TPC at Scottsdale

From boring to exciting.  That's the PGA from last week to this week.  Torrey Pines was a snooze, but luckily, Scottsdale is much more interesting.  Now, I'm not going to claim that it's a particularly good golf course, I certainly wouldn't put it on any top 100 list.  It's not bad, but it's not great.  It isn't very hard, and I think that's a good thing.  The course will give up lots of birdies if you play it well, but there's enough trouble that if you miss some shots, you're going to make bogeys.  There are two decent eagle opportunities in the last four holes, and even the last hole is not too difficult, which is a welcome change from something like the last hole at TPC Sawgrass.

Scottsdale is set up very well for spectators, and the 16th hole is one of the most exciting holes in golf during the tournament, thanks to its stadium setting.  It's a shortish par 3 with a large green and no water, but whenever a guy steps up to the tee, he's got 25,000 rowdy fans watching him, and suddenly a simple short iron becomes not so easy.  This tournament is ridiculously popular, and while I think the course is simply set up to handle a lot of people, it is also geared towards producing exciting golf, and contrary to what a lot of people think, golf can be a very interesting spectator sport.  There's about 170,000 people on that course, and they're there because the golf being played is worth watching.  I really think that the PGA Tour would be better off if they played courses like Scottsdale every week.