RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA | It is certainly a nod to the past. Let’s hope it’s also a look at the future. The Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills looks better than it ever has, lush and green with just the right amount of rough and firm greens running at about a 14 on the Stimpmeter. But most of the attention was not on the pristine fairways that looked like they had been member-free for a month, or the open views where 100 eucalyptus trees used to stand. Instead, the focus is on the par-5 18th and the return of the island green.
What’s that you say? You didn’t know that the final hole of the season’s first major had an island green? No sweat. That just means you’re young or a relatively new fan of the ANA Inspiration.
For a little history: Back in the dark ages this event used to be known colloquially as the Dinah (after singer and television star Dinah Shore, who was the tournament host and namesake), and the galleries included people like actor Burt Reynolds and former President Gerald Ford, who wore some jarringly tacky pants back in the day. It also was the biggest event of the year in the minds of the players, in part because of the celebrity cache and the quality of the golf course, but also because of the purse, which, in the beginning at least, came within a whisker of matching the rest of the season combined.
With no fans in 2021 and tournament sponsor All Nippon Airways giving an appropriate nod to the 50th edition of the event (which started in 1972), the grandstand is gone. The 18th is, once more, a true island-green par-5.
And, for the first couple of decades, the final hole of the Tournament Course played the way the designer Desmond Muirhead planned it – as a true island green, substantially bigger than the 17th at TPC Sawgrass but no less perilous with sharp banks leading to water all around. But sometime in the early 1990s that changed. The water was still there, but tournament organizers, in an attempt to accommodate the swelling galleries, put grandstands and a hospitality tent out in the lake. A good chunk of that structure extended onto the island, creating the perfect backstop for any player looking to go for the par-5 with a hybrid or fairway wood. As long as you struck it well and didn’t let the ball leak right, you could line up a fan in the stands behind the green and know you were safe.
With no fans in 2021 and tournament sponsor All Nippon Airways giving an appropriate nod to the 50th edition of the event (which started in 1972), the grandstand is gone. The 18th is, once more, a true island-green par-5.
It’s also the talk of the tournament, at least through Round 1.
“It’s definitely a different perspective going into that green,” said Lydia Ko, who chose to lay up on Thursday. Ko won the ANA Inspiration in 2016 with one of the more memorable shots in tournament history. After debating with her caddie on whether or not a 3-wood would carry the water, Ko laid up to 101 yards and almost holed her third shot, leaving her less than a foot for birdie and the win.
“Normally we have that big grandstand a little further back anyway, so even if you did hit it long, most of the balls would hit it and you would be chipping from back behind,” Ko said. “But this year you have nothing to stop the ball if the ball is going over the green. I think (my caddie) and I just have to be smart and see what position I am in. That’s going to be a huge factor.
“With a good drive I feel like most of the days if the tee is forward, I’ll be able to go for it. But the pin position is also a big thing. I had a practice round where I had a hybrid and (another where I had a) 5-iron (into the green for my second shot) that bounced on the green and ended up being long. So, I just have to see what kind of number I have.”
In Tuesday’s practice round, world No. 3 Sei Young Kim bombed a drive and had 175 yards to the flagstick. She hit a 7-iron that hit in the center of the green with the kind of thump normally associated with a champagne cork or a boxer hitting a heavy bag. The ball bounced knee high, released off the back edge and trundled down into the water.
“That went in?” Kim asked. When it was confirmed that the ball was in the water, she said, “Wow, now what do you do?”
The young players likely will remain aggressive. Invincibility and a lack of scar tissue will do that to you.
“I’ll probably go from inside 220 (yards),” said Bianca Pagdanganan, one of the longest hitters in the women’s game. “When I was here at Q-School (two years ago, where Pagdanganan was medalist), I went for it from 235 with a hybrid, cut it in and made eagle. I don’t know if I’ll do that again, but it’s good to have that memory.”
Not everybody is enthralled. One caddie walked off the green on Thursday and said, “We bowed to social media pressure and turned a par-5 into a wedge layup.”
But most of the players love the look and the decision-making the island green requires.
“With the grandstand behind it I never would’ve thought twice,” said Michelle Wie West, who played her first ANA Inspiration back in 2003 when she was 13 years old. “I would’ve gone for it. I had the perfect distance today but didn’t like my lie. Before I would’ve just blown it past the back into the grandstand. But (now) it makes you think. That water comes up pretty quickly behind the greens.
“I like it,” Wie West said, expressing the views of most. “I think it makes for a really good hole.”