As players with designs on becoming course architects, Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke don't exactly sing from the same hymn sheet when the merits and demerits of Baltusrol, a par 70 measuring all of 7,392 yards, are on the board.

"It's one way to combat how far the ball goes these days," opined a philosophical Clarke of the ever-growing length of a course that features the longest par five in major championship history, the 17th, for this week's US PGA Championship.

In fact, Clarke believes more and more course designers will incorporate longer and longer holes into their designs. "I think 500-yard par fours and 650-yard par fives are going to be the norm in the future. I think that's definitely the way they're going to go," he remarked.

"I wouldn't necessarily go for that, making the hole 650 yards or 500 yards long," he added. "If you make the greens rock hard, that's putting a huge premium on hitting the fairway."

McGinley, in contrast, feels as if he is shouting but nobody is listening when he argues that there is another way. "They've made the same old mistake, going for length instead of subtlety. Length, length, length! I've gone on record before, if they're going to try to curb the scoring and get it so that everybody can compete, they need to address the way they are setting up the courses. A course can be 8,000 yards long, but if the greens are soft, there's going to be low scoring," said the Dubliner, who achieved his best finish in a major when he came sixth behind Vijay Singh in last year's PGA at Whistling Straits.

For this season's final major, or "Glory's Last Shot" as the PGA of America tout it, McGinley and Clarke - and their families - spent the past fortnight at Sandy Lane in the Caribbean. The holiday also involved some joint preparation on the Green Monkey course before moving on to New Jersey to get acquainted with the Lower Course at Baltusrol, which plays host to the 87th PGA Championship.

Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell are the other Irish players in the field.

While Clarke has the long game to take on just about anybody off the tee, McGinley does not and, not surprisingly, that limitation is on his mind in his prognosis of what lies ahead this week on a course that definitely favours the so-called "bombers" of the tour.

"This place is not suited to me," remarked McGinley honestly. "That's not to say I can't play well on it. My short game has got to be sharp and, obviously, I have to drive it well. So there is a way around it. But it is going to be a particularly tough test for me because it doesn't set up for me."

It doesn't help, either, that McGinley's form over the summer has failed to keep pace with an impressive spring campaign that culminated in a runner-up finish to Angel Cabrera (who, incidentally, withdrew from the US PGA field yesterday) in the BMW Championship at Wentworth in May.

The start of McGinley's season saw him secure four top-10 finishes in 10 appearances, but the last six appearances on the European Tour have resulted in a sequence of 44th, 42nd, 55th, missed cut, 41st, 47th. So perhaps the sunshine holiday came at a good time to break that run of mediocrity.

Still, McGinley has never been slow to voice his opinion, and the manner in which courses are lengthened to safeguard against low scoring gets him going.

"I've gone on like this before but I'm just banging my head against a stone wall," he said. "You need somebody to stand up and say, 'this is the way it should be'. But at the moment the four top players in the world are also four of the longest hitters, so they're not going to stand up and say this is not the way the game should be.

"The longer they make the courses, the better it suits the big hitters, and, on top of that, it doesn't penalise the long, wayward hitters. Look at Vijay Singh. His attitude is, 'Well, if I do hit it in the rough, I'll be so far up I'll be able to chop it on to the green. And if I hit it on the fairway, I only have a wedge or a nine-iron to the pin'.

"You need someone with enough clout to stand up and say this is madness. Tiger is one of the longest hitters in the world and this course is made for him.

"I'm only a small voice and nobody will listen to me. I understand that, and I'm realistic about it. What surprises me is that with all the powers that be in the US PGA and the various tours, nobody seems to get a grasp of what scoring is about these days.

"It's not necessarily technology that's the problem, they've taken the skill out of it by setting up the courses like this. Last year (at Whistling Straits), it was a battle of skill; here it's a question of brute strength. I'm not ruling myself out of the equation, but it's going to be a battle to get a good result this week."

Clarke hasn't played since the British Open at St Andrews and the three-week break - and important family time - has left him in relaxed mood ahead of this year's final major.

"From a competitive point of view, I'm probably rusty, but so be it," said Clarke, who will be looking for a much-improved championship with the putter compared to St Andrews, when he struggled with the blade.

"I've had a couple of good tips from Thomas Bjorn that I'm working on. It feels better, so we'll see when the tournament starts."