I’ve come down with the flu so can’t work, can’t golf. So what do you do other than muse about golf architecture?

I listened to couple of Fried Egg podcasts and Andy talks about the narrowness of fairways on the tour and how boring this is to watch as it didn’t give players any options other than to aim down the middle. He made some specific criticisms of the changes at Augusta over the years.

I sort of agree but I don’t know how wide fairways would play as the tour starts filling up with more youngsters as long as or longer than DJ, Bubba and Cameron Champ.

These guys are long, I mean super long, with some in reserve. To give you an idea, Champ’s ball speed of 195 swinging in balance with a 44” shaft would have been competitive in World Long Dive competition 20 years ago.

The thing that protects the shorter hitters on tour like Furyk is the narrowness of the fairways. If the fairways were wider and you let these bombers open their shoulders, I don’t think it will matter what side of the fairway they come from. Unless the greens were rock hard, they’ll be able to stop it.

It is much harder for longer hitters to hit the fairway as the fairways are rectangular in shape, not flared like a discus/hammer throwing field. Any side spin will have magnified effect with the higher ball speed as well.

Any thoughts? G69? Benno?