GOLF:A club synonymous with Bobby Jones has seen a lot of changes under namesake Rees. PHILIP REIDgauges reactions to new set-up
A STATUE of the legendary golfer Bobby Jones outside the clubhouse reminds you of his association with Atlanta Athletic Club – appropriately enough located on Bobby Jones Drive in the Johns Creek district of Atlanta, Georgia – and it also tells you something of the history of this club.
It is steeped in stories of golfing lore. And, for this 93rd staging of the USPGA Championship, where Germany’s Martin Kaymer defends his title this week, some new tales will undoubtedly unfold on a course much-changed from when it last played host to the Major known as ‘Glory’s Last Shot’.
On that occasion, in 2001, David Toms won his only Major by holding off Phil Mickelson. This time, the course – which has undergone a significant makeover under renowned golf course architect Rees Jones – will likely play much more difficult, longer and faster. Toms’s record low score of 15 under par a decade ago will seem like a fairytale from another era. This will be more like a psychological thriller.
So, what has Jones done to add muscle to a famed course where a plaque by the 18th fairway commemorates Jerry Pate’s approach to the last en route to the 1976 US Open? Of that shot, Pate recently recalled: “For years people had said that to hit it this close on the last hole of the US Open with the pin on the left and the water on the left, you had to pull it. ‘Nobody would do it’. I said, ‘Hey, at 22 years old, you don’t know what pull is. You’re just, boom.’”
Well, that hole is one of those which Jones has lengthened for this year’s USPGA, a work that the designer started back in 2006. Now, the 18th is a par four that measures 507 yards.
Another significant change has been made on the par-three 15th, a hole where Toms had a hole-in-one in the third round on the way to that USPGA win in 2001. These days, some 22 yards in length has been added to the hole . . . making it a par three of 260 yards! In all, the course has been lengthened to 7,467 yards (playing to a par 70), while lakes and ponds have been expanded and, part of Jones’s design philosophy in his re-makes, the fairway bunkers have also been moved. In the 2001 USPGA, the bunkers usually lay between 240 yards to 280 yards off the tees; now, they are positioned 340 yards from the tees.
But it’s not just about added length, for that alone doesn’t scare modern golfers. It’s about the grasses. The Atlanta Athletic Club is the only course in the world with a combination of three specific grasses: “Diamond Zoysia” fairways; “Tifton 10” Bermuda rough, and “Champion Ultradwarf” Bermuda greens. A decision was made to go away from the more commonly used bent-grass greens, which prefer cooler weather to the new strains that can tolerate Georgia’s summer heat.
“It’s probably the most technologically advanced golf course we’ve played our championship on from an agronomy standpoint,” said Kerry Haigh, the managing director of championships for the PGA of America.
Of the four Majors, the USPGA has traditionally had the reputation of being the fairest. This year, it is expected to again be fair. But probably tougher too. On a recent visit to the course, defending champion Kaymer remarked: “It’s very difficult, very long and very tight . . . I don’t think that there will be a lot of low scores.”
Mickelson, as is his way, was very honest in his assessment after his reconnaissance visit. “I really liked the layout, tee-to-green, from 2001,” said Mickelson, runner-up on that occasion. “I always thought it was a pretty straightforward, good test of golf. It’s in incredible shape; the fairways are a wonderful grass where the ball sits up and you can really hit shots off it. The rough is challenging . . . the thick rough is hard; it’s a wedge out. But there are some spots where the first-cut extends 10 yards into the primary rough, so I though was very fair and well set up.”
Of the revamped and undulating greens, though, Mickelson voiced his concerns. “The greens are a bit overdone. When I played they were way too undulating for the speed they were at. When the greens were redone, they were extremely over-contoured . . . the ball wouldn’t stop on the green.”
In response, Rees Jones said: “The grass has changed, which makes them firmer and faster. To some degree, Phil is right. The greens were very fast when he played – probably 14 on the stimpmetre – and they’re going to slow them down.” By slowing them down, Jones means to 12 or 13. They’ll still be lightning quick.
This may be a revamped course, but the essence of the club – one founded in 1898 – remains. And the Highland course, one of two courses on the property, which plays host to the championship this week, is set to be a more than fitting examination to find the last Major champion of 2011.
Over time, no fewer than 71 courses have served as the host site for the USPGA Championship which, in recent years, has traditionally featured the most players in the top 100 of the official world rankings in its field. The 2002 USPGA at Hazeltine established a record for world-ranked participants, with 98 of the top 100 competing.
The championship itself was the brainwave of department store owner Rodman Wanamaker, who invited some prominent golfers and other representatives from the golfing industry to a lunch at the Taplow Club in New York. On January 17th, 1916, a group of 35 individuals, including the legendary Walter Hagen, met for an exploratory meeting which resulted in the formation of the PGA of America.
During the meeting, Wanamaker suggested that the newly formed organisation needed to host a championship and suggested one along the lines of the one held by the British PGA – what is now the BMW PGA Championship held at Wentworth – and, so, was born what would become the US PGA Championship for which the winner annually receives the Wanamaker Trophy.
Over the years, the championship – which started out as a matchplay event before switching to strokeplay – has produced some legendary winners: Hagen, one of those who instigated the championship, would win five PGAs, including a run of four in a row from 1924-’27; Gene Sarazen, aka ‘The Squire’, became the youngest champion when, at the age of 20, he won the 1922 championship. He would play in the event until 1972, at which stage he was 70 years of age.
Other landmarks include Ben Hogan’s win in 1946, which was his first Major triumph. In 1948, Hogan won both the US Open and USPGA titles – becoming the first player since Sarazen in 1922 to win both in the same year – while Jay Hebert’s win in the 1960 championship marked the first occasion that American brothers had won the same Major. His brother Lionel had been the winner in 1957.
The 1960s brought new history: in 1962, South African Gary Player became the fifth non-American to win the Wanamaker Trophy; in 1965, Jack Nicklaus won the first of his five PGA titles at Dallas Athletic Club when overcoming 100 degree Fahrenheit heat; and, in 1964, Bobby Nichols opened with a 64 and became the first wire-to-wire winner since its move to a strokeplay format. In 1964, Arnold Palmer also set a record with rounds of 68-68-69-69, making him the first player to shoot four rounds in the 60s in a Major championship. But Arnie was never to win a PGA title, finishing runner-up on three occasions.
In 1971, at Palm Beach Gardens in Florida, Nicklaus became the first professional to win the career Grand Slam for a second time and it started a run over the next 13 years in which the Golden Bear would win four PGA titles, finish runner-up twice and place nine times in the top four. Nicklaus’s 1973 win also gave him 14 Major championship wins, surpassing the Bobby Jones mark set 43 years earlier.
This week, the PGA returns to the home club of Jones in search of its newest champion.
