19th Hole
Do we need alternatives to adding distance to PGA Tour tracks?
As even the most casual fans of this maddening game know, since the advent of titanium drivers, the golf courses of the PGA Tour have been adding yardage to preserve difficulty. Since 1990, for example, Augusta National has added more than 500 yards.
GolfWRX member MadMaxx makes an interesting point about the added yardage at PGA Tour tracks, offering alternative suggestions for ratcheting up the difficulty level that don’t necessarily adversely affect shorter hitters.
“Lengthening courses only makes it harder for shorter hitters. If it were up to me I would shorten the courses. The big hitters would be able to drive the par 4’s but make the risk/reward very penal.
“Hit it short, left,right or long and make them pay around the greens. Water, pot bunkers, domed greens, run offs into trouble. Any landing spots in short iron range should be undulating so they never have an even lie and have unpredictable kicks. Pot bunkers put the fear into anyone. Make the most favorable landing areas for approaches reachable by even the shortest hitters.”
“Of course, this would necessitate some serious earth moving, which is one of the knocks against lengthening courses. Also, tour pros would hate just about everything he proposes. However, at least courses wouldn’t face the “running out of real estate” issue, and Maxx offers a potential remedy for the obsolescence of classic courses.”
Disco111 agrees
“In truth, this is exactly what the tour needs.”
Lijka writes
“I agree, there are a lot of ways to make golf more interesting. We don’t have to tack on a few hundred yards onto every course just to make par a bit harder to reach. There are all sorts of ways to make things more intellectual and tricky in order to make it more entertaining and/or difficult (if that is really the goal). I do think though that regardless of course set up and all other things being equal, being a long hitter will always be a natural advantage and the goal shouldn’t be to punish those that are.”
Cardoustie agrees and offers this perspective.
“The other part you’re missing is that these big courses are longer but ALSO wayyyyy WIDER. Definitely easier for bombers. Big targets and HUGE greens. I keep using this example. Merion GC at 2013 US Open that Rose won … 6,996 yards. High rough, small tilted greens, narrow fairways = higher scores.”
Of course, wildcatden’s, point that there are other ways to make courses difficult may be the most salient of all. He offers this image.
What do you think about lengthening vs. toughening courses, GolfWRX members? Join the discussion in the forum.
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
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