Arguably the greatest grand opening in modern golf course design took place last year with the unveiling of TPC Impossible.
OK, so we’re a lot biased.
The composite course that features the most difficult holes from the 2021-22 PGA Tour season, by number, drew more bruised egos than rave reviews, but who’s counting? No other golf course in the world could claim holes from Augusta National, Kiawah’s Ocean Course and Torrey Pines (we hear that course produces some great leaderboards).
While it may be fictional, TPC Impossible is just that – impossible. The poor souls, also made-up, who got the chance to test their games on it agreed. Many of them, in fact, complained that it was too hard, so what did we do? We went to work to make it harder – by more than a half-shot.
Why be complacent? Only three holes from last year’s routing were kept as part of this extensive, $7.4 billion redesign (or is it a renovation?) – Augusta National’s fifth hole, Memorial Park’s 14th and Port Royal’s oceanside par-3 16th – and the par was bumped up from 68 to 70 while more than 400 yards were added, pushing the total length over 8,000.
We said last year that TPC Impossible made the Green Mile look like the Green Millimeter and the Bear Trap like the Bear Claw. The reimagined TPC Impossible takes things a few steps further, making Hogan’s Alley look like the Katy Freeway (26 lanes!) and the Horrible Horseshoe like the Hanging Horseshoe.
Anyway, here’s the new-and-improved TPC Impossible:
Course snapshot
Par: 35-35–70
Yardage: 3,965-4,084–8,049
Scoring average: 38.066-38.619–76.685 (+6.685)
1 – Augusta National
Par: 4
Length: 445 yards
Scoring average: 4.3
Birdies were tough to come by on the opening hole at this year’s Masters. Just 17 were made while players combined for 10 double bogeys and one other. It didn’t help that the fairway ranked second toughest to hit all week.
Next toughest: Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Par 4, 495 yards, 4.292
