A Long Trip Is Ahead of Them

Before this week is over, people could be singing a different tune about Whistling Straits.

What is there not to like about this place?

There’s the 260-yard carry over sand dunes, bunkers and tall grass to reach the 18th fairway. And it usually plays into the wind too.

Or it might be that huge, sandy mound that introduces the 17th green, the one that Stuart Appleby called a “huge zit.”

It may be that the bunkers outnumber the players by about a 10-1 ratio.

The PGA Championship, the last major tournament of the year, begins today on the longest, strangest, newest and possibly one of the most difficult layouts in major championship history.

According to Lee Westwood, it’s even tougher than it looks, almost too difficult, because of its length.

So Whistling Straits is sure to be a huge topic this week, all 7,514 yards of it. Here is what everyone knows for sure, doesn’t know at all, should know or wishes they knew about Whistling Straits, which opened for play six years ago.

Fact: Everyone talks about the number of bunkers here, an estimated 1,400 of them, but only about 100 are actually in play. And after careful consideration, the PGA of America has agreed with designer Pete Dye and ruled that every one of them will be played as a hazard. That means any player grounding his club in a bunker or removing anything bigger than a pebble will get a penalty.

Fact: Dye is also the architect of one of the most punishing courses around, the Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta, where he enjoyed the liberal use of railroad ties in his layout. At Whistling Straits, he buried railroad cars and covered them with dirt to form mounds. Does this mean when he designs his next course, he will use tracks instead of fairways and engineers instead of marshals?

Fact: There is a bunker at the sixth hole that is about eight feet deep and 10 feet wide. Its steep face is made of layers of sod. It took an acre of sod to fill out the face of the bunker.

Fact: The closing holes, the par-three 17th and the par-four 18th, are called “Pinched Nerve” and “Dyeabolical,” and they have earned their nicknames. The 17th is 223 yards long, and the green is on a shelf about 20 feet above Lake Michigan. There is no place to bail out, with the lake on the left and that huge mound on the right. Tiger Woods said he doesn’t think the mound fits the hole. The 18th is a 500-yard par four, and you’ve got to knock it about 260 yards to find the landing area on the fairway, then carry a stream and more bunkers with a second shot to get to the 18,000-square-foot green, which is shaped like a four-leafed clover. Fred Funk called the green “crazy.” At least he didn’t call it funky.

Fact: Dye went to great lengths to rebut players’ opinions that the course was too hard, then took a slightly different tack when asked how Whistling Straits compared with his other designs in degree of difficulty. He called it “popcorn.” Yes, popcorn. “You can interpret that any way you want,” Dye added. “Sometimes people choke on popcorn.”

Fact: It’s still summer, but there was a fire roaring in the clubhouse Wednesday afternoon, where most of the players were huddling instead of playing the course.

Fact: You would have to put 3,220 Shaquille O’Neals end to end to match Whistling Straits’ yardage.

Fact: Woods said Whistling Straits is the first course he had seen in which double bogey is possible on every single hole. Prediction: Woods has no chance if he double-bogeys every single hole. Woods also said he wouldn’t want to play Whistling Straits as an 18-handicapper. Herb Kohler, who financed the place and even helped Dye with some design ideas, is an 18-handicapper. Kohler says Whistling Straits isn’t as tough as the players are saying.

Fact: Sheboygan is the closest big town to Whistling Straits and is famous for the Chordettes, who had a huge hit song in 1958 with “Lollipop.” Their last hit was in 1961. Milwaukee is about 60 miles away. Lake Michigan is about 20 feet away.

Fact: Darren Clarke took one look at Whistling Straits and said this: “I didn’t realize there could be that many par-six holes on one golf course.”