Pros Declare Hazards Difficult

Jack Nicklaus raked his bunkers at the Memorial this week, and some of the tour pros are miffed, as related in this AP story from the Washington Post:

The large group at 69 included Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, Fred Couples and Nick Price, most of whom had one thing in common -- they could do without the furrows left behind in the bunkers by the gap-tooth rakes being used as an experiment this week.

"I don't like it at all," Price said. "It's a bit of pot luck, to be honest. You can get in there and have a perfect lie when it lands on top of a groove, then you can have another one that goes in the trough, and you've got no chance."

You have a chance not to arrive in a bunker.

Love didn't bother stopping to talk, perhaps because he would have said something that offended tournament host Jack Nicklaus. Mickelson, the most pragmatic of the bunch, was tied for the lead until he hit into a fairway bunker and made bogey on the 17th, and he failed to get up-and-down from short of the 18th for another bogey.

"Everybody has to play it," Mickelson said. "These bunkers are just a different variety than we're used to."

There are tough greens all around the PGA, and placing your ball in exactly the right place out of a bunker, especially if you're short-sided, can be tough. But escaping from most of these beautifully sanded bunkers is a piece of cake for the pros, and it really shouldn't be. I see The Golf Blog doesn't like Jack's setup, partly on the theory that competitors haven't had a chance to practice under the new conditions. Well, hit the green, guys. Problem solved.