Waialae's wicked wind wreaks havoc on scores
By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent
HONOLULU -- Bob Estes doesn't necessarily yearn for the days of wooden clubs and balata balls, but on Sunday at the Sony Open in Hawaii, when the winds strafed Waialae Country Club and whistled doubt into every swing, a part of him actually wished for simpler implements.
There's some validity to the concept "too much of a good thing."
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The old-style challenge of Waialae Country Club, designed in 1927 by Seth Raynor, mostly got the better of today's top players and their state-of-the-art equipment in the final round of the Sony Open. Gusting winds assumed the role of the 300-pound bouncer on a sunny afternoon on the east shores of Oahu, and players had to scramble all the way around the 7,044-yard, par-70 layout that is noted for its angular playing areas lined this year by higher than usual rough thanks to heavy rains in December.
Estes, a Texan used to wind-blown examinations, carded a final-round 76 that he neither bemoaned nor cursed, but rather took in stride. He tried on every shot. But some shots he didn't really want to hit.
"On a day like this," he pointed out, "you want to be able to curve the ball, shape into the fairways, hold some shots into the wind. And you want to be able to hit it low, and today's equipment, everything is about launch angle and hitting it in the air. Today's equipment is great, but on a day like this, that's when you know that we are giving up control for a little more distance and a little bit straighter shots."
"Waialae showed its teeth today," said runner-up Rory Sabbatini, who made a remarkable six birdies on the way to a 2-under-par 68 to finish three behind winner K.J. Choi. "Waialae is probably one of the consummate classic golf courses, and I think it's a very fair golf course, but I think at the same time it's extremely tough golf course. So it takes a lot of concentration, a lot of discipline out there."
Yeah, and that's with little wind. And that's basically what players saw for three days -- only a little wind. They were due for one par-buster of a day. "Being lulled to sleep for three days made it tougher," said Jerry Kelly, who finished third after a 67 that represented one of two bogey-free rounds Sunday. George McNeill's 66 was the other.
It wasn't just that the wind was up and gusting, either. It was coming out of the north, meaning there was a lot of crosswind, an evil equalizer in golf. "It was extremely difficult to hit the fairways," said Steve Stricker, who gutted out an even-par 70 to tie for fourth, his second top-5 finish in as many weeks. "Sightlines were just totally different. Basically, you were just guessing."
Golf, to a certain degree, is a guessing game. Feel and judgment and intuition are determinants in ever outcome. But second-guessing brings certain struggles.
"There's a bit of luck involved, because if you can feel like you know what you can do with a shot and what the wind is doing, then you can just go ahead and hit the shot," said last week's winner of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, Daniel Chopra. "But the least little bit of uncertainty is a killer. Then you have problems."
Problems sent golf balls all over the lot. Sixty-eight players averaged 72.162 Sunday. Compare that to the sun-drenched, tranquil third round when 47 men posted par or better scores -- with 39 in the 60s -- and the field averaged 69.265. On Sunday, 16 scores came in at 70 or below and only half of them were under par.
Wind is a staple at the two Hawaiian stops, Kapalua's Plantation Course and Waialae Country Club, but that doesn't correlate to similar challenges and types of shots required to score.
"You know you'll get wind here in Hawaii, but Kapalua is built for the wind," Carl Pettersson said, referring to the wide corridors on the hilly Plantation Course. "This is a traditional golf course. When the wind blows here, you're really going to have a tough time hitting the targets that you need to hit whether it's keeping it in the fairways or holding the greens."
As if all that wasn't enough, the gradual firming up of the golf course conspired against the pros, too, Chopra said.
"You faced a real Catch-22 out there," he said. "You want to hit it high so you can hold the green, but you can't put the ball in the air and leave it at the mercy of the wind. But hitting it low with the firm greens, I hit a couple of beauties today, and the ball just ran right over the back."
The previous points, all salient, connect the dots back to Estes' idea that today's equipment actually made Sunday's challenges at Waialae that much trickier. Not harder, certainly. Just trickier.
"This golf course maybe played a shade easier with old balls and wooden-headed clubs. Or at least maybe those smaller-headed metal drivers," he surmised. "It might have been fun to see what we could have done with the older stuff."
We'll have to save that for another time. Like the past.
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