The Concession Golf Club presents a challenging test for golf’s best players. Here’s why
As golfers put their last-minute preparations in for this week’s World Golf Championships: Workday Championship at The Concession in East Manatee County on Wednesday, most of the attention was centered on the sport’s biggest draw over the past three decades: Tiger Woods.
The 15-time major winner, who popularized golf in the mid-1990s and influenced the current generation of professional golfers, suffered multiple leg injuries, including surgery to his right leg, after a severe single-car crash in California on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
Some of golf’s top players, such as Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm, among others, gave their thoughts Wednesday at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton.
“Kind of the same as everyone else’s, a bit shocked, just a — yesterday was a really weird day,” Schauffele said. “I think the mood was very somber on the putting green. Everyone was sort of, you know, talking about it. Everyone’s head was down. It was very — a gloomy day, I would say, for us golfers, and I think everyone kind of felt the same way.”
Added McIlroy: “He’s a human being at the end of the day. And he’s already been through so much. At this stage I think everyone should just be grateful that he’s here, that he’s alive, that his kids haven’t lost their dad. That’s the most important thing. Golf is so far from the equation right now, it’s not even on the map at this point.”
Johnson said, “It’s a terrible situation, you never want anything bad to happen to people. Obviously hopefully hope for a speedy recovery. He’s such a big part of the PGA TOUR and what it’s become today. Yeah, once he’s not playing anymore, definitely the game will miss him, but I feel like he’ll always somehow be around and involved with the game, so at least for a little while.”
Meanwhile, when Thursday’s first round begins, the top players in the world take aim on a challenging golf course, which stepped up to take on the tournament on a one-year interim basis from Mexico City due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Registering 7,564 yards with three par-5s that play more than 600 yards, The Concession’s length looks to be the big challenge, but it’s the approach shots and undulating greens that are expected to be the real hurdle for players this week.
“In the ‘70s when I was kind of cutting my teeth, there were plenty of good courses around here, but the greens were never Tour quality,” former major winner and Bradenton resident Paul Azinger said at a pre-tournament press conference two weeks ago. “It really wasn’t until Bruce [Cassidy] built The Concession and brought the superintendent, Terry Kennelly, in here that I started to believe that this region could really produce killer greens. There were a couple courses in the area that could get their greens kind of fast, but this really set the standard I think for the area and all the superintendents.”
The table top greens can, in some ways, produce a challenge similar to Augusta National and in other ways not be exactly an apt comparison to the course that hosts The Masters each year.
“It’s hard to say because the beauty of Augusta and some other MacKenzie-like golf courses, they’re deceptive,” Rahm said. “Sometimes they look a lot harder than what it is and you can use slopes to your advantage. This golf course right here, you’ve got a lot of like table top areas, right, where you hit a shot into the green and everything just runs away from the pin.
“A great example is the seventh hole, everything on the back right area, everything just goes away from the pin. Augusta usually in some parts of the green you have a slope that’s going to help you move it towards the pin. So in some aspects these greens can be more difficult.” he said. “Now, they’re not going to be as fast as Augusta National can be. So if you can put the ball in the right spot, you’re going to beable to make some putts. It’s not easy. They’re tricky, they’re very difficult. Wouldn’t be surprised if statistically they play as some of the hardest ones all year.”
Reigning United State Open champion Bryson DeChambeau won the NCAA Division I individual national championship in 2015 at The Concession, while Rahm and Schauffele have also played the course before.
“I remember being on the practice range and when I heard the crowd go ‘Ohhh’ because it lipped out or whatever,” DeChambeau said.. “The team ran over and just dumped water on me because they knew I had won. That’s my fondest memory right there. I would say the other memory was on the eighth hole, my 17th hole of the day, when I struck that 3-wood, hit a wedge shot, I hit it too far, but luckily it ripped off the back and came to like a foot and made birdie. Then two-putted from like 60 feet on the ninth hole to have a chance to win this tournament. That was the moment that I knew I could play golf under pressure.”
Added Schauffele on his performance from the 2015 NCAA tournament: “It wasn’t great. So me trying to beat Webb Simpson in the strokes gained attitude part of the game, I couldn’t remember anything about the golf course or what I shot, so I knew it wasn’t going to be very good.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 4:31 PM.
