GolfClubAtlas.com > Golf Course Architecture
An open letter to Bryson DeChambeau
Bill Brightly:
Thank you Bryson!
I really like you. You seem like a very nice guy. Congrats for figuring out how to best play professional golf. Enjoy the wealth that you have earned!
I HATE everything about how you play our golf courses. Since you are a smart guy, I trust you know why I hate the bomb and gauge approach that you employ on our courses, but I have to give you credit for figuring out that if you hit it far enough the architecture and the length of the rough does not matter. Gouge it out as best as you can and trust the math that says get it as close to the hole as possible from the tee and the numbers will work out. There is a ball and there is a hole. Hit the first shot as far as you can and then try to get it in the hole. Trust the math. Brilliant!
So thank you Bryson. Your approach proved that the USGA and the R & A failed miserably when they did not roll back the Pro V1. They did not listen to Jack Nicklaus. They did not listen to GCA.COM. Keep winning Bryson, maybe they will "listen" to you!
Bryson, I'm sorry that I used to root against you, hoping every 370 yard drive rested against a tree. The math was against me but you knew that... More times than not there will be a way to wedge it in the green. So keep on winning, Bryson. Your actions speak louder than our words.
Keep winning Bryson. Force the USGA to act. Create enough chaos so the USGA finally rolls back the ball and club leaders can stop altering our golf courses. Lord knows we have enough closely mown turf to maintain and we would like to stop the increase in required costs. Maybe YOU can prove what I know in my bones: the pro game should have ZERO influence on what constitutes good golf course architecture. You've trained your body and mind to ignore the architecture; that is how pros win money. The pro game should be played on PGA-owned golf courses, if not golf simulators.
Go win a grand slam. Maybe then the powers that be will finally roll back the ball and require a ball that spins more and can't be controlled like yours. Maybe then we can stop letting our rough grow high and looking for empty spaces to build new black tees.
Good on ya, Bryson!
Peter Pallotta:
Dear Bryson -
a short follow-up to Bill's excellent letter.
You are young and strong; Bill and I, along with most others here on gca.com, are old and increasingly feeble. And in our frail dotage we like to warm our bones by an old wood-stove and the dying embers of a game we once loved and mumble out words like architecture and strategy and fairway width -- our tired eyes and gaunt faces lit aglow with long-ago memories of the 88s and 84s and 92s we shot at so many of the Golden Age's Top 100 classic courses.
In other words: as with the aged in all times and all places, we long for the glories of the past and have respect for the power of traditions.
But, as the epitome of the next generation, you yourself have no such longing, nor cling to any such respect. And, let me say, I now realize that's just the way it should be!
Yes, along with Bill, I don't like it at all, not one bit -- but I do like you. So, in short: just keep doing what you're doing; and, in the words of a once-famous singer song writer who's now at least as old as Bill, 'don't trust anyone over 30'!
Best
Peter
cary lichtenstein:
My open letter to Bryson
Congratulations on winning the US Open and bring the excitement level and interest in the game of golf to new heights. I was glued to the tv for 4 straight days. Golf needs a superstar and you are mine.
When I was a kid I read DC Comics and loved Superman. My heros in the past were Sam Sneed, Gary Player, Arnie, Jack, Greg, and Tiger. i have a new superstar to follow and root for.
Mark Kiely:
Four new GCA threads including an "open lettter" for a guy who's won twice on Tour in the last year? Yes he's hot, and yes he's playing a different game right now than we're accustomed to seeing. But can we wait and see if he can sustain it before we all panic and deem every course obsolete and/or anoint him golf's new superhero?
Brendon Todd and Webb Simpson must feel left out for not getting their own threads when they were hot and chalked up a couple wins in close proximity.
Colin Macqueen:
Mark,
The problem for me in the way that BDC is playing the game is that there seems to be no finesse, no imagination, no inner connection with the game itself. I don't care one whit that he can hit the ball out of sight or muscle the ball out of outrageous rough. When a lot of the ground between tee and green becomes obsolete the golf itself becomes excessively boring and tedious. I can't quite express it properly but I just feel that the game under those conditions has lost its soul and the grounds it is played over cannot exert influence on the outcome. As a displaced Scot it just makes me despondent!
Cheers Colin
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