What to Watch For at the World Wide Technology Championship

I love watching some of the best golfers in the world play a golf course I’ve never seen before. Seeing a course for the first time, whether in person or on a screen, has the potential to inspire. It also has the potential to provoke thought or to disappoint. That’s the fun.

This week, the PGA Tour heads to El Cardonal at Diamante, the first design completed by TGR Design, Tiger Woods’s firm. This is the first PGA Tour event hosted at a TGR design. It’s our first opportunity to watch world class players compete on a course designed by arguably the best professional golfer in the history of the sport. I’m excited!

Information about the golf course is pretty scarce, but it’s a ~7,400-yard resort course along the Pacific Ocean in Cabo featuring big greens and wide fairways. It seems to have some of the playing characteristics Tiger admires in courses like St. Andrews. As the TGR website says, “The design of El Cardonal was inspired by the classic Golden Age courses of the west coast that Tiger played growing up. Tiger created a golf course that brings back strategy-there are typically several options for navigating each hole, and proper strategic decision-making is rewarded.”

In some ways, I think that’s going to be true of El Cardonal. Under the right conditions, with firmness in the greens and an ocean breeze, El Cardonal can invite clever shot-making. I’m particularly excited to watch players tackle the par-5 sixth hole. Measuring 600 yards, the sixth is reachable in two with favorable conditions. However, a long bunker directly on line with the center of the green imposes a challenge on the approach.

The sixth hole at El Cardonal

Those who decide to go for the green in two will need to be thoughtful about where they leave their approach shot relative to the pin position. The faster and firmer the greens, the more this is true.

Wide fairways lend themselves to optionality. There is enough room both left and right of the greenside bunker on the sixth hole to play to one side or the other. El Cardonal isn’t just aerial golf; you have options.

Pumping the brakes a bit, though, I’m skeptical that El Cardonal will be a thorough examination of execution and strategy. Without wind, elite professional golfers can get aggressive at the course and ignore some of the strategy Tiger (and his design team) probably envisioned. I expect the 13th hole to be a prime example of how modern golf often departs from intended strategic principles. At 475 yards, the 13th is the one of the longest par 4s on the course. A sandy arroyo guards the right side of the fairway, which is the advantaged side of the hole based on the orientation of the green.

The 13th hole at El Cardonal

Spoiler alert: Spoiler alert: I don’t expect many golfers to challenge the arroyo down the right side of the hole. Well, they won’t intentionally challenge the arroyo. Even though the hole is 475 yards, players are going to hit short irons and wedges into this hole. The benefit of finding the right side of the fairway is dwarfed by the risk of winding up a little too far right and finding trouble, especially when you have a 9-iron in your hands on the approach, reducing the importance of having a proper angle. Wisely, players will prioritize finding the fairway and avoiding the hazards, and they won’t worry too much about their angle. If the hole were lengthened—or ya know, if we could roll back equipment a little—this hole would have much more strategic value.

I can’t wait to watch some of the tournament this week at El Cardonal. It’s a resort course, and it probably won’t play nearly as demanding as I’d like to see at a professional golf event, but it’ll give Tiger data points and inspiration for future design work. It’s highly unlikely I’ll come away from the week infatuated with the course, but I’m looking forward to our first collective glimpse into TGR’s design philosophy.

As you watch the action unfold, drop your impressions of the golf course into the comments. I’ll circle back with some of mine at the conclusion of the tournament.