Jay Haas knew something was different when he got to the 387-yard sixth hole Friday at Oakland Hills and looked at the pristine turf.
"There was not a single divot," Haas said.
Players typically hit an iron, but not in the second round of the PGA Championship. In what is quickly becoming a trend at the majors, the tee was moved forward to make the hole play only 300 yards and give players the option of trying to drive the green.
"I think they just cut us a break," Brandt Snedeker said. "I think they were feeling bad for us."
There weren't many deep discussions over club selection. It was simply a matter of where to hit it.
The answer: Don't miss it right.
That's what Angel Cabrera did, which turned a potential birdie into a bogey as he was battling for the lead. One of the biggest hitters in golf, Cabrera's tee shot wound up in the thick rough parallel to the front of the green, with a deep bunker between him and the green and a large slope when he got to the putting surface.
Except he never got there. Trying to play the perfect pitch, he came up short and went in the sand, blasted out to 5 feet and missed his par putt. Cabrera wound up with a 72 and was still in good shape at 2-over 142.
Most everyone else simply tried to bash it left of the green, which left a simple angle to the hole between two humps. J.B. Holmes was an exception. He hit it onto the green and two-putted for birdie on his way to a 68.
"It popped in my head to lay it down in the fairway and hit a shot down there," Holmes said. "If the pin was easier, you might have saw a bit more of that. But where they put the pin, it's pretty much impossible. You have to try to get up where you can chip on."
Even though the hole played 300 yards, it is slightly uphill and played into a 10 mph wind, so only the longest hitters had much hope of reaching the green.
And while it was easier - No. 6 was the eighth-toughest hole in the first round and second-easiest in the second - not everyone was ready to christen it as the most exciting hole. It certainly won't challenge No. 10 at Riviera as among the greatest short par 4s in golf, the 17th at Oakmont or even the 17th at the TPC Scottsdale.
"Just because it's a shorter hole doesn't make it a great hole," said Tom Lehman, who missed the green left and chipped to about 5 feet for birdie. "The green is what makes the short holes."
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