Thursday, May 22, 2008

BMW PGA Championship - Round 1 Wrap

Paul McGinley has never made any secret of his love affair with the West Course and here yesterday he did everything but fall to his knees and start kissing Surrey's most famous piece of turf. An opening 65, that gave him the first round lead of the BMW PGA Championship, no doubt helped intensify this affection, although the Dubliner had a point to make amid all that salivating.

"When it's playing hard and like this, this is a real test of golf, a proper test," he declared. "We're not tested enough on course management anymore. A lot of the courses we play are soft and one-dimensional." McGinley did not go so far as to say that the modern golfer is thus soft and one-dimensional. Yet he would not be alone in believing it.

In fact, the demise of the shot-maker is lamented throughout the game. True, there is Tiger Woods, but how many chances does he get to parade these skills? Indeed, how many chances do any of the professionals get, including McGinley, who plotted his way around yesterday by chasing two-irons off the tee up the bone-dry fairways and, on the sixth, purposefully aimed a wedge 20 feet left of the pin? "It is the substantial majority," he confirmed when asked how many of the Tour's venues fall into the "long and one-dimensional" category. "Everyone just thinks 7,500 yards is the future of golf. But firm and fast is what makes courses tough for us.

3 comments:

Web Watcher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Web Watcher said...

Its not just the courses, its also the athletes playing golf. Remember when characters like, Trevino, Casper, Moody, Colbert won tournaments, They had personalities and they didn't necessarily look much like professional athletes but they could play. Today eveyone is looking like a linebacker and hits it a mile. Its too late for some of us but if you want to get in that condition check out Pedersen's Golf Fitness at www.golffitnesstheguide.com. It may make a nice father's day present.

See you in the fairway!

Anonymous said...

Nice read . I will link my blog to this . Keep them posts running !