ANATOMY OF A DIFFICULT COURSE

WHAT THE OCEAN COURSE AT KIAWAH ISLAND, SITE OF THIS YEAR’S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP, TEACHES US ABOUT OVERCOMING CHALLENGING LAYOUTS

- DEREK DUNCAN

All golf courses are difficult for those playing poorly. Others have difficulty bred into them. When the professionals take on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island for the PGA Championship May 20-23, they will be playing the most difficult course in recent major-championship history. Only six courses in the United States have a higher combined USGA Course and Slope Rating than the Ocean Course’s 79.1 and 155 off tees measuring nearly 7,900 yards, numbers that seem almost surreal—but they are real. Only one of those six courses, Oak Tree National, has ever been the site of a men’s major (the 1988 PGA Championship).

As daunting as those figures are, viewers shouldn’t necessarily expect a bloodletting at Kiawah. A Course Rating reflects the predicted score of a scratch golfer playing his or her best off that set of tees, but not even the tour pros will be asked to take on the full weight of the design. In fact, it’s unlikely the course will ever play to its maximum yardage. The switching, unpredictable east-west coastal winds that mirror the east-west routing of the holes means those 7,900 yards are needed for flexibility—some days half the holes could face stiff headwinds, and the next, with the wind coming from a different direction, they might play 50 or even 100 yards shorter. (In May, with cooler temperatures, a confusing north wind cutting across the line of play is also possible.) Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer for the PGA of America, and his team will try to anticipate the wind direction and adjust tees forward or back accordingly. Guessing wrong could result in long days and grumbling competitors.

Instruction advice provided by Abby Welch, a teacher at the Kiawah Island Resort, with Matthew Rudy.