The jury is still out on how Marco Simone will play. Slowly but surely it’s secrets are being revealed, though, starting with arguably the most important of all: the rough.
There’s rough off the tee. There’s rough around the greens. There’s rough coming out of your ears and eyes. Is it “Abandon Hope All Ye’ Who Enter Here” levels? Not quite, but it looks like a stern test and that is exactly the point.
Rough has long been a useful tool for creating demanding setups and for tournaments that hope to test a certain skill set, but other appeals of the game are sacrificed when the measure of success is relegated to hitting the ball to predetermined positions.