Tag: Big Blue Wall

Will a true island green create more drama at the ANA Inspiration? That’s up for debate.

Judy Rankin, lead analyst for Golf Channel this week, likes seeing the most iconic hole on the LPGA return to its original form.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – The ANA Inspiration celebrates its 50th anniversary this week, and the 18th green has gone retro. No grandstand. No Great Wall of Dinah. Just an island of drama.

Or will it be?

“I honestly find it a bit boring,” said Madelene Sagstrom, who believes not many will go for the green in two, even with a forward tee. Tournament officials typically move the tee up on two days during the ANA Inspiration.

Mel Reid will likely go for it with a 5-iron in hand because she’s that kind of aggressive player, but she too believes fewer players will take on the risk with greens as firm as they are and the grass mowed down in the back and nothing there to stop it. Not to mention the yellow hazard stakes.

For years there has been typically a grandstand behind the green for VIP hospitality. With no fans at last September’s ANA, organizers opted to instead put up a giant blue wall – closer than the grandstands usually sit – with ANA scripted in small letters across the top. As far as billboards go, it wasn’t exactly effective.

Not surprisingly, the wall came into play in a big way when Mirim Lee rocketed a 5-wood at it, banking on the wall to stop her ball from going in the water. It worked, and Lee proceeded to chip for eagle to make her way into a playoff against Brooke Henderson and Nelly Korda that Lee quickly won. Henderson’s second shot in regulation got stuck under the wall and her sister/caddie Brittany crawled inside the blue mesh to retrieve it.

The blue wall behind the 18th green at the ANA Inspiration during a Golf Channel broadcast. (Beth Ann Nichols/Golfweek)

“The amount of time the boys hit it into grandstands and get away with shots and bounce onto greens,” said Reid, “and then they just made a big fuss because we didn’t have any crowds. I mean, it’s been like that for years. I don’t think they needed to change it, but I get why they have because it does look a little bit stupid with no crowd, but it’s tough.”

Stacy Lewis, a past champion of this event, appreciates that the hole now plays as it was originally designed. (It’s also played this way during the first stage of LPGA Q-School.) Lewis never goes for this green in two though, so nothing really changes for her.

“I hit 5-iron yesterday, landed in the middle of the green and went over in the water,” said Ryann O’Toole.

The same thing happened to Jennifer Kupcho with a 4-iron.

Nelly Korda hit a 6-iron just short and it rolled into the middle of the green. Her 5-iron went over the green. Korda said she was undecided on whether or not she likes the change.

Last year, Lexi Thompson had a 7-iron in from the forward tee to a back pin. That’s the shortest she has seen it play. This morning, Thompson hit a 4-iron that worked out quite nicely. If it’s more than a 6-iron though, Thompson said she likely won’t go for it in competition.

“It would have to be a perfect number honestly, with any club, to get the full max height to be able to stop it,” said Thompson. “But it’s good, it’s a major. It should be challenging and require more thought.”

Mirim Lee
Mirim Lee hits her third shot onto the 18th green during the second round of the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California on Sept. 11, 2020. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)

Brooke Henderson said it’s no longer an automatic green light with 3-wood in hand, but if she has hybrid or 7-wood in, she’ll definitely going for it.

If Maria Fassi finds the fairway, she’ll likely go for it. From the back tee on Monday, she hit 5-iron with a helping wind onto the green. On Tuesday, she hit 7-iron from the forward tee.

“It makes you think a little bit more,” said Fassi. “It demands a better golf shot as well. I think it’s fun.”

Yani Tseng, the 2010 ANA winner, believes the raw island green makes for a great finish: “This is real golf.”

To ensure more drama over the weekend, Katherine Kirk believes softening the green more is the answer.

Sue Witters, LPGA vice president of rules and competition, said they’ve already started adding water to the greens after Monday played particularly firm.

“The greens got firm on us yesterday,” Witters said on Tuesday.

With temperatures expected to reach 99 degrees over the weekend, players expect the Dinah Shore Tournament Course to get more baked out as the week goes on.

World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin, lead analyst for Golf Channel this week, likes to see the most iconic hole on the LPGA return to its original form. This is how the closing par 5 played when she won in 1976.

“You have find a way to reward a shot that’s well-struck,” said Rankin, of making sure that the green is receptive throughout the week.

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Controversial Big Blue Wall won’t be part of ANA Inspiration this year

If you remember the 2020 ANA Inspiration was played in September with no spectators, then you remember the Big Blue Wall.

What was the most controversial thing about golf in 2020?

Was it Bryson DeChambeau’s bulked-up approach to winning the U.S. Open? Was it the cancellation of events like the British Open and the Ryder Cup? Was it a Masters in November?

What about the Big Blue Wall?

You remember the Big Blue Wall. If you remember the 2020 ANA Inspiration was played in September after a postponement from April and played with no spectators under COVID-19 restrictions, then you remember the Big Blue Wall.

Built to replicate a wall at the front of a hospitality tent traditionally on the back and left of the island green on the par-5 18th hole of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club, the Big Blue Wall kind of took the concept of the traditional backstop and went over the top with it. It was big, it was blue and the critics of the wall were numerous and loud.

We know now the 2021 ANA Inspiration in April will again be played with no spectators and no need for the 18th hole hospitality tent. But this time, the LPGA major will be played without the Big Blue Wall.

“No, we learned from last year,” said Alyssa Randolph, the tournament manager. “We have more time to really get together all of our branding pieces and celebrate the 50th anniversary.”

So what was the issue with the Big Blue Wall anyway? For years now, golfers trying to go for the island green in two shots – when the tees on the hole are played up to 485 yards rather than 535 yards – could use the hospitality tent as a backstop.

A shot with a hybrid or a fairway wood coming hot into the green to the left side of the massive putting surface could just bounce off the bottom of the tent, or lodge against the tent leading to a free drop rather the skittering through the green and into the lake at the back of the island. The eagle chip was hardly easy, but it could set up a birdie putt

Such a concept is certainly not new to golf, not even to a tournament in the desert. For the last few years it hosted the American Express, Bermuda Dunes Country Club had a grandstand behind the green of the par-5 18th that served basically the same purpose. Run through the green in 2, hit the grandstand, get a free drop.

Critics hated it, golfers were split

But the Big Blue Wall inspired more talk and more criticism than other such backstops. For one, it was, well, blue. It was impossible to miss, maybe even from the International Space Station. Second, it was wider than the hospitality tent backstop. Third, it seemed to be much closer to the actual putting surface than the hospitality tent wall. Finally, even if a hospitality tent is artificial on a golf course, the Big Blue Wall was definitely artificial.

Among the players, some hated the wall, some didn’t seem to have a problem with it. But it did seem to change the strategy of the hole, all but eliminating the possibility of a hot shot bounding through the green and into the water. There was still danger on the second shot, but not from the water behind the green.

When Mirim Lee hit her second shot against the wall on the last hole of regulation, it set up an eagle chip that Lee holed. That was enough to push her into a playoff with Nelly Korda and Brooke Henderson, and Lee won the playoff on the same hole.

For some, it showed the wall did its job. For others, it showed the wall altered the play of the hole too much.

So, will there be a substitute for the Big Blue Wall in 2021?

“We won’t be building anything on the island,” Randolph said. “We’ll turned back to its 1972 roots and its purest state as an island green.”

Tournament officials did say that the minute they are allowed to have spectators again, the hospitality tent will indeed return.

An aerial view of the blue wall behind the 18th green at the ANA Inspiration during a Golf Channel broadcast. (Beth Ann Nichols/Golfweek)

Will the lack of a Big Blue Wall make the hole more exciting with the possibility of more balls in the water behind the green, or will it make the hole more boring with players laying up and hitting wedges for their third shot? Both strategies can still lead to excitement, as Karrie Webb’s holed wedge for an eagle-3 proved in 2006 and Brittany Lincicome’s hybrid second shot curling around the green to just two feet for a winning eagle showed in 2009.

As the 2021 ANA Inspiration gets closer and closer, the memory of the Big Blue Wall will begin to fade.  For now, we can ask if the wall was a massive mistake or simply a misunderstood attempt to bring some normalcy to the event.

Or maybe it would have been better if it had just been green?

Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.

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