Geoff Ogilvy Criticizes Hazeltine Set Up

You'll invariably come off as a sore loser if you pan the course set-up shortly after a 43rd-place finish, but I know what Geoff Ogilvy is saying.

The 8th-ranked player in the world, and winner of the season-opening Mercedes Championship as well as the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, Ogilvy was frank in his assessment of Hazeltine's set-up.

"The last two years the rough has been bad and I don't think that's necessary," "The difficulty of your shot, in my opinion, should be (dictated by) the position it's in, not the lie it's in," he told FOXSports Australia's Andrew Both. ... I don't like how you can hit it in the same spot and one guy's got no chance and the other's perfect. ... Every player in the world comes off and says it's not the way of forwarding golf yet they keep doing it."

Ogilvy also made the point that great courses, in general, don't have thick rough surrounding the greens, which wasn't the case at Hazeltine last week. "If the green's not good enough to defend itself (without) six-inch long rough, the green's not good enough."

Tiger Woods would almost certainly agree with that contention given that he bogeyed the 71st and 72nd holes after his approach shots found the deep rough just off the greens.

All is not lost, though: Ogilvy has high hopes for the 92nd PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. "It's probably the least likely place we play that they can ruin with the set-up," he said. "As far as propagating and harvesting absurd rough, which they seem to have done the last two years in the PGA, I don't think Whistling Straits is the sort of place they're going to do that."

We'll see. In the meantime, Ogilvy's gripes about Hazeltine are a consequence of the ongoing struggle between technology and Tiger-proofing. But he's also the guy who won the 2006 U.S. Open, the major annually billed as "The Toughest Test in Golf." He knows something about overcoming six-inch rough and bad lies. And while I don't disagree that course set-ups are sometimes taken to extremes, as long as guys are launching tee shots 340 yards and hitting short irons into 500-yard par-4s, nothing's changing.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-18-2009 @ 10:37AM

shane said...

hey men, stop complaining and play, i think the golfer should play when he misses the fairway. how much more money you crybabies want. hit the f---king fairway and you won't have to worry about it, end of story.

8-18-2009 @ 10:46AM

furrsher said...

The PGA has their favorite courses, regardless of what the public or players want. The Ivy League Elites that run USGA and PGA insist on having all their tournaments in the East or, gasp, the Midwest. The next 7 PGA Chamnpionships are all played East of the Mississippi.

8-18-2009 @ 11:00AM

Michael gifford said...

gee Geoff...."if the greens not good enough to defend itself without a six inch rouch then it's not good enough" well, how about this...'If Geoff Ogilvy isn't good enough to get it on the green without going into the six inch rough, then he's not good enough".....Get over it baby boy...rough is a part of the game...if you had more skill you wouldn't put it there and it would be a non issue....it's like complaining about the depth and shape of the bunkers for the British open...so what if they're deep...don't hit it there and it's a non issue.

8-18-2009 @ 11:18AM

5thStFreddie said...

Sometimes PGA officials think it's about them, and not the game or the players. The Massacre at Winged Foot, in which the winning score was 7-over, was an abomination: the guys who rigged that course should be condemned to play it for the rest of their lives. I remember another U.S. Open when players lagged the ball up to within a foot of the hole, only to have it roll 20 feet away. That's not golf, that's gimmics. Newsflash: the way to over come the incredible length of some players is not to make the courses longer. That only makes it EASIER for the big hitters, as their rivals cannot possibly reach the par 4's in two with anything approaching a controlled shot. The answer is t-boxes that are angled to the fairway, narrower fairways and smaller greens. Make it a shot maker's tournament, not a bomber's tournament. Nicklaus has long recommended that they put more restrictions on the equipment: less responsive golf balls, and a size limit on the drivers, the latter which have become ridiculous. I love going to the course and seeing some 5'7" guy with a beer gut who spent $500 on a 45 inch driver but won't spend a dime on a lessong to learn how to use it, barely making contact with the ball because the shaft is longer than he is. Nicklaus ruled the world with a 42 or 43 inch shaft: bring a little precision back to the game. But no, that's boring, like allowing steroids into baseball because the home runs brought part-time fans to the game. Golf fans are among the most knowledgeable in the sport: a higher percentage of ticket buyers actually play the game than probably any other sport, along with tennis. It's either good golf, or a circus act: right now, it's more of the latter.

8-18-2009 @ 4:41PM

Mark said...

Last I knew the idea of golf was to not hit it in the rough. And even if the course is hard to play on, it plays the same for everyone. If some players cant handle it because they aren't as good , well thats life.

8-18-2009 @ 8:38PM

Martin said...

Where I play, there's not much rough to contend with. Rather, the hard part is getting it past the darn windmills.

8-18-2009 @ 10:27PM

Bailsworth said...

You guys are totally missing the point here... In a more complete version of this interview, he goes on to say that there is a whole element of the game that is missing now, and that is the recovery shot. Think of the greats of yesteryear, the awe they inspired was not because they hit it straight, it was because they could recover from trouble. Thick, long over fertilized rough doesn't lend itself to great recoveries. Donald Ross, who as we all know designed (among others) Pinehurst No.2 (which was cited as being one of the great courses by Mr Ogilvy), believed that a player should be able punished for a bad shot, but not to the point that they can't recoup with a perfectly executed recovery shot. 6 inch rough doesn't let one do this as it is a complete lottery... and when was the last time that someone MEANT to wil the lottery. Golf is a game that should require total skill, not just the ability to "keep it straight" or hack it out.

8-19-2009 @ 2:22PM

nickcherryl said...

I say suck it up Ogilvy, you ass hole your in the states and sucking away our money, if you can't stand the heat go back to your own country sucker....