Listening on XM yesterday a course reporter following Mickelson's group overheard Phil saying that Liberty National wasn't built to be played that long. Looking at the coverage today I guess it has been raining and the course is playing closer to regular yardage. What I'm asking is what do these guys want? They play the under absolute perfect conditions every single week. I understand the courses are are tough and under tough conditions but perfect course set up makes it easier. I played a tournement this year at a course of 7650 yards with an inch of rain before the first round and we tipped it out every day. It wasn't fun by any means but the PGA Tour would have guys playing it from 7200 yards and they still would have complained. I guess I really do not have a certain question to ask beside are these guys really that spoiled to just to keep them happy?

I would assume what he means is that some courses just don't play "right" when a bunch of yardage is added to them. Take, for example, Harbour Town in Seapines. It's only 6,900 yards and is a rediculous test of golf from those tees (146 slope with a 75 rating (par 70 for the pros). The greens are tiny, and not meant to be hitting longer irons into. Let's say they added 400 yards onto that course (if there was room)...it just wouldn't play right.
Just my $.02.

I DO side with you though on them playing in perfect conditions most of the time. It would be nice to get 60 yards of rollout in the fairways....

Would be interesting if there was one tournament on the PGA schedule where it was played under your average muni conditions. Now that would be something to see.

This may be the closest you'll ever see to it. I've posted this article here a couple times in threads that were like "What would a PGA Tour player shoot on my course" type of theads.

I never get tired of reading this article, I laugh every time as there is so much of it we can all relate to.

I won't spoil the article, but it's an interesting read.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7070101221.html

Harbortown is the perfect example. Seeing a PGA Tour tournament played under terrible conditions I think would be awesome. Let the fairways and and fringes be perfect as usual but lets see them putt on terrible greens. I played two Adams events in the last two weeks on absolutely perfect greens and some of the worst I have ever played on and scores showed it. Although the course in second event was far more difficult I felt like I could never get shots back because the greens were so poor. I would like to see how their attitudes when they hit it to ten feet and have the thought in their mind that these greens suck.

Yea, what a life, bent grass fairways...

Thats a cool article

Cool article. I'm not sure I would even call that an "average" course for "average" players. Sounds like a complete dog track to me. Nice read nonetheless.

Nice article. Manicured course conditions do matter. I played a couple of rounds at a friend's club the week before it hosted a Nationwide Tour event and was 2-3 shots better per round than the public courses I play at home. The biggest difference was the bunkers. The sand was absolutely perfect and you could make effortless bunker swings and get the ball out easily. The perfectly smooth greens helped too.

I thought it was pretty cool of Marino to do that. I guess it was a real eye opener for a PGA Tour player who has never seen anything but the best of conditions.

Yeah, it's not one of the top courses in the DC/MD area that's for sure. But it is located right on the potomac river and has some pretty unique views of the monuments. I've only played it twice in the 18 years I've lived in the area.

Although it is not a great course by any standard, it still is a lot of fun. That is the course that I learned to play golf on ('01). Pro was a guy named Alan Oshon (still thankfull for his lessons). Lived in the DC area for a year before moving back to Europe. Just came across old scorecards from that period and was amazed by how many times I played it.

However, given the number of rounds it gets each day, week in week out, I think the greenkeepers deserve lots of credit. Same goes for the other muni courses in the area (Rock Creek Park and Langston).

Had not read the article before. Glad I did now. Thanks for the link!