efrisvold

Is there really anything that hasn't been said already? The easiest "fix" is exactly what Adam suggested and, just grow out the damn grass and as MIgregB pointed out longer grass requires less water so that addresses the concerns over water usage. If you (they, USGA) are really concerned about water conservation trying growing more native grasses like Rivermont in Georgia, but don't pretend to use water usage fears as cover for a shoddy distance report that nobody buys into. Watch Erik Anders Lang try to break 90 at Pebble Beach ( which played just under 7,100 yards) last year and listen to the caddy comment on how the fairways are 28 yards wide for the US Open instead of the usually 50+ yards wide. Look at the way they shaved the fairways at the edges of the cliffs. Clearly course set-up can go a long ways toward making something more difficult. A course doesn't have to be long by tour standards to be difficult, heck Merion was playing 6,996 yards when Justin Rose won at +1 and the following year Pinehurst played 7,560 and Kaymer won at -9. I can play any number of courses up here in the Pacific Northwest that take driver our of my hands (unless its a scramble tournament) on half of the holes and I'm not playing courses that are over 7,000 yards long (Sahalee CC plays at 7,000 from the black tees). Maybe if the USGA stopped thinking that making a course longer was the only way to make them harder, or that hitting driver on every par 4 or par 5 was somehow important to the game, and started getting creative about design, course set-up or reconsidering what par should be on a course (the US Open does it every year) this wouldn't be an issue... not that anyone seriously thinks that it really is an issue.