By D. A. Weibring
This past week the PGA Senior Championship returned to Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond, Oklahoma. In 1988 I played in the PGA Championship that Jeff Sluman won on the same golf course. I can't remember the winning score, but it was only a few under par. And, for this Championship, the PGA, Pete Dye and Mark Hayes made sure Oak Tree was ready for one more challenge.
To prepare the course, I was told that Pete Dye did one of the 9's and Mark Hayes, who lives nearby, re-did the other. Mark softened some of the contours in the greens and then Pete came back and added several small bunkers. But what really hit me while playing the golf course was that it was in perfect condition; heavily over-seeded, the fairways were fantastic, and the greens were, too.
Oak Tree is known for wind, and we had plenty of it in the practice rounds on Tuesday, but reasonable conditions on Wednesday. The wind actually wasn't too bad for the first two days of the tournament, but on Saturday it really blew hard. Come Sunday it's the PGA tournament staff that decides how the golf course will play, especially with pin placements.
At some point they decided to stay with their pin positions regardless of how the wind blew. And, when the wind blows really hard like it did on Sunday some pins simply aren't accessible. What became clear to me was that this golf course really wasn't designed to play in the wind, which is interesting since we all know that in Oklahoma there's always a friendly breeze blowing. Word is that the original owners wanted Pete Dye to build a golf course that was as challenging as any golf course could be especially played in the wind.
I remember when the PGA West was built in Palm Springs, the owners actually put it in writing for Pete to build as hard a golf course as you could build. Now, the difference between Oak Tree and PGA West is not the water and the elevation in greens as you might suspect; it's that Palm Springs has a near perfect climate, and in Oklahoma the wind blows all of the time. In addition, there were only a couple of holes on Oak Tree that would allow you to bounce the ball on the green, otherwise you faced giant contours around the greens, deep bunkers, tight chipping areas, challenging rough, and undulating greens. Needless to say, Oak Tree is a considerable challenge with or without the wind.
From my comments last week, you know that I was really expecting some high rough, but it was not as deep as I had anticipated, and the fairways were adequately wide even with the wind. The PGA did adjust the tees forward on 9 and 18 because of the wind, and they also flip-flopped them to better accommodate the grandstands. So, they did make some adjustments, but it was still a very, very challenging golf course and to the PGA's credit, the guys in contention coming down the stretch played very, very well.
Gil Morgan, who lives right at the entry gate of Oak Tree and has been there since the inception of the golf course, had the lead all the way until about the last 9 holes. Peter Jacobsen played well and Dana Quigley had a nice bounce back week. Brad Bryant, who has won twice this year, was closing fast, but the day belonged to Jay Haas who has had a fantastic year winning for a third time. All in all, there were some good players out there playing very well.
I feel like I played well, too. If you remember, I thought that driving would be very important and I did drive the ball well. My greens in regulation stats were very good, as was my recovery around the greens. I think I hit 16 greens in regulation on Friday and Saturday, and only a few less on Sunday. But, I made a big mistake on Sunday.
After shooting scores of even, even and one under (I think the second best score of the day on Saturday), I bogied the first hole on Sunday and then missed several good chances to score on 2 through 6. On number 7 I hit a bad tee shot that clipped the top of a tree and threw it into the lake that runs between the 6th and the 7th holes. I had no place to go and had to drop my ball in the rough; then I hit it into the high rough, and made triple bogey from there.
I made one other bogey the rest of the way in and didn't make a birdie all day. I shot 76 and dropped from 7th down to 10th.But you're always reasonably satisfied if you finish in the top 10 of a major. I still haven't putted very well so far this year, except for the opening event, but I'm starting to show signs of hitting some good putts and I have high hopes for the next couple of weeks.
Overall, it was a good championship and even though I thought several pins were stretched a little bit on some of the hogbacks and corners of the greens, the PGA Tournament committee wound up with players who'd been playing their best coming down the stretch. Jay Haas will be a great champion for the Oak Tree PGA Senior Championship.
By the time you read this, I'll already be in Iowa at the Allianz Championship. The tournament returns to Glen Oaks, a Tom Fazio course. I won there two years ago and then they changed venues last year, so I'm anxious to get back. It's a very challenging golf course located in the hills of Iowa with some pretty fast greens. They probably will have a little more rough, and I'm hoping I can carry some momentum built up over the last couple of weeks all the way to Iowa and the Allianz Championship.
