A Friendlier Bear Trap?

Since the erstwhile Honda Classic made the move to the PGA National Champion Course in 2007, the tournament has taken on an identity as being a difficult test for even the best PGA Tour players. The event has embraced the Bear Trap portion of the course -- the par-3 15th, par-4 16th and par-3 17th -- as their gauntlet to determine a champion after a trying round and week.

However, there may have been a cost associated with that. After all, the Champion Course is surrounded by water and has been set up with relatively narrow fairways and deeper rough. Scoring is tricky, and the winners have run a wide gamut. Some might suggest that's the sign of a good golf course. Some might suggest that's the sign of a bad golf course with a setup leaving itself prone to random outcomes. It feels like the PGA Tour's championship management group has landed on the latter. 

They've taken over running what is now the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, and the changes are clear beyond a new sponsor. The Champion Course is now a par-71 tournament, with the 10th hole converted to a par 5, as it would be for guests playing there daily. The fairways have been widened some, and the rough has been cut a bit, per Rory McIlroy's scouting report earlier in the week.

The net result so far is better scoring -- to the tune of a couple of strokes lower than traditional first-round averages on this course. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Everyone is still playing the same course. However, leaderboard glancers noticing that there's not as much pain in scoring may be less enthusiastic about watching what has long been seen as one of those weeks where 20-under totals aren't happening.

Though the Cognizant has seen a diminished field in recent years, it's held onto a good audience because it is a different presentation that the birdiefests throughout the early portion of the schedule. With 19 of the world top 50 competing this week, maybe that will offset any perceived easing of conditions.

Let's hope, though, for at least a little wind to make the players think and have to take on the bluntest of tests in the Florida Swing.

A Golf Offseason?

For what feels like my entire professional life covering golf, which is going on 14 years, there has been bellyaching that there needs to be less golf. There's too much of it, as it's been often said, with the PGA Tour presenting in upwards of 50 tournaments per year between FedEx Cup events, opposite-field events and the fall. There's no off-season, and there's not a lot of time a golf fan has to wait after the holidays before golf returns. A segment of fans no doubt loves that, while there's probably an equal group that wouldn't mind a pronounced break.

Consider Rickie Fowler among those in the latter category, suggesting ahead of this week's event that perhaps the fall is best without PGA Tour golf.

"I do feel like the season, where it's at with the January to August, is there ways to do different things in the fall, but I also at the same time feel like we kind of have to create the want for golf," Fowler explained. "Right now you can basically watch golf every week of the year for the most part. There's not really an off-season."

Of course, that comes with a decrease in playing opportunities for PGA Tour members and perhaps a cruder way of determining card holders for the next season. However, clearing the fall in the US might help the DP World Tour to thrive, with their efforts to stuff the autumn with their most important events. Then again, a proposal to integrate LIV Golf as a team series in the fall would hurt that momentum, especially as that series would likely have a more international focus.

By the time the fall rolls around, I do typically feel ready to be done with golf for the year. That doesn't mean, though, that fall events aren't producing tremendous stories that I'm glad are unfolding. I'm not sure what the answer is to keeping golf fresh for fans, but there's far too much of it that overlaps to suddenly cut so much of it back without a long think about the intent.

In the Loop

Talor Gooch was ridiculous in suggesting the Masters winner deserves an asterisk.

Here's a little primer on Anthony Kim's career when it stopped (temporarily) in 2012.

Our golf travel website, GolfTripX, is back at GolfNewsNet.com!