Ron Prichard, famed golf-course designer and Lansdale resident, recently watched a championship match televised from Memphis’ TCP Southwind course. Like other fans, he found the shootout engaging. But as the course’s designer, his viewpoint was especially focused. Jack Hirsch drove the story for Golf.com.

The Par-3, Hole-11 tee shots of players Will Zalatoris and Sepp Straka caught his attention.

Straka’s shot pinged off a small retaining wall and plunked into the adjacent water. Zalatoris’ ball faced the same fate but avoided the drink by hopping into a gap between the wall and the sod.

Prichard found both ball positions startling.

When he designed that hole in 1988, there was no wall there. In fact, he had designed the entire course so that none of the water-hazard holes featured walls.

“I’ve always felt from a settings standpoint, and then obviously from a playing standpoint, that should not be a situation where a ball comes down and lands on top of a stone wall and bounces anywhere,” Prichard said.

He later found out that the retainers were later added to keep banks from collapsing.

In front of his flatscreen, Prichard refocused on play; both golfers on his course had lies that were unplayable, so both took a penalty stroke and moved on.

By the end, Zalatoris was victorious.

The hole details on this story are at Golf.com.