Distance And Pebble Beach's Once Intimidating Par 5s
Some wonky ShotLink analysis for a Friday.
Gary Woodland birdied each of Pebble Beach’s back nine par 5’s en route to winning the 2019 U.S. Open by two strokes.
The runner-up, Brooks Koepka, parred the vaunted 14th and 18th holes coming in. And while many factors make the difference over 72 holes of a major, Woodland’s pair of heroic shots at the demanding 14th lifted him from potential winner to deserving champion.
Given how Pebble Beach played last week, it’s worth remembering how much has changed in just a bit over five years.
Following a 319-yard drive at the 14th, Woodland’s fairway wood from 263 yards cleared the front bunker. With OB left and right, a wild shot could have taken him out of the championship. He received raves from Fox’s Curtis Strange and Paul Azinger for the shot. Woodland would get up-and-down from just off the fringe for birdie and head to teh 15th with a two-stroke lead. The shot:
Six years later, Woodland is attempting a return to form after brain surgery. In last week’s sweater weather with none of the U.S. Open firmness propel his tee shots down the fairway, Woodland’s final round tee shot at the 14th finished 359 yards off the tee, leaving a 188-yard approach.
Numbers recap: that’s 359/188 in winter 2025 vs. 319/263 in summer 2019.
I share this for a number reasons.
Rory McIlroy’s thrilling win was fueled by his bold play on the par 5s and while that’s a great thing, there is still the sense that he overwhelmed a historic venue that everyone loves seeing remain relevant (well, except certain ball manufacturers who claim to love golf traditions).
The Quad hopes to inspire subscribers to dine on more spirulina smoothies and crayfish-feeding wild-caught salmon to gain distance off the tee. Just like today’s super athletes!
Tournament golf is better playing historic and character-rich venues like Pebble Beach. A coming rollback helps us to keep seeing the few left able to host tournaments. Maybe.
Rory’s post victory quote: “There are a few venues in our game that I would call cathedrals of golf – Pebble Beach, Augusta National, St Andrews, obviously, and maybe a few more that you could add in there. They mean a bit more than others which is probably to do with the history and the golfers who have won on those courses, and what those people have meant to the game of golf.”
ShotLink is a marvel and can tell us really fun things about golf courses. At least to those of us with no lives.
While we could obsess about all of the wedge approaches to once-long par 4s, it’s the three-shotters that have always been especially tough at Pebble Beach regardless of equipment. But since the USGA now plays the second hole as a par 4 in its championships—including the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach—let’s consider how other three par 5s played in the 2005, 2015, and 2025 AT&T’s to see what’s changed.
6th Hole
A reconfigured landing area at the sixth hole brought bunkers closer to the fairway. Before the 2010 U.S. Open, the fairway’s edge was brought closer to the ocean down the right. As a result of this and the ability to launch fairway woods high and far enough to get home in two, some players have begun to use less than driver off the tee. After all, they can still get home in two laying farther back and taking trouble out of the way
As this shift in strategy has forced longer shots into the green and more layups than in the past, but what do the numbers say?
Year Distance Avg Fairway % Scoring Rank
2005 278.2 78.75% 4.642 18th
2015 291.7 61.36% 4.459 17th
2025 274.6 68.22% 4.720 15th
Conclusion: Compared to the other par 5’s in AT&T play, the 6th has grown more difficult. This year’s newly revised green created some trickier hole locations without the PGA Tour using new options in the back right or left. But the reduction in driver use is not ideal. A chintz factor comes into play when par 5’s take the big stick away.
14th Hole
This is where Rory McIlroy’s gutsy tee shots were so admirable and shocking. The lines he took seem impossible due to the way the tee is lined up and with OB right. But his massive tee shots were also eye-opening from the distance perspective and with no roll. Thankfully, McIlroy still retains a distance and accuracy advantage that allowed him to stand out when he’s on all cylinders. But the more that edge is reduced by self-correcting drivers, the less interesting the pro game gets.
From a design standpoint, the 14th’s fairway bunkers are nearing total irrelevance for the decathletes. Note the difference between 2005 (top) and 2025 (bottom) in the scatter charts. Twenty years since almost no one could carry the bunkers, the situation has flipped. The 14th was the second easiest hole in this year’s AT&T compared to playing as the 5th toughest a decade ago. I know, I know, they’re first golfers to have ever set foot in a gym. The numbers: