What type of layout is your home course? Is it short and tight? Is it long and wide open? Is it short and wide open? Big greens with lots of slope or small and flat?
And if you've had more than one home course, did you find that your golf fame evolved?
I grew up playing two golf courses. The first course was short and wide open. Off the tee, I tried to get as much power on the ball as I could, knowing that there was no tremendous downside for foul balls.
The second course was only 6,700 yards, but it was extremely narrow. As such, my game had to evolve to keep the ball in play, but I sacrificed distance.
My game continued to adapt. When I first got my PGA membership, the course at which I worked encouraged a right-to-left ball flight. I have adapted to super soft greens, fast greens, firm greens, and now to sidehill lies with less than driver off the tee.
So, what about PGA Tour players and the courses they face on a yearly basis?
There are 47 courses on the 2025 PGA Tour schedule, and only four are less than 7,000 yards: Port Royal (Butterfield Bermuda Championship), TPC River Highlands (Travelers Championship), Yokohama Country Club (Baycurrent Classic, and Pebble Beach. The longest is Torrey Pines (Farmers Insurance Open) at 7,765 yards (Torrey Pines), with the annual average hovering around 7,200 yards.
The top players in the world are used to facing a long golf course and understandably work extremely hard to find as much distance in their swings and equipment as possible.
What about accuracy?
The PGA Tour does its best to attempt to find a balance with the rough’s length and density that rewards finding the fairways while sufficiently penalizing players for missing the fairway—but without slowing play too much. Hit it farther offline? Get it outside the ropes where the galleries walk, and you actually have a much easier lie than just off the fairway.
If players are used to having a manageable lie when they miss fairways, I could see how they focus more on distance and power and less on keeping the golf ball in play.
What about the greens? Except for the unexpectedly wet week or the mid-to-late summer events on bentgrass greens, the Tour plays on firm and fast greens. Ever watch a PGA Tour event in person?
Ever notice how high the players hit the ball? That is no accident, as that's what they need for their golf games to compete on Tour courses. What about the speed of the greens? Ever see players really struggle to get the speed of the greens? I am sure it happens, but unless green speeds run slower than 9 or faster than 12, the players will figure it out quickly.
Much has been made about the USGA rolling the golf ball back starting in a few years. And love him or hate him, Brandel Chamblee, in the aftermath of The Players Championship, effectively said that playing more venues like the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, which requires a lot of accuracy, would result in a change in players' games.
I agree with him. Over time, players would play more for control and less for power, and the result would naturally slow down the ball.
He is not wrong. Look at the handful of events that are traditionally tighter courses.
At 7,200 yards, the famously narrow Harbour Town in Hilton Head has hosted the tourney currently known as the RBC Heritage since 1969 and only twice has the winner been 20-under or better (2009, 2020).
At a shade less than 7,200 yards, the narrow and watery PGA National, host of the Cognizant Classic, has seen its winner reach 15-under only twice since becoming the host course in 2007. And those two instances came in the last two years.
The game will continue to evolve regardless of what happens. If the PGA Tour plays shorter courses that require more control and less power, the players will see their games change. If the USGA follows through with the planned ball rollback, the players will see their games develop accordingly.