ESPN Golf

Updated: August 19, 2006, 8:37 PM ET

Medinah plays long, but not difficult

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By Bob Harig
Special to ESPN.com
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MEDINAH, Ill. -- It sure doesn't look that easy. Not with the tall trees that frame the fairways, the deep rough that swallows up golf balls, the tricky greens that make for interesting reads and a scorecard that shows the longest course in major championship history.

Those words have been used often in recent years, and it almost never matters.

Medinah Country Club's No. 3 course measured 7,561 yards Thursday for the opening round of the 88th PGA Championship, but professional golfers treated it as if it were 1,000 yards shorter.

To combat technology, courses get longer, and the best players in the world still go low. On Thursday, they produced more subpar rounds than have ever been recorded in any round of a PGA Championship.

"Distance doesn't mean anything to these guys," said CBS-TV analyst Gary McCord.

"I've heard a lot about it's the longest course in major championship history, but it's not playing quite that long," said Stewart Cink, who shot 4-under 68.

Red numbers were all over the scoreboard in the opening round, proving once again that a long course in good weather does little to affect pro golfers, even ones not deemed to be long hitters.

Cink, Billy Andrade, Luke Donald, Fred Funk … you won't see their names atop the driving distance statistics. But they hit it far enough and have solid enough games in other areas that they are able to still score.

And yet, long drivers such as Lucas Glover, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia are also on the board.

"I think we knew the scores were going to be low because the greens were receptive, and they're putting so true," Mickelson said. "I love the way the PGA sets the course up fair. There's nothing ridiculous about it, no pin placements that are on slopes, no fairways that are eight yards wide. It's just a good, straightforward test of golf, and the low score wins."

The average golfer would have trouble breaking 100 on such a course, and single-digit handicappers would almost certainly not be able to break 80 on anything but a career day. This course is hard. Very hard. Just not for those considered among the best.

"If it were really wet, if the ball wasn't rolling, if you put a lot of long irons in and the guys who hit it around my distance … then I think the length would be a huge difference," said Jim Furyk, who shot 70. "It's always an advantage to have length and be able to hit the ball far and high and spin the ball and have some options.

"But there's still a lot more important things I think on this golf course, as far as you still have to drive the ball extremely well. And the greens are very severe from back to front on a lot of them. I would love to be 20 yards longer, don't get me wrong. But usually at major championships -- usually -- length is not a factor. We've played a few courses where that is the case."

It was certainly the case last month at the British Open, where Royal Liverpool played considerably shorter due to hard, fast conditions.

Medinah is not playing nearly as fast because the greens and fairways are softer, but not soft enough to make it overly long. The fairways are not as narrow as, say, the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in June. And the rough is not nearly as severe.

"It's not just a one-dimensional golf course," said Funk, 50, who shot 69. "Across the board, I think a golf course setup, whether it's short or long, if you look at the leaderboard, short hitter, medium hitter or long hitter, it's going to reward guys who are playing well.

"The course doesn't play to the length, not to the length that it is. There's a lot of doglegs, and obviously they measure the doglegs point to point. The ball is running out a little bit. It just doesn't play quite that long."

And that's coming from a guy who is one of the shortest drivers on tour.

On a hard course, the best players still have a way of making it look easy.

Bob Harig covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at harig@sptimes.com.