John Huggan: Heaven seventeenth

Published on Saturday 16 January 2010 20:57

THE decision to lengthen the Road Hole at St Andrews may be controversial but will restore it to its former challenging glory, argues R&A chief Peter Dawson. . .

BEFORE ANYONE asks, the big news is that the Howard Hughes of golf, world No.1 Tiger Woods, has yet to enter this year's Open Championship at St Andrews. But don't read too much into that at this stage.

"I have no idea when Tiger is coming back," points out Peter Dawson, chief executive of the R&A. "He hasn't entered, but then again he wouldn't normally have done so this early. I'm obviously hopeful that he will be playing again by July, but the championship has shown in the past that it can survive without him. And, especially at St Andrews, I'm sure that will be the case again this year if he decides not to come."

The smaller – but no less important – scoop is that the 150th anniversary of our national game's oldest and most prestigious event last week dodged a big bullet. When the long-awaited thaw melted the sheet ice covering the Old Course's greens, those famously massive surfaces were saved from a potential death that would have spelled disaster even six months before the championship returns to the Home of Golf for the first time since Woods' almost routine triumph in 2005.

Still, it is one hole in particular that has been garnering most of the headlines as we enter a year of celebration that will hopefully see the cancer-stricken Seve Ballesteros tee-up in the "Champions Challenge" on the eve of what will be the 139th Open. The 17th on the Old Course, the Road Hole, is, for the first time in its storied existence, going to be extended by some 40 yards. A controversial new tee is to be built, over the fence to the right of the previous green and – cue the rolling of many eyes – not even on the premises.

"Here at St Andrews we have a lot of knowledge about how professional golfers play the Old Course," explains Dawson. "The Open is here every five years and the Dunhill Links Championship visits on an annual basis. Over time, we have seen the leading players get to where they want to be off the 17th tee using less than a driver. Then they are hitting their second shots with a much more lofted club than, say, Tom Watson did in 1984, when he found the road with a 2-iron in the last round of the Open.

"The bottom line is that very few people are going through the green on to the road. So what we are trying to do is get players hitting driver and/or much longer second shots. If we do either or both, the road will be much more in play than it has been in the recent past."

All of which, given that the United States Golf Association and the R&A have failed so abjectly in controlling the often ridiculous distances leading professionals can now propel golf balls when armed with a metal-headed driver, makes some sort of sense. But the even better news is that, amidst all of the above, golf's ruling body outside the US and Mexico will at least be attempting to restore some of the character lost by golf's most famous hole.

For one thing, the rough that was grown down the right side before the '05 Open will this time round be gone. Which is as it should be. That long grass was introduced solely to prevent the game's best players from sending drives to within 70 yards or so of what was, until recently, one of the game's most elusive putting surfaces. The sight of pitches and even chips being hit to that famous green would have represented the final confirmation that golf at the highest level was out of control. Symbolically, of course, the ruling bodies could not allow that. Heaven forbid. Hence the rough.

Five years on, the almost-as-silly rough on the left side is to be moved back by a few yards.

"How the professionals play the hole has altered hugely over time," continues Dawson. "In 1900 it would have been a bogey-five. Then it went through a long period of being a drive and a long iron. And today it is probably a rescue club followed by a mid- or even short iron. So we are just trying to restore the challenge of a very famous hole and, most importantly, bring the road back into play a lot more.

"We haven't messed with the angle of the tee-shot. We are easing the fairway back on the left, a little bit. It had crept to the right because of the less-challenging tee-shot."

All of which, again, is fine. But had the R&A been brave enough to eliminate all of the long grass on the left side, the already exacting challenge of the hole would be enhanced even more. Think about it. If the aim is to make players "take on" the ultimate hazard – the road – they are much more likely to do so from a fairway lie than from long grass, even if the angle for their approach is poor. If they are, say, a 4-iron distance from the green with a good lie, then many players are likely to "go" for it; from the same distance but with a poor lie, the vast majority will lay up short and right of the green with something like an 8-iron. No prizes for guessing which of those scenarios is both more interesting and exciting to watch.

"I know of only one person who remembers a time when there was no rough on the left," counters Dawson. "And he is very old. But these days the length of the rough varies year to year; we don't do anything to it. I do agree that taking it out completely would make the hole more traditional St Andrews – bail out left, tough shot up the right. And it is the most challenging drive on the course.

"We did talk about eliminating the rough, but it won't happen this year. We couldn't get the fairway into the right condition in time. You have to talk about these things at least three years in advance. Besides, post-war at least, the norm has been for rough to be in play up the left side."

Elsewhere on the Old Course, the only other hole that will see significant change is the par-4 fourth. Five years ago, many players complained that there was basically nowhere for them to hit their tee-shots when the R&A allowed rough to grow atop the plateau on the left side of a hole that "boasts" only a narrow strip of fairway up the right side. This time, however, Dawson is confident no such moans and groans will be heard.

"We are trying to encourage the pros to play the fourth hole up the right side," he reveals. "Tom Watson has always played the hole that way. We've taken out a lot of gorse, so that the fairway on the right can be seen from the tee. The bank that runs down from the plateau on the higher left side will be cut to fairway height. So balls will be shed back on to the fairway and not be caught up in long grass. That will make the hole play wider.

"The top of the plateau will remain as rough, however. In observing many professionals playing that hole, it has become obvious that they can hit from there to any pin position we care to choose. We don't want that. With the way we are presenting the hole, a drive up the right side will always get the advantage of an easier shot to the green. We will set the pins to ensure that is the case."

Otherwise, apart from a slight widening of the 11th green on the left side in an attempt to create a new pin position and so restore the long lost menace of Hill Bunker (in which Bobby Jones famously tore up his card during the 1921 Open) and a small expansion of the bunker short and left of the ninth green, the Old Course will play exactly as it did in 2005.

Which is not to say that sameness is necessarily a good thing. Dawson is no fan of the conformity that so disfigures so much of modern golf, especially in the United States.

"We're not averse, on a particularly sloping green, to having it run a bit slower than the others," he declares. "I don't have a problem with greens being different speeds. But we don't create such a situation deliberately.

"The Old Course is one of huge variety. It can be easy or difficult depending on the wind or the pin positions. For the Open we set it up at the difficult end of the spectrum. So you need imagination and a great variety of shot. Plus, the history of the place adds its own pressure. There is a unique quality to championships held here."

On that at least we are surely all agreed.