I grew up with golf. My dad taught me to play at a young age, in the mid 80s. He played in a league on the weekends and at dinner would regale me with stories about the good shots and the bad shots and how good his partner was and how bad his partner was.

And I remember every weekend watching PGA Tour matches where players like Fred Couples, Corey Pavin, Nick Faldo and Sandy Lyle attacked courses like Augusta National, Bethpage Black and Shinnecock Hills. I distinctly remember Paven beating Greg Norman by two strokes in the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock.

The majors were weekends that could not be interrupted. The Masters was our favorite and in 1995 I watched my favorite player, Ben Crenshaw, take the green jacket just days after his mentor Harvey Penick died. Crenshaw was never the most exciting player, but I was a nut about putting and he was the best.

But I also remember the regular tournaments. As much as the majors were like holidays, the regular tour events were what got us through week to week. They were the constant that made the weekend that much more fun. We'd go out on Saturday morning and hit a bucket of balls. Then work on the putting green and get home in time for lunch and some golf on TV. I distinctly remember tournaments with names like Bob Hope Classic, Byron Nelson Championship, Shell Houston Open and Kemper Open.

The Kemper was played at TPC Avenel, in Potomac, from 1987 to 1999, the heyday of golf viewing with my father, from when I was five years old until I headed off to college. Avenel was a great name for a golf course and it always stuck in my mind for that reason. I had no idea that the players hated it so much, because from the glow of the television screen, the rolling fairways, deep bunkers and elevated tees looked majestic. The camera rarely caught the standing water in the fairways and drainage problems, from what I remember.

TPC Avenel was opened in 1986 and was criticized immediately for its poor design. There were drainage problems, flooding and issues with the grass that made for conditions that resembled a municipal course, rather than a championship course. This caused many big names on the tour to stay away from the Kemper.

Fred Couples, who was in his prime in the mid-80s and early-90s, continued to participate in the Kemper.

"I didn't come because of the golf course," Couples said, with a half smile.

Couples had friends in the area and enjoyed visiting them while on tour, despite having to play a course disliked.

Fred Funk, who was born in Takoma Park and grew up playing golf on the University of Maryland golf course, just about 20 miles from TPC Avenel remembers a lot of flooding when rains came. But he never thought it was a terrible as everyone made it out to be.

"The creek used to come out of its banks," Funk said. "But I thought it became a fun golf course as it matured."

Funk felt that a lot of the attention was underserved.

"Once Greg Norman blasted the course, it never lost the stigma," he said, referring to a comment Norman made about blowing up the ninth hole.

Even though Funk asserted that it wasn't a terrible course, it carried that badge through the 90s and into the early 2000s.

Then in 2007 the PGA Tour, who owns all of the TPC courses throughout the country and recognized the reputation TPC Avenel had gotten, announced a $32 million renovation.

The clubhouse reopened in 2008 and the course was made playable in April of 2009. And the complex was renamed TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. In 2010 the first PGA tour event was announced as the Constellation Energy Senior Player's Championship Oct. 7-10, a Champions Tour stop.

There has been resounding praise from tour players throughout the tournament.

"This course is ready to showcase a premier event," Funk said. "This is the best TPC course we have and might be the best course on the Champions Tour."

Tom Watson, who was aware of the stigma of TPC Avenel, but had never played the course before the redesign and name change, said the course looked tough during a wet practice round Wednesday.

"The course is playing very long," Watson said. "I'm going to have to learn this course in one day."

The members and the regulars who play the course throughout the year are happy.

"It was much more enjoyable," Bob Thompson, of Round Hill, Va., who played the course 30 times before it was renovated, said. "They made the ninth hole much better, much more appealing."

Andrew Good, who travelled down from Baltimore to play the course said the experience was unbelievable.

"The course plays incredibly long," he said. "Even if you lay up short there's a possibility you won't get it up."

And even the pros who never liked the old course had a change of heart. Fred Couples, who had no problem expressing his disdain for the old course, said the change was dramatic.

"It's incredibly hard," Couples said. "There are a lot of pretty holes."

He said the course was certainly ready for tournament play.

"I'd be shocked if anyone said this wasn't a good course," Couples said.

Couples ended up withdrawing from tournament after an opening day round of eight over par. He foreshadowed the trouble the course would give him the day before.

"I was in the rough a lot today," he said.