Distance and Direction

Before the PGA Championship began, the critics howled that Baltusrol's extreme length would eliminate much of the field from contention. But, Jim Litke says, some of the longest hitters around are showing that direction matters as much as distance.

By Jim Litke, AP Sports Columnist

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- Three of the longest drivers in golf teed off together Thursday on the second-longest course in PGA Championship history, amid a sustained howl that it still might not be long enough.

If only the game were that simple.

John Daly hit his opening drive a hefty 320 yards, the last 25 of which veered wide right of the tree line and caused him more harm than good. His golf ball wound up beneath a spreading shrub the size of a beach umbrella, from where, without going into too much painful detail, Daly wound up disgustedly tapping in his final stroke with one hand and the back of his putter for a double-bogey 6.

Playing partner Vijay Singh hit his tee shot off No. 1 some 20 yards farther, and 10 yards less off-line. But all that earned him was a spot in the long, thick rough on the right, where the recently resodded Kentucky bluegrass is better suited for grazing than golfing. He wound up making bogey 5.

Only Davis Love III, last off the first tee, hit the fairway and then the green with his approach shot and walked off with a routine par.

It might not be fair to make too much of the tee shots of three golfers on the opening hole of a major championship, especially since No. 1, a par 4 of 478 yards with a reasonably wide fairway, was never even mentioned in the distance debate.

Some players have pointed to the increased length at Baltusrol Golf Club, now stretched to 7,392 yards -- 240 more than when the U.S. Open was played here a dozen years ago -- and say it makes it impossible to have a shot at winning.

They've singled out Nos. 3 and 7, a pair of par 4s that run more than 500 yards. And they've wondered what the PGA of America was thinking when it let architect Rees Jones add 30 yards to a par 5 that was already 620 yards, and had been reached in two shots only twice -- once by Daly in 1993 -- in the club's 110-year history.

"I don't know if that's necessary," Justin Leonard said. "I think it creates a buzz and that's probably what they want. I mean, 620, 650, what does it matter?"

It matters a great deal, though, to the shorter hitters on tour. No less an authority than Jack Nicklaus said the day before the tournament started that there were only 10 to 15 players who hit the ball long enough to win it. "Unfortunately," added Nicklaus, who's been campaigning against the improved technology of both ball and club for more than a decade, "I think that's the truth."

It matters even more to the people who own historic layouts that have run out of real estate and moved perilously close to the extinct list, like Merion, Inverness and The Country Club. They've grown the rough as high as they dared, built bunkers where members would be lucky to reach with two shots, and made the putting surfaces slick as garage floors. And like Baltusrol, they're barely hanging on.

Augusta National, home course for the Masters, paid neighboring Augusta Country Club $500,000 a few years back for a piece of land the size of two parking spaces so it could move a tee back on one hole. Chairman Hootie Johnson has already announced a second wave of changes for next year to keep the golf course, in his words, "current."

Critics say the improved technology behind the 15-yard jump in driving distance over the last 10 years -- Scott Hend currently tops the PGA Tour list at 318 yards per drive -- means all players are hitting a club or two shorter into the greens. And yet, the gain has barely been reflected in scoring average, which is down only a fraction during that same time, from 71.18 in 1996 to 71.13 last year.

Told about Nicklaus' comments, Singh responded, "I would say it's the other way around. I think there are only 10 or 15 guys out there that may not be able to win this tournament. Everybody out there is hitting the ball a long ways."

The same debate was taking place in golf 100 years ago and may be going strong 100 years from now. What's changed is that some players now hit the golf ball so far that hitting it straight has become less important, especially with the way power hitters have learned to scythe through the rough. What hasn't changed, and probably never will, is finding the optimal balance between distance and direction.

Daly, who found just five of 14 fairways all day, managed to shoot 71. Singh hit two more fairways and carved out an even-par 70. Love was the straightest arrow in the group, putting his tee shot in the fairways nine times in all, hitting all but two greens in regulation and finishing at 68, a stroke off the opening-round lead.

Afterward, Love said finding that blend wasn't easy, especially since no one likes being the short hitter in any group.

"I've been a little tentative lately, so it certainly didn't hurt playing with John and Vijay," he said. "That made it easier to go after it a little harder."

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.