Bay Hill Club and Lodge Setup...

[Titleist99]

Bay Hill Club and Lodge...With its fast greens, penal rough, water penalties, shifting winds, soft fairways, penal bunkers and a 221 Par3. Driving average on the hole being measured is 283 yards average with very little roll. My question is do you consider these conditions a great course defense against these great players or is it Arnold Palmers tricked up course to artificially keep score stifled for the Pros.....You can't have it both ways.....Thoughts.

[Hawkeye77]

What is “tricked up” about it?

Tour didn’t turn on a wind machine or dig new ponds or excavate new bunkers or magically discover a 200+ yard par 3.

[bladehunter]

At least you included wind this time.

[third-times-a-charm]

Everything you mention is not a 'trick'.

Island greens surrounded by water and grandstands are 'tricks'.

Bay Hill is just a hard course. Some like it, some dont. But everyone agree's it's difficult.

[Titleist99]

I agree with you 100%. Every time these conditions are mentioned to the group that wants a rollback they classify these conditions as "tricked up". I see nothing wrong with Bay Hill other than being tough this year....other courses would do well to adopt some of these things.

[Darth Putter]

To get tougher conditions, the USGA and R&A will move their opens to October to get enough cold air and wind.

[Big Cat 3]

Arnie’S Place is the greatest everything of everything ... haven’t you been told that 5 million times this week about Arnie’s Place

[third-times-a-charm]

I guess you'll be elated when a Tiger-designed course becomes a tour stop in 20 years and they talk about him non-stop?

[farmer]

How does it play in member trim? In this shape, I could envision members wandering aimlessly around in the rough, trying to remember what color shoes they're wearing.

[lowheel]

yeah that bum should be forgotten...

[MattyO1984]

I don’t think that you can say that it is tricked up, this is the course, this is how it seems to play most years. Add in the wind that they have this week and scoring is going to be tough, it’s not complicated.

[gvogel]

The greens are extremely firm, and not forgiving. There were no scores in the 60's today. Max Home shot 70 early, when the greens might have been a bit softer; after that, 72 was the best score.

Tough conditions. Rough, very unforgiving greens. Kind of like a US Open course.

I like the leaderboard.

[cardoustie]

Love the conditions

[OrangeGravy]

Wind + Water making it tough from the fairway let alone the rough.

[Hawkeye77]

Hope it plays tough again tomorrow. Challenge ‘em!

[mizuno player]

Course is set up tough but fair.

The rough is very thick. The weather is also perfect for making the course play tough. I'm not hearing any complaints from the players.

Agree with Hawkeye. Give em a challenge.

[Titleist99]

I love this golf course and the test of golf that is in front of these great players. You must play shots, driving distance is part of it but you need the whole package at this property....

[2over]

When the best players in the world are struggling to break par, the number two in the world is struggling (and failing) to break 80, the course is set up poorly. Getting caught up in the semantics of "tricked" "unfair" is beside the point. The PGA tour doesn't control the wind but they can change pin placements, tee boxes to adjust for wind, cold. And the rock hard greens are over the top. It's entertainment at the end of the day and I'm not entertained. It brings too much randomness and luck into the game. Slight mistakes are punished way too much. So we get journeymen dueling for the win while the world's best are trying to avoid the snowman. The weekend duffer may enjoy it, thinking that these guys are closer to his/her level than they are, but that's a mean-spirited and small-minded way to watch the game. I want to see them challenged not stifled. I want to see good shots rewarded, great shots separating the good from the great and only really poor shots seriously punished. These guys are good. Making them look bad is neither fair nor fun.

Just MHO.

[The Mad Bomber]

I couldn't disagree more. I don't think there was any randomness to it at all. Where's your proof in that?!?! The No.2 player in the world is playing like crap no matter what course he's on and the No.1 player in the world took himself out of the tournament with a dumb decision off the tee and an even dumber decision from a bunker that led to a double on a par 5. The course was tough and Hatton held his nerve down the stretch, end of story. It was a fun tournament to watch.

[Dave230]

Tyrrell Hatton won his previous 4 tournaments on the European Tour with scores of -20 or better. Everybody plays the same course at the end of the day, it's all relative. They could set it up easy as they can and Koepka shoots 71 instead of 81, but Hatton shoots 63 instead of 73 and Koepka is as far behind.

It was a fair leaderboard, Hatton is a good player and was due a PGA Tour win. Sunjae Im and Marc Leishman both won this year in events with great fields. DeChambeau and McIlroy were in the top 5.

[3jacker]

Baloney. Nothing is unfair about it except that the game, like life, is unfair. Par is irrelevant, it's just a number. Just because some people like to see birdies and low scores doesn't mean that's the only way to hold a tournament. It was an excellent test of golf over the weekend, especially the course-management part of the game. Yeah it's more subtle than a birdie barrage.

The course was set up the same way it was when Rory won it at -18. The 14 shot difference was almost entirely attributable to the wind.

[Dr. Block]

I find it very entertaining when mother nature intervenes in the tour's carefully scheduled endless summer like it has the past two weeks. Nobody dominates the game of golf in adverse conditions. I applaud the event organizers for leaving the greens alone between the third and final rounds. They could have watered them heavily, instead they chose to let a vintage US Open break out.

I feel bad for the people who can only be entertained by watching the normal week to week assault on par. I would venture to guess that those people are not low handicaps themselves, because if they were, they would appreciate watching the pro's deal with adversity.