‘A thrills and spills kind of place’: Why the Ocean Course will provide major drama
Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course was created to host championships.
That will be evident as it hosts the 103rd PGA Championship from Thursday through Sunday.
“I think this is a fantastic venue for a golf tournament, especially a Ryder Cup,” Lee Westwood said. “It’s a thrills and spills kind of place.”
The Pete Dye-designed golf behemoth along the South Carolina coast hosted the 1991 Ryder Cup shortly after its opening, which became known as the “War by the Shore” in large part because of the course’s difficulty and the carnage it created.
It has since hosted additional significant tournaments including a pair of World Cups and the 2007 Senior PGA Championship, culminating with the 2012 PGA Championship.
That major was largely deprived of drama by Rory McIlroy, who outplayed his competitors and cruised to an eight-shot win at 13-under 275.
But if the second major of the 2021 season is close down the stretch, the pressure the course’s challenging layout and conditions puts on players will likely contribute to the drama that it was designed to provide.
“I think it’s a stern test. It’s a great course,” said CBS golf analyst and six-time major champion Nick Faldo. “It’s amazing what Pete Dye did there because he took a natural coastline, leveled it dead flat like a runway and started again and created a links. It has all the Pete Dye traits of how awkward and how difficult it is. There’s nothing easy from the minute you step on the first tee to the 18th green.”
Why the Ocean Course is so difficult
The course is both beautiful and daunting. It winds through marsh, alligator-infested lagoons and sand dunes, with 10 holes hugging the Atlantic Ocean coastline and the other eight running parallel to them with views of the ocean.
What makes the Ocean Course somewhat uniquely difficult is it plays like both a links course and inland course. The links aspects are the setting, susceptibility to seaside winds and dunes on the outskirts of the playing areas. The inland features are elevated greens that largely repel low run-up shots, and collection or natural areas around greens that create difficult up-and-down scenarios.
“I think this golf course is possibly the toughest championship course on a day-to-day basis that these players will ever see, especially if the wind blows a little bit,” said ESPN golf analyst and two-time U.S. Open winner Curtis Strange. “. . . But I love it. I think it’s terrific, and I’m anxious to see how it plays.”
Wind is always potentially the course’s primary defense, and length has become even more of a factor this year. Playing up to 7,876 yards it is 200 yards longer than it played in 2012, when it initially set the record for the longest major course, and is 135 yards longer than what is now the second longest major course, Erin Hills during the 2017 U.S. Open.
“It is very intimidating looking at the scorecard,” said 2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas. “I noticed it last week when someone sent me a scorecard and I noticed the back nine was 4,000 yards and I think I actually laughed out loud when I saw it because I was looking at the numbers.”
The PGA has alerted players that the tees used on each hole could be changing each day, and Thomas believes the yardage and tee box options on each hole may be necessary to make the course play the desired yardage each day depending on the anticipated wind direction and speed.
“They can’t possibly play it that long unless they get a day when there’s absolutely no wind,” Thomas said. “. . . I mean they can’t play 14, that par-3 back if you have this wind [Tuesday], guys will literally be hitting driver on that hole. Unless the PGA wants seven-hour rounds I wouldn’t advise it. It is extremely long and it plays all of its yardage even when the tees are moved up when the holes are into the wind.”
In addition to bombers who can handle the length, Strange likes players this week who can move the ball both directions depending on the wind and have a solid short game to recover from difficult greenside situations.
“This is the type of golf course you’ve got to keep it in play and set up second shots,” Strange said. “Controlling trajectory this week will be important. Those guys who don’t bomb it, what are their strengths? Their strengths are consistency, accuracy and getting the most out of their game.”
Though storms aren’t predicted during the tournament by weather.com, consistent winds on Kiawah Island are predicted to be at least 12 mph for three of the four days, and they’ll undoubtedly be stronger on the coastline.
A stormy and blustery day can result in a field scoring average of 78, as it did in the second round in 2012. “Probably the best round of the week for me was the Friday. I shot 75, which I was delighted with,” McIlroy said.
Differences in the layout from 2012 to 2021
Not a lot has been done to the Ocean Course since the last PGA there nine years ago, but there are a few changes.
The additional 200 yards have largely been added to some par-4s with new back tee boxes, and some trees have been relocated. For instance, McIlroy hit his ball into a tree on the relatively short par-4 third hole in the third round in 2012, and though that tree was felled during a storm, another tree has been put in its place.
The change in seasons for the PGA, which was the season’s final major in August in 2012, results in some different grasses.
The course’s warm-weather Seashore paspalum grass have been overseeded for the winter and spring, and McIlroy believes that will create more challenging shots around greens.
“Last time in August it was hot, humid. The paspalum was like really strong and dense and lush so the ball would just sit right up on top and it was so easy to just get your lob wedge out and clip it and spin it,” McIlroy said. “I feel this year it’s a little more bare, a touch linksy in places especially with the wind and the dry weather so I don’t think it’s going to be quite as simple as it was around the greens like last time.
“The one thing I remember about being here last time is I chipped and putted so well that week and that’s what won me the tournament. If the wind keeps up like this again this week that’s what you’re going to have to do well is chip and putt well. But I think you’re going to see guys playing a lot of different shots this week than maybe you saw back in 2012 around the greens.”
Criticisms of the venue in the past
The course has had hiccups and been criticized at previous championships.
At the 2007 Senior PGA, balls were plugging too easily and too often in the soft sand in bunker faces. That perhaps cost then-leader Eduardo Romero the tournament when his tee shot to the par-3 14th sank deep into the sand. Romero pulled the ball out and made a double bogey.
That was addressed prior to the 2012 PGA Championship, when logistical issues arose because of the increased attendance.
With the Ocean Course several miles onto an isolated island that has just one four-lane road to and from it, spectators endured long waits to get onto and off the island and to and from parking areas. The sand dunes are also a tough walk for many spectators.
Organizers have made transportation adjustments this year, and the coronavirus has largely resolved many of the complications, as the PGA of America is limiting attendance to 10,000 spectators because of COVID-19.
So what can we expect this week at Kiawah?
“I think it’s going to be as enjoyable a major as we’ve gone to for a while because anything could happen,” ESPN golf analyst and two-time U.S. Open champion Andy North said. “. . . Anything can happen on this golf course. I mean, you can be 4-under par with six holes to play and shoot 75. I mean, that can happen here. I think a guy could win this tournament shooting 75 or 76 one day, as crazy as that sounds in today’s world.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
