I've always said, the harder the golf course, the better I play.
A good golf course makes you want to play so badly that you hardly have the time to change your shoes.
If a course needs to be in great condition to be played effectively, then the design strategy is flawed.
Mostly I built golf courses the way I played golf, which was left-to-right. But I learned very rapidly that people wanted to see more than just the way I played golf and that I had to balance up what I was doing, right-to-left, left-to-right, etc.
I love Quail Hollow. I think it's one of the big boy golf courses we play. I just don't think there's really a bad hole on it.
It's a different style of golf; that stands out for sure when you come over to America. The style of play and the golf courses in America. Most golf courses in America either stretch your game, and test different elements of your game and the margins for error are smaller.
I get to a competition and feel out the slopestyle course and kind of see which directions the jumps are flowing and which way I feel like I can do my tricks.
The fairways were so narrow you had to walk down them single file.
The first 18 holes are extremely difficult.
Golf course architects make me sick. They can't play themselves, so they rig the courses so nobody else can play either.
Pebble Beach. It is tough and the lay out is amazing.
But I'd say that probably 70 percent of the bunkering is more to give you an idea of the direction that you want to go or to save your ball from going into worse places.
There's more to be learned here [St. Andrews] about course design than anywhere. Collection bunkers, false fronts, bump shots. The fundamentals of design became fundamental because of what's here. And it happened accidentally. Or maybe accidentally on purpose.
What makes a great golf course is continuity and variety: right-to-left holes, left-to-right holes.
