Soon after 8.00am on Wednesday, 28th October, Peter Dawson, chief executive of the R & A, walked on to the new 17th tee on the Old Course at St Andrews. He was inspecting the site where work was about to begin ready for next July's Open Championship.

The day before, Dawson had said he had heard nothing of the reaction to the R & A's decision to lengthen the Road Hole, one of the most famous in golf, by 35 yards by building a new tee on the adjacent practice ground. "I've been away. Nobody has rung me up" Dawson said. He went on to say that negative comments about the change to one of the most famous holes in golf were similar to comments made when new tees were added to the 13th and 14th. "There weren't many complaints then" he said.

To assess the reaction around the world The Spike Bar sought the views of four well known golf course architects: Bill Coore of Coore & Crenshaw, designers of the Sand Hills course in the US; Tom Doak, the American whose work at the Renaissance Club near Gullane, Scotland, could be seen not many miles away from the Old Course; Doug Carrick, President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects; and Robin Hiseman of European Golf Design who wrote a remarkably prescient article eight years ago about the 2022 Open at St Andrews being the last because the event had outgrown the golf course.

Hiseman described a 15-year-old American who had rounds of 56, and three 61s to win comfortably. The American, Hiseman noted, used a 3 wood to reach the 18th green, his ball bouncing twice before spinning back to within ten feet of the hole.

None of the designers had seen the new tee and therefore, as Coore elegantly put it in an e-mail, "I'm speaking from a long distance, almost blindfolded perspective." What was crucial for them was less the lengthening of the hole and more that the line of play remained the same. "....can the tee be moved back thirty five yards without compromising the angle of the tee shot or play on the 16th green?" Coore asked. "If the new tee can be built on exactly the same line of play as the current tee without impacting play on 16, then by all means proceed."

Carrick, also in an e-mail, said the lengthening the hole may compromise the integrity of the original design. "If I understand the proposed new tee location correctly .....it seems...that the angle of the dog leg will be increased significantly...

Dawson put these fears to rest. "The angle of the tee is 100 per cent the same as it was before. The distance from the 16th green to the 17th tee will be very similar to the walk from the 1st green to the 2nd tee, from the 3rd tee to the 4th and from the 4th green to the 5th. There will be no interference with players on the 16th green." He paused and then said firmly: "We are not stupid, you know."

Wrote Doak: "regarding the Road hole specifically, the proposed change won't hurt the hole. The green is so well defended by the road and the bunker that players are afraid to attack the hole even when they have hit a perfect drive and have a 9 iron in their hands. But it makes scant difference whether they have a 9 iron in their hands or a 7 iron ....so the change is much ado about nothing."

On the other hand, the four men expressed concern about the reason why this change had been brought about. "I believe there is a more prudent approach that can be taken to preserve the challenge and integrity of the great old championship venues as well as protecting the game in general" wrote Carrick. "Reducing the distance that the golf ball flies makes sense for many reason beyong just championship play. While I applaud the efforts of the R & A and the USGA with the new ruling on grooves, which is intended to reduce distance to a certain degree, I believe much more can be done in this regard."

Coore wrote that time will tell how this change will come to be judged and then added: "One thing time should have already told us is that if the golf ball had been better regulated regarding the distanced it travelled, we would not be pondering these questions."

Wrote Doak: "The proposed tee on the Road hole is just another symptom of the same disease which has been gnawing away at golf for years...the inability of the ruling bodies to preserve the challenge of the game through effective equipment regulation. The R & A and the USGA seem to take turns blaming each other (or blaming the PGA Tour) for various junctures where they have failed to act."

Ouch!