Bunker Mentality

Golf's Sistine Chapel

Wed Oct 21 07:15PM

Bunker Mentality is shocked by ill-informed criticism of the R&A's changes to the famous Road Hole, the 17th at St Andrews.

In 1980 the Vatican began an enormous restoration project on one of the greatest masterpieces in the world of art: Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The restoration took 12 excruciating years and cost millions of lira and revealed a work of previously unsuspected vibrancy, colour and passion.

It turned out that centuries of dust, dirt and carbon from the burning of candles had coated the entire ceiling - and the entire chapel, for that matter - with a layer of gloom. No longer were the legendary frescoes a shadowy and ethereal collection of images; instead, they were revealed as a joyous and powerful celebration of the link between God and man.

It almost goes without saying that many people were appalled. The mere fact of change doomed the Vatican's efforts to condemnation from traditionalists, who were so shocked and appalled that to this day, nearly two decades after the project was completed, there are still people out there who believe the restoration amounts to a desecration of one of the great artistic achievements of mankind.

And now the R&A will know exactly how the various cardinals at the Vatican felt at that moment.

That's because the overlords of the game announced last week that they are to make a massive change to golf's Sistine Chapel, the Old Course at St Andrews. A new tee is being built on the iconic 17th, the Road Hole, which will add a few dozen yards in time for the 2010 Open.

The thinking behind the change is that modern technology has changed the nature of the tee shot to such an extent that it has become too easy to bomb a drive over the sheds and flip a short iron to the green. Extra length will merely restore the challenge that players previously faced - a challenge which has been diminished - and return the hole to how it was previously played in the early part of the 20th century, and how it was originally intended to be played.

But given the chorus of outrage that has greeted their decision in many quarters you'd have thought that they'd announced they were going to dye the grass pink.

People are saying it's outrageous that the new tee lies just outside the traditional boundary of the course; they are complaining that the hole was already hard enough; and they are insisting that since the hole was played as a par-five until the early 1960s it is nonsensical to speak of restoring the challenge faced in the pre-war years.

They add that on a course which developed over many centuries nobody can be certain how anyone originally intended a certain hole to be played.

These objections, however, are utter rubbish.

The fact that the tee has been moved over the old railway line is irrelevant. Has it occurred to none of the traditionalists that the whole place probably looked pretty different before the railway was built in the first place?

And while the hole might have been played as a par-five for a few years, the concept of a par score is actually a fairly recent invention in the context of golf history - not to mention completely irrelevant.

Par is simply a way of keeping track of your own progress and comparing like with like when moving between courses. It is completely irrelevant in a tournament such as the Open when the only thing that matters is the four-round total - and that's why there's no such thing about how hard or otherwise the hole is, or will become.

And besides that, the Old Course already includes as many as four driveable par-fours (depending on wind and ground conditions) and two reachable par-fives.

The final objection - that there is no way of saying how any hole on the Old Course was originally intended to play - is the most laughable of the lot.

Of course there isn't, but isn't it enough that Old Tom Morris and co decided to beef up the challenge by sticking the tee behind the railway sheds in the 19th Century?

Because it was that change which made the Road Hole the icon that it has become.
The drive IS supposed to be a brute: it's supposed to be a balance of risk and reward.

The longer, tighter drive over the shed runs close to the out of bounds, but shortens the approach; while the shorter, safer, route to the left is risk-free from the tee but leaves an all-but impossible approach.

That is the challenge that used to face the best players in the world, and it is still the challenge that faces the thousands of amateurs who play the course each year.

And that is the challenge which the new tee will restore. It's the single best thing that could have been done to the Old Course for next year's 150th Open, and Bunker Mentality for one can't wait to see the world's best try the challenge as it used to be.