Whereas the RBC Heritage leaderboard became jam-filled with stars and superstars, the particular entity that shined through the tournament became Harbour Town itself. So generally the PGA Tour goes to unprecedented ballparks that shrink the circle of avid gamers who can do away with the golf tournament to a minute number. Here, while the critical boppers gathered receive advantages, it took a beefy skillset for four straight rounds to contend and do away with the tournament. That is appropriate for the Tour and colossal for golf.
It furthermore doesn’t do away with a ways from the stars of the game, the Rory McIlroys and Dustin Johnsons of the enviornment. Whereas shortening — no longer lengthening — classes is admittedly the path forward for the educated game when you are taking a survey for equality, there are gathered a great deal of alternatives (per chance extra alternatives) for the longest drivers of the ball to be the greatest avid gamers on this planet.
Desire the 9th gap shall we embrace, the 329-yard par 4. Search at how Brooks Koepka — who completed seventh after taking pictures 68-65 on the weekend — played it in comparison to how the final pairing of Abraham Ancer and Tyrrell Hatton played it. Koepka took on the bunker in entrance of the green with a driver to three toes, and he became rewarded with an eagle, his second on the entrance nine. Ancer and Hatton laid relieve with irons at spherical 225 yards but gathered were ready to smash runs at birdie (Ancer made his, Hatton did no longer). When classes enjoy myriad ways to play them, it advantages all occasions and makes the Tour extra spirited overall.
Search at the leaderboard. From Webb Simpson — who’s amazingly reasonable off the tee — to Koepka — who’s amazingly no longer reasonable off the tee — it had every thing you can ever desire from a Sunday shut. Daniel Berger, Sergio Garcia, Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau, J.T. Poston and Justin Thomas — all such different golfers, all in the tip 10. That is no longer the appropriate direction at which one thing love this occurs, clearly, but it does seem love or no longer it is easier for it to happen at a chain love Harbour Town than most different tracks.
When tournaments are held at Erin Hills or Bethpage Shaded, I’m sorry but Abraham Ancer is appropriate no longer going to do away with or contend love he did on Sunday. Whereas length is a skill that must be rewarded, it ought to now not be rewarded disproportionately to all different skills. The stylistically-diverse leaderboard we got at Harbour Town became charming and fun for viewers. That final 100 minutes of golf on Sunday on an empty direction, smartly, that became as appropriate because it gets in non-majors on the PGA Tour.
Harbour Town is no longer the shortest direction on the PGA Tour, but or no longer it is in that community of smaller ballparks. At 6,934 yards on Sunday, it is one amongst the few on the Tour that can play under 7,000 yards. What you essentially need, although, is no longer a lack of length but reasonably a glut of risk-reward holes love the 9th. Holes that McIlroy and Koepka can lag after and be rewarded if they triumph over and holes that Ancer and Hatton can play a different skill with a put of living of skills extra accurate to their games. That, extra than the relaxation, is what makes golf so spirited.
Infrequently, short classes neutralize every person in the identical skill. That is, when you can receive a 300-yard par-4 that comes with a huge dogleg, every person from Rory to Zach Johnson has to hit 3-iron off the tee to the identical build. From there, it becomes a wedge-fest, which is clearly unfair to Rory. However when you can receive holes love the 9th at Harbour Town, smartly, that’s worthwhile to each occasions as smartly as what each viewer desires to demand (no longer that each gap at Harbour Town is colossal, but ample are to determine it spirited). As long because the hazards and rewards are equal and high, the golf remains colossal.
And the golf became colossal on Sunday at the RBC Heritage. This became since the sphere became colossal but furthermore since the direction became, too. I desire avid gamers to must deem about taking holes on and what extra or much less strategy they receive to use. I desire them — in lieu of appropriate ripping the hell out of every pressure — to must make use of their beefy arsenal of skills when looking out to do away with the golf tournament. That’s what we saw on Sunday, and with reasonably of luck that’s what we watch extra of because the gap debate rages on and we coast into the next decade of educated golf.
