McGinley’s Baltusrol blast

PAUL McGINLEY last night blasted the USPGA and others who set up their golf courses to suit the game’s longest hitters.

The 38-year-old Dubliner has arrived for the USPGA fresh but hardly eager after a two week family holiday in Barbados fearful that a golf course playing every inch of its 7,392 yards will deprive him of a fair chance of emulating last year's share of sixth place.

McGinley is scathing of the way authorities seem to think keeping scores at an appreciable level means adding hundreds of yards to courses never designed to be played at such exorbitant lengths. In doing so, they have got it sadly wrong if they think the way to curb Woods et al is to stretch holes such as the 17th at Baltusrol to 650 yards.