Par is not a good score at Crooked Stick

    Thursday, September 6, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Pete Dye, the developer and architect at Crooked Stick Golf Club since 1964, may fire up a bulldozer before Friday’s second round of the BMW Championship begins.
    After all, everyone else is tearing up his course. Why not Pete, too?
    The field of 70 elite players is averaging 69.158 strokes on the par-72 course as of 2:48 p.m. ET, when the first groups out had played 13 holes. The average was as low as 68.963 some 20 minutes earlier.
    Even with “lift, clean and place” in effect, this is phenomenal scoring. The soft greens have also contributed.
    In the 108 previous years of the Western Open, the lowest single-round average was 68.971, at par 70 Bellerive Country Club in 2008. The lowest average in relation to par was 1.862 strokes under the par 71 of Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course in 2007. That mark is going to be blown away.
    The tipoff to all this might have been Jimmy Walker’s 57-foot birdie putt to open the show on the 10th hole, his first. That gave the big crowd a thrill – it may have reached 30,000 by now – and guaranteed a bloody red leader board.
    The leader? It’s Indiana native Bo Van Pelt, 7-under through 12 holes, with Tiger Woods and Graham DeLeat a stroke behind, and most of the rest of the field in hot pursuit.
    The trailer? Bryce Molder is 5-over through 14 holes. He must be playing a different course.
    While the course tips out at about 7,500 yards, it’s been set up at 7,408 yards for the first round. That includes the three-hole stretch of the 500-yard par 4 14th, the 507-yard par-5 15th (which both Rory McIlroy and Zach Johnson eagled) and the 478-yard par-4 16th.
    Meanwhile, the threat of more foul weather in the Indianapolis area on Friday afternoon prompted Tour officials to move second round tee times more than three hours earlier than originally planned. Tee times will run from 8 a.m. to 10:01 a.m., using the first and 10th tees. Golf Channel coverage will be on delay beginning 3 p.m. ET, 2 p.m. CT.
    Saturday’s tee times may be pushed back, depending on how much more rain the course takes. Some 2.25 inches have fallen since last weekend, and Crooked Stick doesn’t drain exceptionally well. It was partially flooded during the 1993 U.S. Women’s Open.
    – Tim Cronin