La tendencia a alargar los campos y primar a los grandes pegadores ha encontrado su cénit en un campo al este de Tailandia. Acostumbrados a hoyos con pares 3, 4 y 5, Desmond Muirhead diseñó en el año 2000 el St Andrews Hill Golf Club en Rayong y en el cuatro dejó para el recuerdo un par 6 de 855 yardas. Los primeros en probarlo: los profesionales del circuito asiático en el Double A international Open.
Taking the long handle to a giant hole
GOLF’S losing battle with technology will be both heavily underscored and writ large today when, for the first time in a PGA-sanctioned tournament, a par-six hole will be used — all hernia-inducing 803 metres of it.
The fourth hole at St Andrews Hill Golf Club, home of this week’s Double A International Open in Thailand, will dwarf anything previously used in tournament play, being more than 200 metres longer than the most daunting par five.
Players in practice for the Asian Tour event have tackled the monster, which is played around a large lake, with a driver, five-iron, three-wood then wedge. With a split fairway, though, the hole presents players with the high-risk option of launching a driver over trees and water for a shorter route to the green.
The par six has sparked a debate between traditionalists and those tournament organisers seeking to do something to combat the growing influence of space-age golf clubs and balls that are making old courses redundant.
Thai player Wisut Artjanawat, for one, said he was opposed to the idea of a par-six hole, saying it was against golf’s traditions.
«I don’t think it’s good but this is my personal opinion. Golf should only have par-three, par-four or par-five holes — that was how this game was created,» he said.
«Of course we’ll play it as it is but you really need to hit three good strikes and hit a short wedge in to have a chance to be on the green in regulation. It’s just too long a hole.»
Indeed, the St Andrews reference in the course’s name is ironic. Because it is at the «home of golf», the original St Andrews in Scotland, where tradition is everything, where the game’s rules are made, and where news of this development may cause more than one gin and tonic to be spluttered during pre-dinner drinks tonight.
The chairman of the Australasian PGA Tour, Wayne Grady, was aghast when told of the par six yesterday. «I certainly hope it doesn’t become a trend,» he said. «If that’s the direction we’re heading, then I’d be really worried.
«But I suppose things change and times change. If a promoter comes to you and says we’ve got a $1 million tournament and we want to play it on this 8500-yard course, well I suppose you’d have to consider it.»
Grady, whose unerringly straight driving made him a force in the game 15 years ago, said it was time the game’s authorities stopped the lengthening of golf courses by addressing the issue of technology that enabled players to hit the ball considerably further than they did even 10 years ago.
At Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma — the site of the 2001 US Open — the par-five fifth was lengthened to 590 metres, making it comfortably the longest hole in US Open history.
But 803 metres? The players in the Double A International did not appear to be doing cartwheels at the prospect. American veteran Gerry Norquist, a five-time winner in Asia, said: «I have to say I’ve never seen anything like this before.» England’s Chris Rodgers was similarly gobsmacked. «I’ve never played anything like this in my life … if you’re playing into the wind, it’s going to be really hard.»
Asian Tour chief executive Louis Martin said: «I’m a staunch traditionalist and it is very difficult for me to get my mind around having to play a drive, six iron, three wood and know that I still got a wedge to the hole. There is water everywhere. It will be a mental game playing that hole for the pros.
«But we don’t believe this is against the integrity of the game as the players still have to put the ball into the hole.»
FAMOUS COURSES AND THEIR LONGEST HOLES
– Royal Melbourne GC, Australia
17th*: 510 metres
– Augusta National GC, United States
2nd: 555 metres
– St Andrews GC, Scotland
14th: 560 metres
…
