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GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — Rory McIlroy likened it to landing in a “jungle” when his drives veered off line. Europe captain Luke Donald pointed to the thickness of the grass blades. U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick said the rough was simply “penal.”
If there was one major takeaway from the just-concluded Italian Open at the Marco Simone club outside Rome that will host next year’s Ryder Cup, it was that the course is being set up to reward accurate tee shots with narrow fairways surrounded by nasty rough and even higher grass beyond.
Coming off a record loss to the United States at Whistling Straits last year, Donald is enlisting the help of the golf course to try to reduce the gap to the big-hitting Americans.
“We certainly want to put a premium on getting the ball in the fairway,” Donald told The Associated Press after Sunday’s final round, confirming plans to narrow the fairways even further.
“It’s not going to be any narrower than a U.S. Open or anything like that — I think there’s plenty of width out here,” he said. “But some of (the holes) have a little bit too much width in areas. So if you want to take and hit driver, you can, but it’s going to narrow up.”
At Whistling Straits, where the Americans won 19-9 for the biggest margin of victory since continental Europe became part of the Ryder Cup in 1979, the rough was trimmed to a maximum of four inches.
By contrast, some of the high grass at Marco Simone reached up past players’ knees.
“I think the tougher the test, the better it is for us,” said Europe vice captain Edoardo Molinari, the team’s analytics expert.
Added McIlroy: “If you get it going off line here off the tee it’s very, very difficult. The rough is incredibly thick and there’s sort of jungle outside of that if you get a play way off line.”
“(The Americans) are very good from 150 in, so try to set the golf course up so it’s a challenge to get your tee shots within that range,” McIlroy…
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Source : yahoo
