The Concession Golf Club had its first outing on Tour last week for the WGC – Workday Championship, and the reception was an overwhelmingly positive one from players.
The venue came with a reputation as a course that placed a premium on accuracy, and the disparity of scores across the week only proved – as Billy Horschel put it – that ‘you can’t fake it for four days’ around the Florida course.
Viktor Hovland’s second round was a particularly good example of the ups and downs a single player can experience through one 18-hole stretch at The Concession. The World Number 13, who finished the tournament in a tie for second place, was seven under for his round until he missed the fairway with his tee-shot on his final hole of the day (the par-four ninth) and walked away from that hole with an eight.
But despite that, Hovland recovered with rounds of 66 and 67 to finish three shots behind Collin Morikawa, and said he would love to see a Tour event return in the future.
“I would love it,” said Hovland. “To be honest, I wasn't really much of a fan when I played the practice round here, not a really big fan of Florida golf courses, but every single round I liked this course a lot better. It's just a good course.”
And he wasn’t the only one to praise the Jack Nickalus and Tony Jacklin design, famed for the Ryder Cup story behind its name.
When Rory McIlroy was asked if he would like to see another tournament played here in future, he answered “For sure, yeah.”
“I think this course has been really well received this week.
“Maybe there was a couple of greens that are a little severe, a couple of pin placements anyway over the weekend that were maybe a touch severe, but I think when we come back again that the guys who set the golf course up will know that. Yeah, I liked it, I think it's convenient for a lot of guys and I think everyone enjoyed it."
“You had to be spot on with your irons,” added Louis Oosthuizen, who is also hopeful for a return.
“Greens were so good so you could see a lot of birdies, guys were going to make some putts. Yeah, I enjoyed the track. Hopefully we play it again.”
Billy Horschel agreed with Oosthuizen’s assessment of the need for accuracy, but it wasn't just the dependency on hitting good shots that he liked about the Florida course.
For Horschel, the condition of The Concession was another reason to praise the set-up.
“I think this is a great golf course,” he said.
“I've always been a big fan of a course that, as I say, you can't fake it. Maybe you can fake it one or two days, but you can't fake it for four days. And this is one of those courses. You've got to hit the ball great every day, you got to hit it solid. You've got to have control of your golf ball from tee to green. You have to have control of distance, direction. You've got to think about where you're hitting the shots into the greens or maybe even off tees.
“I think this is a great golf course. I think our rules staff did an unbelievable job this week of setting it up. I think they could have ‑‑ I think the superintendent would have loved to have seen the greens be a little firmer, a little faster. I'm sure he wasn't happy 18 under won, but it's such a fine line of maybe a foot faster or a little bit firmer and some of these pin locations become pretty stupid, and we look pretty stupid.”
As for former World Number One Brooks Koepka, the answer of whether he'd like to see a return here in future were fairly conclusive.
"Yeah, I'd play it if it came back here."
