Thanks for starting this thread. I had not heard about the PGA being moved to the spring. I don't like change, so I don't like ("old man shakes fist at sky").
I heard they changed the first hole to make it a 515-yard par 4. Seems outrageous, but then I remember that a lot of these guys hit their drives 290-310. A 300-yard drive would leave 215, which is a distance they are used to for their par 3s, and that many of them can reach with a 4-iron or a 5-iron.
As a weak recreational golfer who hits a driver maybe 230 on a good day and a 4-iron maybe 165 or 170, that monster 515-yard par 4 is the equivalent of a 400-yard par 4 for me. So, I don't feel sorry for them at all!
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust