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If you spend most of your time following the professional golf ranks, then you likely had no idea that there's a fairly important amateur tournament going on in Colorado at the moment called the U.S. Amateur.
Maybe you've heard of it? Anyway, it's the biggest event on the amateur golf schedule, and it's already underway at famed Cherry Hills Country Club (follow along right here), a course that's hosted three U.S. Opens and two PGA Championship.
But the course's history isn't what's important. What is important, however, is the fact that the USGA decided to stretch Cherry Hills' par-3 8th an extra eight yards this week to a beefy 274 yards for the U.S. Amateur.
The hole normally plays 266 yards from the championship tees and altitude should cut down on the insane yardage but, wow, that's an insanely long par-3. The sad thing is most of the guys in the field are probably hitting irons into the hole.*And I'm pretty sure if you gave Bubba Watson a crack at it, he'd pull lob wedge and fly the green by a couple yards.
While you'd expect the altitude to take a little bit of the edge off this week, through the stroke play portion of the tournament, the par-3 has yielded only eight birdies and is playing as the second-most difficult hole on the course with a stroke average of *3.526. So, yeah, the extreme length is making a difference.
h/t GeoffShackelford.com