Some excerpts from the article:
Despite all the reconstruction, what's never changed at the TPC at Sawgrass is the original intent of Dye's design. It's stil a target-golf course. "it's very severe off the tee," says Chris DiMarco. "It's just a tough driving golf course."
"You've got to be in the right place to score on it. The greens are such small targets," says Fred Funk. "It's a really good golf course, because it doesn't favor big hitters."
"I like that you have to shape shots," says Faxon. "For instance, on the par-5 second, you absolutely have to hit a draw if you hit driver. A long hitter hitting it off line is not going to do very well at the Players Championship."
"It's a great venue, because it's the most precise golf we have to play all year. You have to hit fairways and greens there. There's none of this hit-four-out-of-14-fairways-and-
still-shoot-68 on that golf course." (Steve Elkington)
At 6954 yards, par 72, the Stadium Course is one of the shorter courses played on the PGA Tour, yet no golfer thinks it could be improved by stretching it several hundred yards. Yes, big bombers have won there--Tiger Woods in 2001, Davis Love and Fred Couples twice each--but so have short-but-oh-so-
straight players like Calvin Peete in 1985, John Mahaffey in 1986, Lee Janzen in 1995, and Justin Leonard in 1998.
If there is a bit of discord in their present affection for the TPC at Sawgrass, it's that some players don't care for the present conditioning, especially its deep rough.
"The first few years it was firm, fast, with no rough, and the ball would just go forever if you missed a fairway," says John Cook. "That's the way I liked it. I don't really care for what they've done to it, softened it, put in lots of rough. It's still quite a test, but I think it was meant to play firm and fast."
Davis Love agrees. "That's not the way it was designed. I don't think Pete Dye's courses are made for four-inch rough everywhere."
Indeed, the Stadium Course originally was intended as a low-budget, low-maintenance layout, with just 40 acres of maintained turf. Dye spent only $2.5 million building the course. "We won't have rough," Dye said at the time. "The game was never meant to be played out of high grass. Courses that rely on deeprough eliminate the threll of a great recovery shot.." The layout was a modern-day Pine Valley, but tour players never contested a single round on that version of the course. By the time the championship was moved there in 1982, Bermuda grass run amok had covered most of the waste areas. Even so, the early years still offered a much different look that what has come later.
Tom Kite, the 1989 champion, thinks the Players Championship would have achieved major status by now if the tour had preserved the unique nature of Dye's original design. "It was probably as strategic a golf course as we've ever seen," he says. "It reminded me a lot of St. Andrews in that there were so many options and ways to play it. It was designed to play firm and fast, and you knew you were going to have to play some creative shots. But now it's like the U.S. Open, with lots of deep rough, trees totally out of play. Nobody ever misses a green by more that two or three yards anymore, because it doesn't roll anywhere, it just hits that wall of rough."
The problem is that they overseed the course in winter, says Paul Azinger. "Whenever you overseed in Florida, you have to water it to keep it alive, and that makes everything softer and easier," says Azinger. "I'm not suggesting that it's easy. I love the course, but it's not what it was, not what Pete Dye intended it to be. It's just not that hard anymore."
...Dye is scheduled to meet with tour and club officials the week before this year's Players Championship to discuss the possibilities of some new back tees, an new irrigation system, new turf for the greens and other items to keep the course competitive.
Maybe they should talk about adding a few new rough mowers, too. (End of story)