What makes Pebble Beach such a good U.S. Open venue?
One of the beauties about it, it’s kind of an equalizer where it’s not all about length. Too much of the game today is predicated on how far you hit it, not on the quality of the shot that’s made. It’s one of the great attributes of Pebble Beach, that its maintained it’s integrity through all this change in technology and equipment. Why is it such an ‘equalizer’? The greens are the smallest of any in championship golf. When you have that, and you’re playing short irons into greens – which most of the par 4s are short-iron par 4s – it’s about the quality of the shot to get it close (to the hole) and hit the greens. If you move (the tees) back so that the average-length hitter is hitting a 5-iron into the green, and the long hitter is hitting a 9-iron, now you’ve taken that element of the quality of the shot out, and given the advantage to the long hitter. Which hole provides a good example of that? The eighth hole at Pebble Beach is one of the great par 4s of all time. The tee shot is a
