Farmingdale, NY – the most iconic square footage in Bethpage Black are not straight, tee or green. On the contrary, it is a sign – white panel, black letters, led by red “warning” – bypassing the first thesis, serving as cautious (or challenge) words for those lucky and bold players to get his brutal test. Reads as follows:
Black course is an extremely difficult course we only recommend for highly skillful players.
The sign is so famous because warning is an integrated part of Bethpage’s black experience. It is often listed in compilations of America’s most difficult golf courses, in conversation just behind the brutal as Oakmont. Enough is quite harsh that has been received not only in the PGA Tour events, but a PGA and two US championships open before that. Black is harsh for the good and Joes alike. This is the point.
But this week? The sign is a lie. We have “very capable players”, no doubt – but the “extremely difficult course” did not appear for the first day of the Ryder Cup.
Partly this was due to the weather. Rain buckets rolled on Wednesday and Thursday, moistening the course and understanding every shot landing landed as a marble in Jello – while the top players of the challenge in the fairway were confronted was controlling the rotation. The rain also pushed the tournament of the tournament to play elevator, clean and decide, giving perfect lies. And the conditions were perfect for scoring; Friday was warm all day long, it did not rain and it was not hard to breathe.
Partly, however, Bethpage’s approach was a choice. While the hosts of this event, the US leadership was given the opportunity to prepare the course after seeing it reasonable – and they chose to do it wide, limiting the sentences for losing to expanded and raw roads unknown, which only occasionally served as any real obstacles.
The players knew this was coming.
“This is not Bethpage Black normal,” Harris English said on Thursday, the day before the event begins. “You will see many more birds there than you will normally open in PGA or SH.BA”
Bryson Dechambeau stressed how difficult the 2019 PGA course had been – and how different it would play this week. “The golf course was a beast,” he said. “The approximation was much longer. This week … the rough is not so punished.”
Traditionally there are ways to exploit the configuration to the advantage of your team, just one of several obstacles at home. In Rome, for example, Team Europe restricted the number of wedge players would hit and double the number of long shots, knowing where its players had a statistical advantage. She made a long and shorter par-4s par-4s shorter and left players with very few of the 125-Oborre Access Shots they see so often in PGA Tour.
Traditionally there has been a difference between the profiles of Americans (the longest but wilder) and the Europeans (accurate, smart, smart) that has borrowed different styles of course placement. In Paris and Rome the local team grew approximate and leaned to the course quirks at home-and this was paid. This year, anyway? The differences are thinner and tougher to isolate. Both teams have many bombs. All 24 competitors play PGA Tour. And so the decision to cut roughly combined with the nature decision to soften the greens meant that on Thursday, Bogeys were scarce and far away.
There are some numbers that told the story, including the overall average of the note, which was a couple kick during the principle during the big Bethpage championship but withdrew several strokes in the couple UNDER Par for most of Thursday and nearly 3 under Friday.
But here is probably the simplest way to say: in the morning quadrilateral, the most difficult format, the first three teams of Europe played a 44 combined holes. They made 17 birds – and zero Bogeys.
It is clear that the American leadership realized that he found an advantage in placing them without toothbrush. At the beginning of this Ryder Cup, however, are the Europeans who have celebrated. Too too late to grow roughly – and impossible to raise the greens. So Americans will have to recover Bethpage by making their opponents bird.
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