Darren Clarke and Luke Donald lash out at the 15th hole at Atlanta Athletic Club
While the players are bracing themselves up for the final major of the year, the PGA Championship, quite a few have already started raising their concerns about the notorious par-three, 15th at the Atlanta Athletic Club, the venue for this week’s
championship. Although the PGA Tour officials as well as the Atlanta Athletic Club officials vociferously defend the design of the 15th green, it stills manages to churn up considerable dust for the moment.
Darren Clarke, the reigning Open Champion, has now come out openly arguing the validity of a 260 yards par-three and has rendered it as a green designed primarily on the basis of the length and has nothing creative about it.
“Rumour has it that the 15th is 265 yards off the back tee so that's a cunning par-three, isn't it? At some stage they are going to realise that length is not the way to toughen up the golf course,” said Clarke in a press conference.
And many of the rumours are not just rumours. Legend has it that the notorious par-three is normally used by the club members for betting on the longest drives and accuracy on the greens for the nearest pin competition, and is seldom played the way it should
be.
“The best par-threes are often the short ones and at some stage somebody is going to figure that out,” Clarke added.
The 42-year-old Irishman would have kept a low profile and probably have avoided lashing out on the course design but now being an Open champion, Clarke’s words are weighed and analyzed more carefully than before. Besides, Clarke is not the only one who
has criticized the 15th hole. His countryman world number Luke Donald has already spoken about his dislike for the 15th hole.
“I've never been a fan of long par-threes,” said Donald, who is known to have shorter drives, which brings considerable disadvantage to the player.
Meanwhile Clarke continued, “The greatest par-threes are all short. The Postage Stamp at Troon is just 126 yards.”
The club officials defend the design, stating that the hole is slightly downhill which helps the player off the tee. What makes the hole all the more difficult is the water hazard which engulfs the green on the right, taking considerable chunk off the face
of the green.
The golfer aiming for the pin will have to clear the hazard on the right and carefully manage his shot to avoid the slope beyond the green. There are also two bunkers strategically placed beyond the green to lure in any over-shot drives off the green.
In 2001 episode of the event, the 15th hole carded the highest scores other than the 18th. David Toms was the only player who pulled in a Hole-In-One during the 2001 PGA Championship and went over to win the 83rd installment
of the event.
Most of the players tend to aim at the left centre of the green and a new elevated tee has been added to add further yardage to the hole.
The 93rd PGA Championship is all set to kick off this weekend with the top ranking field of the sport. Martin Kaymer will be defending his title he won last year over a nail-biting Playoff.
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