Phoenix Open course offers new hazards

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Players arriving this week for the Phoenix Open will find the course quite different. Even Billy Mayfair, who lives only 15 minutes from it, says so.

A really rough rough. Trees -- lots of them.

"I tell you, it's going to play quite a bit different than it did a year ago," Mayfair said of the TPC of Scottsdale. "The rough is really up, and there's a whole lot of trees out there.

"I keep telling the guys that we now have a tree-lined golf course, but they don't believe me. I guess I can't blame them because I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes."

Despite the changes, Mayfair said the course "is in the best shape I've ever seen it in, especially the greens."

Tom Weiskopf, who built the course with Jay Morrish in 1986, disagrees with some of the changes made at the behest of Bill Chaffee, vice president of competition for the PGA Tour.

For instance, he was against shaving the 12th hole so the ball might run down the bank into the water.

"All I can say is, there might end up being a little bit of a controversy by the end of the tournament," he said.

There are 77 boxed trees as well as expanded desert transition areas, and the course now is 7,060 yards, about 80 yards longer than it was originally. The rough is so dense the tournament will employ fore-caddies to spot drives.

The greens are semi-fast, and that's enough, said Bill Grove, TPC golf director.

"We don't need to make this thing into a putting contest," Grove said. "`There's plenty enough new stuff out there to keep them busy without doing that.

"The rough should make a difference," he said, adding that the trees are especially penalising off the tee because they are strategically located to snag a drive that's pushed or pulled.

There also are 15,000 desert plants -- prickly pear and brittle bush -- but Grove said they probably won't have much impact this year because they aren't quite mature enough.

"But in the future, you won't be able to hit it in the desert without getting entangled in one of them," he added.

Weiskopf said the rough won't have much impact either on top players such as David Duval because "they are super-talented, and they're not going to go there. If a guy plays marginally, however, it's going to cost him a stroke or two each day."

Hole-by-hole yardage and par:

1: 410 yards, par 4
2: 416 yards, par 4
3: 554 yards, par 5
4: 150 yards, par 3
5: 453 yards, par 4
6: 412 yards, par 4
7: 215 yards, par 3
8: 470 yards, par 4
9: 450 yards, par 4
Out: 3,530 yards, par 35

10: 403 yards, par 4
11: 469 yards, par 4
12: 195 yards, par 3
13: 585 yards, par 5
14: 444 yards, par 4
15: 501 yards, par 5
16: 162 yards, par 3
17: 332 yards, par 4
18: 438 yards, par 4
In: 3,529 yards, par 36
Total: 7,059 yards, par 71