Medinah will be a long distance test

At this rate, it might not be long before a major championship is contested on a golf course measuring 8,000 yards.

"I hope I don't ever see one," Justin Leonard said. ``It might make caddies obsolete, because they won't be able to walk that far."

That may be stretching it, but the truth is in the yardage book.

Of all the changes made to Augusta National Golf Club for this year's Masters, most of the attention was on the teeing areas moved back 25 yards on Nos. 2 and 17. Carnoustie Golf Links, already the toughest links course in the world, was the longest course in Open Championship history, measuring a mighty 7,361 yards.

Pinehurst No. 2 was the longest par-70 for a U.S. Open in 44 years. It featured six par-4s of at least 445 yards, including two of more than 480 yards.

And now this.

Medinah Country Club, site of the 81st PGA Championship that starts Thursday, will play at an estimated 7,401 yards. That's the longest course in a major championship since 1967, when the PGA was played at Columbine Country Club, 7,436 yards long in the mile-high air outside Denver.

Tiger Woods played Medinah, a three-time U.S. Open site, six weeks ago when he was in Chicago for the Western Open.

"I talked to the course superintendent. He said the PGA of America wants the golf course to play harder than it was in the U.S. Open," Woods said. "Obviously, it will play a little longer than it was in the U.S. Open. And it will probably play pretty tough."

Not that anyone should be surprised.

In 1980, Dan Pohl led the PGA Tour in driving distance at 274.3 yards. Going into the Buick Open, 75 players averaged longer off the tee, and the average for drives among all PGA Tour players was 272.4 yards.

"The game has changed," Mark O'Meara said. ``In the last 10 years, it's a power game -- but it's a power game with touch. When I go out and play with Tiger and David Duval, these guys are hitting 40 yards by me."

Exactly how long Medinah will play won't be known until the championship starts Thursday. Woods thinks the tee boxes will be up on a few holes, meaning it might be "only" 7,300-plus. And defending champion Vijay Singh notes that most of the yardage can be accounted for on the par-5s -- the shortest is 530 yards, the other three are more than 580 yards.

"Although it's playing 7,400 yards, a lot of holes are going downhill," Singh said. "And most of the par-5s are long, so that's where all the distances are. The tour's average is quite long now, so I don't think it's going to play anywhere as long as what they say it will for us."

That's not to say Medinah won't play plenty tough.

Medinah was the site of the 1949, 1975 and 1990 U.S. Opens. And while it never played quite this long, it has a reputation of putting up a good fight to protect par.

Cary Middlecoff and Lou Graham won the first two Opens over-par. Hale Irwin was 8-under-par in 1990, but that was partially because the USGA mowed the rough and Mother Nature dumped enough rain to take the fright out of the slick, rock-hard greens.

Even if the players are longer because of titanium, graphite shafts, high-tech balls and their own conditioning, Medinah won't be reduced to driver-pitching wedge.

"I'm practicing with a lot of 3- and 4-irons ... knowing that's coming up," said Leonard, who also took a sneak peek of Medinah during the Western Open.

"You're going to have to drive the ball well because of the length of the golf course," he said. "You're going to have to hit it straight. You're going to have to hit some good mid- to long-iron shots. It's going to test everything."

The majors have clearly tested everything this year, although length isn't the sole factor.

José Maria Olazábal won the Masters with the lowest score of any major in 1999, an 8-under 280. Payne Stewart conquered the domed-shaped greens of Pinehurst that were particularly difficult to hold with long irons. He won at 1-under 279.

The combination of length, wind and fairways as wide as a model's waist made Carnoustie a brute. Paul Lawrie won a playoff after finishing at 6-over 290.

"These golf courses certainly have held up," Leonard said.

There is one test left on what is known as the "Monster of the Midwest." Medinah combines its length with 4,161 trees that could be a daunting view from the tee box. The edge goes to the player who can keep it in the short grass. It won't hurt to be long off the tee.

"I've always said there's no course that's not good for a long hitter if he plays well," Fred Couples said. "That's an advantage.''

AP