It's rough at the top for game's elite Players under par

90TH US PGA CHAMPIONSHIP:THE VERBAL brickbats, rather than bouquets, hurled in the direction of the course at Oakland Hills throughout this 90th US PGA championship have been far from complimentary, even a touch spiteful. But, then, maybe that's what we've come to expect - in the main - from professional sportsmen who are a pampered lot, many of whom have lost touch with the reality that everyone else on this planet must live with.

Why shouldn't a major be tough? It's supposed to be. And, just because the US PGA has traditionally had the easier set-up of the four majors, why should it always be so? Isn't the PGA of America entitled to ask a stern test of the world's elite professional players?

Lee Westwood, before his early departure in missing the cut, moaned, "they are sucking the fun out of the major championships when you set it up like that", while other players termed it "nasty" and "ridiculous". Not that everyone was whinging and moaning. A rather more philosophical Geoff Ogilvy opined: "I don't think anyone expected it to be easy. It wouldn't be a monster if it was."

Much of the criticism has been aimed at Rees Jones, the designer who added length and deepened bunkers to make Oakland Hills tougher than at any time in his history. Paul Goydos, commenting on the designer, quipped: "If you had Rees Jones redo Scrabble, he'd leave out the vowels."

Goydos, runner-up in the Players Championship to Sergio Garcia last May, has earned something of a reputation in the locker-room for his incisive remarks. Another attributed to him - wrongly - is the one that claims he wouldn't let Rees Jones redesign his lawn because he'd wake up in the morning to find it 20 yards longer. In actual fact, it was Kevin Sutherland who first came up with that one.

The fact of the matter is that Oakland Hills played extremely tough in this championship, with the back end of each nine holes particularly difficult. The par four 18th - with an average score of 4.6 - played as the toughest hole of all. The course played to an average of 74.5, four and a half shots over its par.

Yet, a look at the history books doesn't stand up the theory that the course for this final major of the year was too tough: in the great scheme of things, it only came in as the tied-11th toughest course in the history of the US PGA championship after Pecan Valley (1968), Firestone (1960), Oakland Hills (1972), Firestone (1966) and Aronimink (1962).

And, for sure, as Andres Romero proved in Saturday's third round - before the weather closed in - where there is a will, there is a way. He fashioned a course-equalling 65 before the rains came to take the fire out of the course.

Kerry Haigh, the PGA's managing director of championships, was defensive of how Oakland Hills was set-up for the tournament. "Everyone realises and knows the golf course is a classic championship test, with great bunkering, classic green complexes and narrow fairways which make for a great test for any player . . . without a doubt, it is one of the most difficult golf courses in the country, if not the world."

One of the main criticisms thrown at the course set-up was the graduated rough, which was actually thicker closer to the fairway than it was 20 to 30 yards away. "The rough is something that we look at," explained Haigh. "I think, with every golf course, you need to look to see how it is designed. Some courses have fairway roll-offs off the side of the greens. Here, we expanded the step-cut rough on some holes, it was expanded out to the primary rough."

In fact, the rough was thicker and longer during the practice days as the rough was cut back - to four inches - on Wednesday, although Haigh remarked that he felt the weather conditions had combined with the course to make for a particularly tough test. "I think it's rare that we get 75 degrees (Fahrenheit) and 25-miles-an-hour winds out of the north with sunshine (over the first two days) in August, which had a bearing on how the course played . . . certainly, it was a tough, tough challenge. It's a tough golf course, there is no question."

One other criticism levelled by a number of players at the rough concerned the policy of brushing the rough. Haigh clarified the reasons for greenstaff using rakes to brush up the rough. "For the past 10 or 12 PGA championships that I can speak of, we've found, certainly in practice rounds, (that) players walk all around the greens in the rough and their caddies walk and their golf bags are laid down . . . and, by the end of the day, any day, all of the rough is basically laying flat.

"So, it there is sufficient staff on the grounds crew or sufficient volunteers, you try to stand the grass back up. Because, when you walk tee-to-green, you're flattening the grass . . . we basically raked it back up so it's playable again and consistent."

Fewest players under par through 54 holes in US PGA history:

1968 - Pecan Valley (0)

1960 - Firestone (0)

1972 - Oakland Hills (1)

1966 - Firestone (1)

1962 - Aronimink (1)

1997 - Winged Foot (2)

1980 - Oak Hill (2)

1975 - Firestone (2)

1970 - Southern Hills (2)

1961 - Olympia Fields (2)

2008 - Oakland Hills (3)