BRADENTON, Florida – The Concession Golf Club is considered one of the most difficult courses in the state, earning the nickname “Concussion” by its members for the punishment it can dispense to day-to-day amateurs.
But the best PGA Tour players in the world have not been beaten so badly – at least not yet.
The average score for the second round on Friday at the WGC-Workday Championship was more than a shot below par (70,877). On a day with abundant sun, lots of humidity and light wind, it was two rounds of 64. Nine players started with consecutive rounds in the 60s. Brooks Koepka leads the event with 11 under 133, with eight other players in three shots.
Of course, there were some explosions in two rounds, with 64 double bogeys and 14 others. But there was not exactly the carnage that many expected when the WGC was moved from Club de Golf Chapultepec here because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Why not?
“I have to give up on our rules team; they did a very good job of setting up the golf course, of not making us look like fools, ”said Billy Horschel, who has a shot from under 10 under.
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Horschel said he had breakfast on Friday with PGA Tour rules officer Gary Young and started discussing the course.
Said Horschel: “He said, ‘This course is a test in itself; you don’t have to put on stupid hole locations and get too tight with the hole locations and you don’t have to get the greens too fast or too firm to make it challenging. ‘”
Young told Horschel that Concession superintendent Terry Kennelly actually wanted this week’s greens to be faster – that has been the feeling of several members traveling the route, perhaps eager to see the best in the world suffer as much as they do – but the Tour said they were well on track 12 on the Stimpmeter.
“Gary was like, ‘No, they are right where they are. We don’t need to get them with 13 or 13 or more, because then you limit the location of the holes here, ”said Horschel. “There is a lot of inclination on these greens. It’s like Augusta – there are so many hole locations on each green, so you have to be careful about the speed of the green. “