The 18th hole at St. George's Golf and Country ClubClive Barber
I just ran into Brad Faxon, long-time PGA Tour player and one of the most thoughtful observers of course design. We got on the subject of St. George's Golf and Country Club in Toronto which will play host to next month's RBC Canadian Open.
It's a glorious day at Pebble Beach. The wind is up and the course is firm. There's lots of talk about golf course architecture here, considering the venue. I just ran into Brad Faxon, the long-time PGA Tour player who is doing some television work now. He's one of the most thoughtful observers of course design and, in fact, is a member at the Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington. Donald Ross designed the course, so Faxon, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, advances his knowledge of design every time he plays it.
It wasn't a surprise to me, then, that Faxon and I talked course design here at Pebble. Our discussion took in the St. George's Golf and Country Club in Toronto, which will host the RBC Canadian Open next month. He'll play. His gig this week is for television.
Faxon asked if I'm a fan of St. George's. I am. He told me somebody in Toronto who knows St. George's said the pros will rip up the track because it's too short, yada, yada, yada. I doubt that will happen given the smallish greens and the fairways that have been narrowed and the rough that's growing. But even if it does, so what? PGA Tour players are rather talented.
The more important matter is the question of how the course will be set up. I told Faxon that the big issue is that the crafty greens, most of which Canada's legendary architect Stanley Thompson designed, undulate like the waves on the Pacific out here. Okay, maybe not that much. They're built for shotmaking, not for speed, at least as much speed as the PGA Tour demands week after week on the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour likes its tournament courses to run around 12 on the Stimpmeter.
This device measures how far a ball rolls on a flat portion of a green when slid down a plane inclined to the surface.
"Why should greens have to be that speed every week?" Faxon asked.
"Why shouldn't they be nine when the situation calls for that? The architecture of a course and not the way the tour wants a course to play should dictate the speed."
Let's hope that the slope of the greens at St. George's dictate their speed. Faxon, by the way, has said that there's no reason sand in greenside bunkers should be the same consistency hole to hole. He's also said that green speeds could differ throughout a course. His point is that PGA Tour players are the best in the world. They should be able to adapt to varying conditions. Instead, the mandate is that conditions at PGA Tour courses should be identical at every tournament.
St. George's has the chance to set a different standard. Let's hope it does. It's Canada's national championship and should always set itself apart from PGA Tour courses. That's what U.S. Open courses do. So should Canadian Open courses.