Tiger Woods is one of the two greatest golfers to ever have graced the game.
Many golf fans think Woods is actually the greatest of all time, but others put Jack Nicklaus ahead of him purely down to his major win tally.
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The now 50-year-old has won a record-equalling 82 PGA Tour titles throughout his career to date, including 15 major championships.
Tiger Woods has suffered terribly with injuries and off-course issues over the past few years.
Photo by Cliff Hawkins/TGL/TGL Golf via Getty Images
However, it was recently claimed that Woods could compete on the PGA Tour once again, although no timescale has been put on a potential return.
The 15-time major champion has always been one of the most important voices in golf. When he speaks, everyone listens.
And it seems as if he foresaw a real problem with the professional game back in 2017
The ‘scary’ prediction Tiger Woods made about professional golf in 2017
Woods has always been extremely outspoken about safeguarding the future of the game that he loves so dearly.
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Back in 2017, Woods shared a word of warning about the direction that professional golf was heading.
“We need to do something about the golf ball,” Woods said.
“I just think it’s going too far because we’re having to build golf courses, if they want to have a championship venue, they’ve got to be 7,400 to 7,800 yards long.
“And if the game keeps progressing the way it is with technology, I think the 8,000-yard golf course is not too far away.
“And that’s pretty scary because we don’t have enough property to start designing these types of golf courses, and it just makes it so much more complicated.”
Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The thing is, Woods has nearly been proven right already, just nine years after those comments.
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The good news for the purists among us is that the golf ball rollback will come into play in January 2030 with the aim of reducing the longer players’ carry distance by around 15-20 yards, perhaps even more.
There are some brutally long tracks on the PGA Tour, but what are the three longest layouts of them all?
The three longest golf courses on the PGA Tour
Torrey Pines Golf Course (South Course) – 7,804 yards
The golf course in La Jolla, California, has played host to a PGA Tour event since 1952, and it always tests the best players in the world to the absolute limit.
Only twice has the winning score been better than 16-under par since 2008 and that tells you all you need to know about the difficulty of the layout on America’s west coast.
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Trump National Doral (Blue Monster) – 7,739 yards
Cam Young won the Cadillac Championship this year after the PGA Tour returned to the Blue Monster for the first time since 2016.
Young won with a score of 19-under par, although second-placed Scottie Scheffler finished six strokes back on 13-under.
Caves Valley – 7,631 yards
The BMW Championship has been held at Caves Valley twice since 2021.
After being lengthened to 7,631 yards ahead of the 2025 tournament, Scheffler won with a score of 15-under par.
One PGA Tour golf course already exceeds the 8,000-yard mark.
Castle Pines hosted the BMW Championship in 2024, and the layout measured 8,130 yards long.
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However, it’s worth noting that Castle Pines sits at 6,200 feet above sea level, and the ball flies around 10% further there.
At sea level, the yardage of Castle Pines would equate to roughly 7,350 yards.
Tiger Woods predicted that golf courses would reach 8,000 yards nine years ago. The problem with this is that so much land is required now to build a championship layout.
Hopefully the upcoming golf ball rollback will address that problem.
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