Amex Championship-The Grove

[Chris Munoz]

Anybody know anything about this golf course????Players say its more of a modern american designed golf course....Who designed it????From the pictures I have seen, the The Grove looks interesting....

Thanks,

[Tom_Doak]

Chris:

Kyle Phillips designed it, it was his first or second course on the heels of Kingsbarns.

[David_Tepper]

Chris -

I may be mistaken, but I think gca.com's peripatetic Philip Gawith did visit The Grove earlier this year and posted some pics of the course here. Maybe he will see this and post a link to his earlier thread, assuming it exists.

DT  

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I've been watching a bit on TV this afternoon and it hasn't excited me, but then the TV tends to flatten everything out.  It is apparently in superb condition.  The commentators are saying that it is such a good course that it will give very low scoring.  Tiger is certainly proving their point....  Back to watching, M.

[Mark Pearce]

I've been watching a bit on TV this afternoon and it hasn't excited me, but then the TV tends to flatten everything out.  It is apparently in superb condition.  The commentators are saying that it is such a good course that it will give very low scoring.  Tiger is certainly proving their point....  Back to watching, M.

I've never played there but drive past occasionally when visiting Watford to watch football.  There's quite a change of elevation between the entrance to the property and the river, so there should be some changes in elevation to deal with.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I'll bung this back up to the top in case anyone else managed to catch any of yesterday's golf.  Tiger made a comment to the effect that he was glad to get back to a course with decent greens - he could putt properly again.  Otherwise I haven't heard any other player opinion.  

[Tony_Muldoon]

I had a search but no luck. There was a thread about 3 months ago by someone who had just played it.  Mike Policano?

Briefly he thought the greens didn't break even if they looked contoured.  However they may have been designed with tournament speed in mind. It would be interesting to see how fast they've got them - there's been a reasonable amount of rain in the last month.

(The Tiger comment is interesting and it may just reflect confidence as others have said here.  He's always maintained that the team that sinks putts wins Ryder Cups.  At least half the field last week didn't find any problems with the greens. )

Having seen both courses the Grove has falloffs that finish in flat areas where the K club runs off into rough.  Also the K club was pretty wet last week, and although it coped very well with the water, it may have affected the choice of recovery shot.

[Jim Nugent]

I'll bung this back up to the top in case anyone else managed to catch any of yesterday's golf.  Tiger made a comment to the effect that he was glad to get back to a course with decent greens - he could putt properly again.  Otherwise I haven't heard any other player opinion.  

Before the RC started, I saw a few articles on how Woosnam made sure the greens at the K Club were "hairy".  That is the word he used.  Said the Americans weren't used to putting on that type of green.  Same thing happened at the Belfry in 2002.    

[Mike Policano]

Tony,

Just turned on the tournament.  I did play at The Grove in July.  I did comment that the greens with some exceptions obviously had a lot of straight putts.

When I played there with one of my buddies from London, we both commented that we expected the pros to make a lot of putts.
The greens rolled very well and pretty straight.

It looks like they flipped the nines from how it plays for resort guests.

It is obviously a parkland course.  There is a lot of bold movement in the fairways which doesn't follow through to the greens consistently.  Unfortunately, the management didn't get the email on trees.  They have planted hundreds of trees to eventually wall off tees and views.

It is however, a great little resort with excellent accomodations and food.  The course was fun and I would give it a 6-7 on the Doak scale, even though I am not qualified to use the Doak scale yet.

[Darren_Kilfara]

I would give it a 6-7 on the Doak scale, even though I am not qualified to use the Doak scale yet.

LOL! The thought of needing professional qualifications to rate a course using the Doak Scale is really funny to me...Mike, you go ahead and use whatever scale you want, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Cheers,
Darren

[Tony_Muldoon]

Normal service resumed
T Woods          US   -15      18
J Furyk          US   -10      18
D Howell              -10      16
S Cink           US   -10      13
P Harrington           -9      18
B Quigley        US    -7      18
H Stenson        Swe   -7      18
E Els            SA    -7      18
I Poulter              -7      18
Selected others:
S Dyson                -6      17
L Westwood             -5      18
L Donald               -4      14
D Clarke               -3      18
C Montgomerie          -1      15