PHOENIX — Like pro golf in other places this time of year, shorter days and earlier sunsets add a little something to the mix.
At the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, long shadows late in the day throw shade on many of the holes on the second nine at Phoenix Country Club.
The field is just 36 qualifiers for this PGA Tour Champions season finale but the first tee time isn't until 10:25 a.m. local, with the final pairing heading out at 1:05 p.m. local. Sunset this time of year is right around 5:30 p.m., and with the senior golfers, who play in twosomes, usually moving at a pretty good clip, it's not a matter of running out of daylight.
But the tall trees on the property cast some long shadows on the narrow corridors and greens late in the day on this
parkland-style layout. Those shadows appear to be quite pronounced on TV during Golf Channel's coverage but for the players, it's just another thing they deal with.
"It doesn't really affect it that much because it's not like you're, I mean, we've played here. With the exception of Zach [Johnson, a first-timer in this event], most have played here some," said first-round leader Stewart Cink, who had eight straight pars on Nos. 8 through 15 before closing with birdies on 16 and 18. "You kind of know what the ball's going to do on the greens. You're not just like learning for the first time in the shadows."
Another element, at least on the par-4 12th and the par-4 14th, is the late-afternoon ball of fire in the sky.
"I thought the difficult part was a lot of these holes just go directly into the setting sun and as the afternoon wore on, there was a lot of shots where you had a hard time picking out the flag because the sun was sinking low," Cink said. "Everybody has to deal with that a little bit, it's not a big factor, but it definitely was something noticeable."
Todd Kelly is Golfweek's assistant managing editor.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Weather is usually great at Charles Schwab but these 2 elements present a challenge
