I guess the data is telling Donald’s team that this will give them an advantage if they can negate the American’s perceived length advantage.
However, this didn’t really effect me at all, in fact I only missed two fairways all day, and I’m an average 12 handicap. I was hitting into the fairly generous layup areas, even off the yellow tees. That meant that there were a lot of longer approaches up the hill to crown greens, but it definitely wasn’t unplayable.
The rough was another matter. It was pure and utter gunch. This wasn’t uniform US Open style rough. It was irregular, gnarly, horrible stuff. You could lose a ball just a couple of steps off of the fairway. I hate to think how many balls are left out there everyday.
Building a course which you already know is going to host a Ryder Cup means that there are certain ingredients that you can include from the off.
The Ryder Cup is a vital moneymaker for the DP World Tour and the site needs to be capable of holding tens of thousands of fans clustered around the few groups out on the course.
The elevation changes may not find approval with the players, but it will work for the spectators. Many holes have natural amphitheatres where fans will be able to sit on the bank to watch. The 15th and 17th holes will be raucous spots for matches getting that far.
They also have a lot of room between holes here to put up stands, hospitality and food outlets. Like The Open, the Ryder Cup has grown into a monster and that requires a large site to make it work. Take the JCB course for example. The deep pocketed owners would have loved to host the event, and the course is a good one, but when the Ryder Cup team came to do a feasibility test it was deemed to small a site for a modern Ryder Cup.
But oh my goodness, I wouldn’t want to be the project manner in charge of this for the European Tour, there’s a hell of a lot to do! The stands are going up as are the shells of various buildings but they will have to work like mad over the next six weeks to be ready. The good news is that the there were plenty of people working on a Sunday morning, including those laying new roads around the course!
One of the staff there told me that that it was the Italian way to leave things until the last minute to finish but it would be fine. It may be a little bit of a racial stereotype, but I’m sure he’ll be right
But back to the course. Ensuring drama is a key component of a Ryder Cup commission and I think that Slessor has achieved that here. The course builds well to a climax.
The demanding 15th is followed by the short par 4 16th. I didn’t have the length to carry the stream in front of the green so laid up with a 5 iron and wedged in. The pros will be tempted to go for the green but water right will punish a wayward shot. Interestingly, the three tees further back were all out of play to protect them, they are clearly looking for the flexibility to move the tee up and down depending on conditions and Captain Donald’s desires.