Kelly Kraft hits his tee shot on Sunday on the 11th hole at El Cardonal.
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Kelly Kraft, after finishing 71st at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship, says the PGA Tour could do a better job at picking tournament courses.
Kraft’s comments came through an 86-word post on his Instagram account on Sunday night, hours after he finished his final round on the El Cardonal course in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Notably, El Cardonal was the first course designed by Tiger Woods, and it is the first Woods course to host a Tour event.
Over his four days, Kraft shot rounds of two-under 70, 68, 71 and 71 for an eight-under total, 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 complete post:
“Best part about this week was having my family here and watching the @rangers win the World Series!! About the golf, not sure where to start. All I will say is the @pgatour could do a better job at picking courses to host these events. In my opinion this wasn’t my favorite course, and I’ve played on tour for a little while. Better luck next 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 pro, was sour on El Cardonal. To note, though, scoring was low — players averaged 68.99 strokes, which is nearly two shots better than the season average (70.58). And the fairways were forgiving — the field hit them at an 89.95 percent clip. Entering the week, that number had been 58.74.
Still, through interviews in formal press conferences, the opinion on Woods’ course was mostly positive, with some wait-and-see. A sampling:
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Said Doug Ghim on Friday, after the second round: “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 first round: “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, ahead of the tournament: “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.”
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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, those thoughts were given in Tour settings, in front of cameras, and opinions tend to be reserved.
On Instagram, Kraft’s post was liked fellow by Tour pros Sam Ryder, who tied for 10th; Dylan Wu, who didn’t play; and LIV Golf player Cameron Tringale.
Kraft is scheduled to play this week’s Bermuda Open, the penultimate event in the Tour’s year.
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