After tense, brutal stretch, PGA Tour Pro embrace 1 major change: low results

Back in March, Min Woo Lee won a changing career victory at Houston Open of children in Texas. How have things passed since then?

“It has been honestly very bad,” Lee said Thursday after his first round in Rocket Classic. It was an open but fair appreciation: from that victory, its best end in seven starts is 49th in masters. Lee has unlimited fire power, but it can get savage from tee, a weakness that has ruthlessly exposed to accurate tournament tests in recent months.

“I’m not feeling well on the course, especially playing in a course where, when hitting him in the harsh, you have to hack literally,” he continued. “Oakmont, memorial, most signature events are just very, very difficult. Then you’re ready playing – instead of four diplomas, you are playing MORE Majes because they are trying to make it as difficult as possible. “

This too, controls. Since Houston, Lee’s seven beginnings have come to two degrees and five signing events. In the most forgiving configurations, Lee with large bombs is accustomed to using his driver as a gun-but has been neutralized in recent weeks, with strange directions denying his length advantage. He also talks about configurations in the biggest tour events this time of the year: they are very difficult.

A month ago, only 11 players ended their week under money in the memorial tournament. Two weeks ago, only one player, JJ Spaun, finished his week under the first in the US Open. We’ve seen many long rounds, tough rounds, Irritated playerstense exchanges. On Thursday at Classic Rocket, anyway? Things looked, felt and played very differently. And 129 players shot under par.

“I was really excited for this week, I wanted to go out to hit in the harsh and actually hit the green,” Lee said. He struck only seven of the 14 right roads, but 13 of the 18 greens and fired 9th in Nine 63, leaving it T3 after the first round. “I don’t even think I did so much different today and scored 10 times better than I scored.”

“Most fun and less stressful”

The tournament has been running its best players through a late guarantee. Oakmont, where Lee lost cutting two weeks ago, is one of the most difficult golf courses in the world and played that way for US Open; Players on average 4.18 strokes for the week, so far the largest number of the season. Masters and PGAs are also listed within the six most difficult courses of the year in relation to par, with Quail Hollow (+1.51) and Augusta National (+.81) beating its participants in a large time.

And Memorial host Course Muirfield Village, even as a par 72, on average +1.38 strokes. Thick, steep, steep greens are a harsh combination at any level. So when Lee, like many senior professionals, played PGA, then the memorial, then the US Open felt like playing three degrees.

The most difficult courses for PGA Tour (2025)

1. Oakmont (US Open): +4.18
2. Torrey Pines South (Farmers Insurance Open): +1.69
3. Quail Hollow (PGA Championship): +1.51
4. Muirfield village (memorial tour) +1.38
5. Innisbrook (Valsspar Championship) +.87
6. Augusta National (Masters) +.81

Players usually expect a relatively cold relief in TPC River Highlands a week after US Open, but even there they were greeted with fierce thicker than usual, and the winning result of 15 under par confirmed it a strange test.

Which brings us to this week’s Rocket Classic, hosted at Detroit Golf Club, a very difficult golf course for you or me, but, as the results were confirmed on Thursday, much more welcome for the best in the world. On Thursday the field on average 2.9 strokes under par. If that number were to hold for the rest of the week, it would be the easiest tour of the year since the first, the PAR-73 plantation course in Kapalua.

It was not surprising that Lee seemed relieved to compete in a friendly field.

“In the long -term plan you want to play signature events, you want to play those events and want to hit as accurately as possible, but yes, still trying to understand the driver,” he said. Then he added with a smile: “Yes, hopefully PGA Tour may have more courses like this, it would be a little more fun and less stressful.”

He is not the only one. Wynham Clark was in Lee’s group on Thursday and shot six under the money. He too has played mainly signature events and diplomas and he has also fought, more clearly In an incident in Oakmont. Clark finished T5 in Houston and did not hit the first 25 places until last week in travelers; His statistics suggest that Miss off tee have neutralized his distance priority.

“I will tell you what, this year has just been a diligent and courses,” Clark said. “You know, every big course has been very difficult … Every signature event has been very difficult. So it’s very good to have a course where birds are most likely, where 2-, 3-nine is not necessarily a good result, where it has been a great result lately. low results. ” So it’s good. “

“Many wedge”

Two players, Aldrich Potgieter and Kevin Roy, shot 62 on Thursday. And while Potgieter is undoubtedly the longest player in the tournament, the low results were not reserved exclusively for bombs: another young man was 49-year-old Zach Johnson, one of the shortest drivers of the tournament. He found many straight paths – and many short clubs inside.

“I mean, a lot of wedge. Many like, 9-Hakuri to wedge. And they are scoring clubs for me, so I had to benefit,” he said.

Johnson described his 65 without Bogey as without a delightful drama.

“Again, it’s boring,” he said. “Get the ball on the right track, rely on the wedge. We hope to check your spin and make good strokes.”

This is where, if you are a golf fan of the thought, come your feelings right and wrong and “the right tournament golf”. When Johnson says “boring” he is not, of course, making any kind of statement about Classic Rocket as a fun product. But it is interesting to consider how all those brutal tests and this friendly get into the tournament structure. A The latest fans survey revealed that viewers prefer the results closer to par and this is a new championship goal with new views. (Signature events make the trend tougher; if you throw the farthest senttrin, they are about half a higher blow to the round than the non -signature tournament events, and closer to a stroke if you include diplomas.) But reaching an even without brutalized output or group of more optimized players proves increasingly difficult. As a result, you can wrap many existential golf questions in a round with low results in Classic Rocket. How important does it matter? How much do we want to see the fighting players? How do you protect a course without the open style of the US? Will you destroy the pace of the game with difficult configurations? Does the ball go too far? How long should these courses be? What is the most entertaining version of professional golf, anyway?

You can deceive them long. Or you can sit, open mouth and enjoy the birds, knowing that the variety is the spice of life-and that there are tougher tests ahead.

“>>