Kelly Kraft hits his tee shot on Sunday on the eleventh gap at El Cardonal.
Getty Images
Kelly Kraft, after ending 71st ultimately week’s World Wide Technology Championship, says the PGA Tour may do a greater job at choosing event programs.
Kraft’s feedback got here by an 86-word post on his Instagram account on Sunday evening, hours after he completed his last spherical on the El Cardonal course in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Notably, El Cardonal was the primary course designed by Tiger Woods, and it’s the first Woods course to host a Tour occasion.
Over his 4 days, Kraft shot rounds of two-under 70, 68, 71 and 71 for an eight-under complete, which was 19 strokes behind winner Erik van Rooyen. Soon after, Kraft wrote on Instagram that he was “not sure where to start,” and that El Cardonal wasn’t “my favorite course.”
Below is the entire submit:
“Best half about this week was having my household right here and watching the @rangers win the World Series!! About the golf, unsure the place to begin. All I’ll say is the @pgatour may do a greater job at choosing programs to host these occasions. In my opinion this wasn’t my favourite course, and I’ve performed on tour for a short while. Better luck subsequent week
“Side note, I will say that @wwt_inc did a great job with what they had. Thanks for the hospitality!”
It’s unclear why Kraft, a 35-year-old, 13-year professional, was bitter on El Cardonal. To word, although, scoring was low — gamers averaged 68.99 strokes, which is sort of two photographs higher than the season common (70.58). And the fairways have been forgiving — the sphere hit them at an 89.95 % clip. Entering the week, that quantity had been 58.74.
Still, by interviews in formal press conferences, the opinion on Woods’ course was principally constructive, with some wait-and-see. A sampling:
He gained this week’s Tour occasion. He shot a back-nine 28. Then all of it got here pouring out
Jack Hirsh
Said Doug Ghim on Friday, after the second spherical: “Yeah, like the fairways are probably the widest I’ve seen, especially on the PGA Tour. I wonder if Tiger knew that there was going to be a tournament out here if he would have narrowed it up. At the same time, I mean, I would say it saves everyone at least a shot a day because everyone hits a tee ball not the way that they would like to and it’s in the fairway and you’ve got a shot to hit it to the middle of the green and make par. When you see the low scores, it’s not that the course is super easy. You might get a couple of lucky breaks that might have missed the fairway in a normal tournament, but at the end of the day, you still have to hit really good shots to put up the scores guys are putting up.”
Said Camilo Villegas on Thursday, after the primary spherical: “Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s in great condition. It is forgiving off the tee, which I think we all wish it was a little bit tighter, to be honest. But it’s in great shape. And the greens, the greens are still soft. Obviously they had some storms here last week. Hopefully they get a little bit firmer. Low scoring’s out there as you can see on the leaderboard and it’s going to be that type of week, so we’ve got to keep pushing.”
Said Cameron Young on Thursday: “Yeah, I think it’s a lot of fun. I think the fact that the fairways are generous kind of emphasizes the second shots. The greens are very dramatic so you have to pick your spots and pick your landing areas really well. So that’s fun for me.”
Said Sahith Theegala on Wednesday, forward of the event: “My first impression of the golf course is I really like it. It’s very hilly, no flat lies, a bunch of slopes that you can use to funnel into the greens. Anywhere from wedges on the par-4s to I hit a couple 4-irons today. The wind was a little opposite in the morning today and there were some really tough par-4s on the front, specifically 4 and 8 I think were playing really long. But there’s plenty of scoring holes as well. I think Tiger was talking about how he just likes to make people think on the golf course and the back nine out here is just all strategy.”
Said Ludvig Aberg on Wednesday: “I mean, I think my first impression when I played the front nine was some really good holes, some really strong holes mixed with some of the easier — you have one, which is a reachable par-5, and then you have a few strong par-4s with a drive and a mid- to long iron.”
11 issues to learn about this week’s Tiger Woods-designed PGA Tour cease
Josh Sens
Said Maverick McNealy on Tuesday: “You kind of see a lot of parallels between the way Tiger plays golf and the way he designed this golf course. You have to think about it, play smart. Quintessential second-shot golf course and no short-siding.”
Said Keith Mitchell on Tuesday: “We all know we can judge him [Woods] on his golf, the best if not the best ever to play golf. So we’re going to see if he’s — his golf course architecture can hold up as well. The first few — I guess the back nine I played today; there’s a lot of options. I know Tiger likes options. It gives you a lot to think about going into greens, whether if you want to use the slope or go straight at the hole, whether you want to play conservative and have an easy up-and-down or try to push it to the back of a green or to a tough flag and try to make birdie. It gives you a lot of options.”
Still, these ideas got in Tour settings, in entrance of cameras, and opinions are usually reserved.
On Instagram, Kraft’s submit was appreciated fellow by Tour professionals Sam Ryder, who tied for tenth; Dylan Wu, who didn’t play; and LIV Golf participant Cameron Tringale.
Kraft is scheduled to play this week’s Bermuda Open, the penultimate occasion within the Tour’s 12 months.
