Bob MacIntyre finished T25 at last week’s Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.
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Professional players, for all their sporting genius, have often become thought leaders. They tell us what device gives the best results, and it only takes three seconds of an iPhone video to help us eliminate a part.
They just know better, don’t they?
Maybe.
But when it comes to the merits of a competitive golf plan, their interests almost always lean in a selfish direction. That’s why their brains fry during a hot afternoon at the US Open. Or when the sand in the open championship pot bunkers are beaten very flat. Professional players, for all their sporting genius, believe that there must always be a way forward for them, and a way in which they can wow the crowd by hitting a putt near the hole. Only that’s not necessarily the point of golf, or even pro golf. The point is to make your way from the 1st tee to the 18th green in as few strokes as possible and see how that plays out in your match, your Friday morning round or Dunhill Links Championship. Some holes are easier than others. Some are more manipulable than others. Some favor the left more than the right, and vice versa. But they won’t always feel clear. Even, and especially to the 0.01 percent.
Bob MacIntyre, world number 16, was the latest professional to fall into this trap, degrading an iconic and brilliant test of golfing ability when he said Martin Dempster i Scotsman than 17 in the old course at St. Andrews – better known as ‘Road Hole’ – needs to be changed drastically. “Eat it in the wind”, MacIntyre saidamong other things, a stunning quote from a Scotsman himself. But we should not pay too much attention to it. Mainly because they will never blow it up. But also because of the context around it.
MacIntyre was unhappy after a disappointing finish. He had double bogeyed the 17th on Saturday, and then added a bogey on Sunday. Both times he found the fairway off the tee and both times left his approach left of the weak, angled green on the wrong side of the bunker that appears to take a bite from the side of the putting surface. It’s one of the few holes on the property where, after hitting one poor shot, the next one can be just as difficult.
Isn’t … part of golf?
It is possible that MacIntyre’s experience with that hole is slightly abnormal. Being a lefty, it is in his best interest to play a draw off the tee and a fade to the green, where most of us might opt for a fade off the tee and a draw to the green. But therein lies part of its brilliance. It is rare that a two-shot hole requires some form of tee shot and its obvious opposite on the green. Often this can be achieved by putting pins, placing a hole location behind a designated bunker on the edge of the green. But Vrima e Rugė does it with a hotel restaurant, a bit rough, sidewalk and green corner. These ingredients make it 1 of 1, and to thread the specific needle it presents, you need to know how to move the ball in any direction and do it with ease. And on Sunday, to blow it up, an extra layer of complexity was lost in MacIntyre’s comments.
Isn’t … part of golf?
Perhaps we heard those thoughts from MacIntyre because the Fairway Hole is located so late in the run of the old course. Had it been the second hole in the property, he would have forgotten about it long before a microphone was put in front of him. Instead, it’s the second-to-last hole, almost top of mind. But it was the sixth straight hole he played over Sunday, the last in a stretch of supreme difficulty. He had to be exhausted by then. But that stretch of tough holes also followed a front nine where every single hole played below par. MacIntyre made nine birdies on the front nine over the weekend, only to find much more trouble on the back.
Isn’t … part of golf?
To zoom in even tighter, like many small corners of the courses that professional golfers visit, the 17th almost always has to be joined by its successor, the 18th, called Tom Morristo the man who designed the course, which was so focused on driving and playing the corners, and which has been universally acclaimed for its design ever since.
The 18th is just as iconic, and arguably easier. It’s a short par-4 with a fairway up the right side (out of bounds) and even a fairway running through it. Compared to the manipulative 17th, the 18th is a playground. Walk wherever you want. And because of that, he averaged 3.73 on Sunday, the perfect complement to his ’17 average of 4.70. Add them together and the two pieces will fit you very well. A reminder that golf is about taking the simple with the difficult and the complicated with the straightforward. You don’t really get one without the other, and you wouldn’t want to anyway.
