Posted on 08/05/2006 6:10:16 PM PDT by gobucks
New US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy has used his new Major winning status to question the direction of pro tournament golf.
In an article appearing on a US golf website, Ogilvy hits out at the R & A, the USGA, US Masters officials and also their counterparts who dictate course set-up on the US Tour.
The Victorian golfer is angry at the tendency for event officials to increase the length of courses and to allow the rough to grow to almost unplayable lengths.
"Two important aspects of golf have gone in completely the wrong direction," said Ogilvy.
"Most things are fine. Greens are generally better, for example. But the whole point of golf has been lost.
"You don't measure a good drive by how far it goes; you analyse its quality by its position relative to the next target. That doesn't exist in golf any more.
"The biggest problem today is tournament organisers trying to create a winning score. When did low scores become bad? At what point did the quality of your course become dependent on its difficulty? That was when golf lost the plot. The winning score should be dictated by the weather.
"The other thing is course set up. Especially in America there is too much rough and greens are way too soft. Then, when low scores become commonplace, they think how to make courses harder. So they grow even more long grass.
"But that misses the point. There is no real defence against a soft green.
"If the first game of golf was played on some of the courses we play today, it wouldn't be a sport. It would never have been invented. People would play one round and ask themselves why they would ever play a second. It would be no fun."
Ogilvy was particularly critical of US Masters officials at Augusta National.
"With the greens they have there, you don't need rough. They are always going to be firm," said Ogilvy.
"Move the pin ten feet and the other side of the fairway becomes the place to be. That's the aspect that has been lost. And if Augusta misses the point, what hope has golf got?"
Ogilvy questioned the R & A's set-up of last year's British Open venue at the Home of Golf at St. Andrews and the infamous Road Hole.
"It's the most fearsome hole in golf and yet they had to grow all that silly rough up the right hand side," said Ogilvy.
The Australia also took aim at the USGA, organisers of June's US Open where Ogilvy became the first Australian in 11 years to win a Major.
Speaking of the 2005 US Open host venue of Pinehurst where Sydney-based Kiwi Michael Campbell won, Ogilvy remarked: "All of the bunkers were in the rough."
"And all the best angles were taken away by the USGA growing long grass in the spots where the best drives should have been allowed to finish. It was a mess."
Ogilvy's biggest fear is that the new direction of golf is filtering back to the weekend hackers and spoiling the game.
"I don't care, if people want to see us hacking out of long grass all the time, it's fine with me," he said.
"But the trouble is that everyone in golf follows us, the professionals. So it gets harder to find fun places to play.
"All of a sudden my dad is out there chopping around in six inch rough, losing his ball every time he misses the fairway and having no fun. Which makes no sense. We play a game that 99.9 per cent of golfers have no hope of duplicating."
Today, most golfers, ie, most men who play golf, treat such marks the way a tom cat sprays a post ... with disdain. Maybe it has always been this way. But I doubt it.
On the other hand, the folks who manage the rules of golf are a cultural bell weather like no other. They sort of give us the image of what the future will be like...
And Ogilvy doesn't seem to be aware of that. He'll like as not lose a few endorsement dollars over these intemperate remarks. At minimum, mark these words: he'll be tripping all over himself soon enough as he attempts to 'clarify' his words.
The few courses that I play on have been making the courses a lot easier by cutting down a lot of the tall weeds.
I'm disappointed too.
A lot of holes were short holes but a miss would put you in knee high stuff and a probably double bogey while a good shot would mean par.
Since you are the one posting this, I am amazed that you don't even understand what he is saying. Did you ever play golf?
This guy is right on and the game is being destroyed by the ridiculous roughs.
Get over it, Ogilvy.
That's fer sure..that's fer dang sure!
Yo, Geoff, in case you didn't notice, it was the toughness of the rough and the impossible pin locations that caused Mickelson, Montgomerie and Furyk to choke on the 72nd hole, thereby giving you the victory.
He's right.
Not to mention that the average golfer will wrench his back hacking out of that long grass. Not fun. Also, with the constant oncoming traffic, one can't take the time to look for the lost ball. Very frustrating. Glad the top of the top took the time to speak up about it. Hope he isn't torn to shreds.
I love long rough. I even work on a shot out of the waist high stuff when I'm on the driving range. Basically you use a stroke that looks like you are hoeing weeds or using a maddock. You face opposite the direction of the hit, you take a pitching wedge and hack vertically down on the ball like you would with a hoe or maddock. It goes about 50 yards but in waist high stuff, it is the only way I can get out.
What I don't like is fast fairways. One time I hit a ball in the dead center of the fairway with a draw to the left. The ball ended up on the right in the rough underneath a tree due to the slope right.
Fast greens are stupid too. Some greens are so fast, sometimes you are lagging from inside 15 feet.
Rough is a penalty for hitting a bad shot. Fast greens and fairways often penalize a good shot.
I would have critized other things, like messing with the schedule and destroying many years of tradition.
Some of the changes are necessary to get sponsership, but they could settle for less money and leave things more as they are.
With 200+ touring pros, there is room for minor-league events with smaller purses.
I think it hurts your wrists more as your body turns but the club gets stuck.
But what I hate seeing is a pro golfer hitting a beautiful drive and then it rolls on the fairway and rolls off the fairway. I think fast fairways are worse.
He should just quit crying and play only at the courses that make him happy.
I play 3-4 times per week in the summer at maybe a dozen public venues in Southcentral PA. In my experience, this is not true. If anything, the average public course in this area is too easy. We don't play layouts anywhere near what the pros play. Typically, the white tees are 6000 yards are so, whereas the pros play at 7500. And the rough is very low. In fact, at many local courses I'd prefer to play out of the rough because the ball usually has a little air under it, and like most 16 handicappers, I tend to sweep it rather than hit down on it.
As to Ogilvy, I think he's been infected by the professional golfers' whining syndrome. The US Open this year was most entertaining, even without Tiger Woods. As a fan, I enjoy watching one tournament per year in which the pros struggle with par. No other tournament would dare set up their course with such severity as the players would boycott the event. But no one's going to boycott the US Open (except maybe Bruce Litzke). So Geoff, call a waaambulance.
I agree 100%. And I don't discount the possibility that a touch of sadism lies within me. But I'd much rather see the guys hit 4-irons into firm, fast, sloping greens (if they've managed to hit the fairway) than wedges into soft, flat greens.
In all sports, athletes have gotten bigger and stronger, and equipment has gotten better over the past few decades. But in football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc., the players on both teams have improved, and the ball goes back and forth between the teams. In golf, the only defense against improved players and improved equipment is the golf course itself. Many of the great old courses have run out of room for lengthening to compensate for 320-yard drives and 190-yard 7-irons, so they are left with the options of making their greens more firm and severe, their fairways narrower, and their rough more punitive.
It's part of the game, Geoff. If you think the rough is too deep, pull out your 2-iron rather than your driver, and you'll have a better chance of hitting the fairway. Of course, you'll have to hit a 5-iron rather than an 8-iron for your second, and with a firm, sloping green, that might be tough. Poor baby. You're actually going to have to think, and weigh your options and the consequences. Strategery, Geoff. That's life.
With the third round of the Buick Open completed there are a slew of guys who will probably shoot -20 -- a ridiculous score for a major event. I agree with you; I enjoy watching a tournament that is challenging and ultra-hard to play. If it were up to me I would sprinkle every course with deep pot bunkers located from 300-350 yards out.
FYI: I still remember the pros playing the Olympic Club course in San Francisco a few years back and whining that it was too hard (they love to use the word 'unfair') because of the treacherous fairway slopes. Wusses.
It's not just Ogilvy saying it. Nicklaus and Palmer blasted the Masters this year and for good reason. The courses have become screwed up.
Giolf = Cow pasture pool
Giolf = golf
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