

PAR AND YARDAGE: Erin Hills will be set up at 7,760 yards and will play to a par of 36-36–72. The companion course, Blue Mound Golf & Country Club, will be set up at 6,622 yards and will play to a par of 35-35–70.

Gene Sarazen won the 1933 PGA at the Raynor-designed Blue Mound which is a whopping 1000 yards shorter than Erin Hills, yet par is 70 to Erin Hills' 72.

Check out the yardages:

The front nines at the two courses have a 600-yard differential, but only one-shot to par difference?

Blue Mound has a 492-yard par-5, while Erin Hills has four par-4s over 490.

The back nine at Erin Hills weighs in a 3,939, with a 675-yard finishing hole.

Now, recently the USGA's Mike Davis has been known to not ever come close to setting up a course to its maximum yardage and he's to be commended for that.

However, in the Tee It Forward era, we see a second consecutive year of a record-length golf. Granted, 7700 yards falls withing the Tee It Forward guidelines for a PGA Tour player. However, this confirmation of today's driving distance acumen is worth noting since both the USGA ("stabilized") and R&A ("surrounded") insist average distances haven't spiked since 2003.

Weir To Have Surgery On Rough-Induced Injury

Steve Elling on Mike Weir undergoing elbow surgery following a new injury likely caused by this year's Canadian Open rough, which was subsequently cut mid-tournament.

Weir, 41, has suffered through a nagging ligament issue in the same arm for months, and came back this season to post the most alarming results of his career. Then the left-hander injured himself in the Canadian Open four weeks ago.

“They had really thick rough there,” IMG spokesman Dave Haggith said.

Haggith made a point of noting that it was unclear exactly how Weir injured the elbow, but several players complained that the rough at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club was unusually punitive. Weir was forced to quit after six holes in the second round.

Cadillac Gives Up On Detroit...

...for a summertime PGA Tour tournament. It's good news for the tour that they don't have a summertime opening in 2012, bad news for Detroit. Carlos Monarres and Chrissie Thompson explain.

When no date on the tour schedule opened this year, Cadillac sought a date in 2012. But finding a date on the tour’s schedule during Michigan's few dependably warm months proved too difficult, according to a person familiar with the situation.

A potential opening on the tour's schedule closed when the Heritage, a longtime tour stop in Hilton Head, S.C., found a new sponsor in Royal Bank of Canada, signing a five-year deal in June.

Cadillac will continue through 2016 its sponsorship of the Cadillac Championship, which is held in March at Doral, Fla., and is one of three premier World Golf Championships events on the schedule.

“Our relationship with Cadillac, from a sponsorship perspective, started with the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at Doral,” PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said. “We’ve jointly pursued exploring the potential for a new event in Detroit in addition to that, and that exploration is no longer.”

China Drought Blamed On Golf Courses That Technically Do Not Exist

Carolynne Wheeler on the increasing animosity from state-run media directed at Chinese golf courses using ground water supplies even though a 2004 edict banned the building of new courses, meaning only 10 of the 600 or so technically exist.

“Given the fact that 400 of the more than 600 cities in China are suffering from water shortages, the rapid depleting of underground water to keep the hundreds of golf courses green will likely prove to have severe consequences for many cities in the near future,” read an editorial in the English-language China Daily newspaper, which accused Beijing’s golf courses of using nearly 40 million tons of underground water annually, equal to the amount consumed by 1 million residents a year, despite the city’s water shortages.

Still, this latest round of ranting is likely to pass without much dampening of enthusiasm for the sport.

The go-to guy on all things China and golf, Dan Washburn, is quoted in the story but shares his entire Q&A with the story author on his own site. It makes for an interesting read about the wildly complex golf industry in China.

Stephen Ames: Tiger's Swing "10 Times Better Than It Was Before"

Ten? Wasn't that part of the final score of his match after he once suggested he welcomed a matchup against Tiger? Oh right, 9&8. My bad!

John Down reports that Ames dared to talk Tiger today, but he's changed his tune even with Tiger hitting it all over the planet with the most user-friendly clubs the game has ever allowed. Ames' newfound Tiger-humility reminds me of poor old Harry Whittingham, the geezer Dick Cheney shot by on a hunting trip who later apologized for getting in the VP's way!

Thanks to reader Rob for this.

“He’s going through all those different scenarios from the last year and half and I don’t think he’s settled upstairs right now. I think it’d be tough on anybody to go through what he’s gone through and still be able to play golf.

“It’s quite incredible to be honest if you ask me because I wouldn’t be back out there after what he went through with the media, losing his wife. It’s tough. It’s just going to take him awhile to get back.”

That wretched media! It cost him his wife.

One thing Woods did was switch swing coaches from Hank Haney to Sean Foley, who also just happens to be Ames’ swing coach.

“Swing-wise it looks 10 times better than it was before,” said Ames. “Sean’s done a wonderful job and, as Sean has mentioned before, he’s not clear upstairs right now. I think it’s going to be awhile before he gets there.”