Are you saying that they should change the length of the hole or just call it a par 4? If you don't change the length, no one is being treated unfairly.

I agree. You could have every hole be a par 3, 4, or 5.

However, par is supposed to reflect the score a scratch player is expected to score on a given hole. Pros are better than scratch golfers.

Rory reached the green but was 16 or 18 yards short of the flag.

He is one of the longest hitters on tour.

What is a "gap wedge"? Could I use it to get though the gap between the clowns legs? 🤡

The course is soft today.

Rory is not one of the "longest hitters on tour" with his irons. He's in the upper-middle of the pack with irons ... by design.

Rory hit a 3 Iron to the 8th green this morning.

When it's dry and no wind, the 8th is hybrid/driving iron distance for most, 3 wood for a few guys.

I'll be surprised if more than 5-10 players will use Driver today.

https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/commen...e_301yd_par_3/ (You can watch the video, so you can see it's an iron.)

Based on Trackman data and player profiles, here’s a rough estimate of 4-iron carry distances for these players, assuming they exceed the PGA Tour average (209 yards):
- DeChambeau: ~230-240 yards
- Rahm: ~225-235 yards
- McIlroy: ~225-235 yards
- Scheffler: ~220-230 yards
- Finau: ~220-230 yards(

Conclusion
Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, and Tony Finau are among the PGA Tour players likely hitting their irons the longest, particularly long irons (3-iron, 4-iron), due to their high swing speeds, optimized equipment, and elite ball-striking stats. Their ability to carry long irons 220-240 yards, well above tour averages, gives them an edge on long approach shots. For precise distances, we’d need player-specific Trackman data, which isn’t publicly available.

"Trackman data", bears absolutely no relation to PGA Tour performance. Trackman is a ball flight monitor, that is not used (alone) to generate PGA Tour statistics. It's part of the process & used primarily for "viewer enhancement".

ShotLink is the technology that measures actual PGA Tour Event shots. Different process, different technology, different results, different motivation and not simulated ... it's real life.

If you'd like access to direct ShotLink Data, get yourself a subscription to Data Golf APi. If you'd like access to Trackman data, that's available too, but that data isn't PGA Tour real data.

As for Rory, he hits his 4 Iron 225-230 yards? Funny how he hit his 3 Iron onto the 8th Green today, when it was playing 301 yards. 71 Yard gap between his 4 iron and 3 Iron is a fairly large gap, huh?

I never said that trackman numbers have any relation to tour performance. But I think that if you are one of the longer hitters with trackman, you would also be one of the longer hitters on tour.


And you said Rory is not one of the longest hitters with his irons. How many people today hit a shorter club on #8 than Rory’s 3 iron? I didn’t see anyone with a 4 or 5 iron.

That would be inaccurate conclusion, based in dissimilar and anecdotal information .... and 2 incongruous sentences.

I'm sorry, but I hate to be misquoted.

I said That's what the statistics show. ON TOUR Rory isn't typically one of the "longest hitters on Tour with his irons". Could he be if he felt that was important? Probably.

You should have watched more closely.


The premise of the original post, was that the 8th hole was "too long" for many PGA Tour Players.

Players were hitting irons on that hole. I'm sure a couple of guys hit Drivers, but that was rare. There are no players on the PGA Tour that can't reach a 300 yard Par 3 and most of them don't need a Driver to do it.

Not a fair conclusion. 15 other holes averaged lower "in relation to par".

"Par" is an arbitrary number, that doesn't really mean anything, nor is it a characterization of how difficult a hole is.

There's no real way to quantify "hardest", because there's no way to quantify a player's intentions. Players weren't playing #8, with the intention of making "birdie", they were playing it with the intention of not make bogey or double-bogey. Changes the dynamic.

The hardest holes (through 3 rounds), were likely, the 3rd, 9th or 15th. Those holes had the most double-bogeys or higher, score.

It made the tournament interesting, along with the rough and the rain.