Verdant Green aka Mud on the Ball, is F&F Dead?

[Ed_Baker]

I've played more road golf this summer than I have in several years and I'm sorry to report that there are more of them than there are of us.

By "them" I'm of course referring to the mysterious and mercurial nether spirits that have possessed green committees and entire memberships in to confusing landscaping and manicuring with golf course "condition". I am so sick of the visual wow factor negatively effecting the playability of some really terrific golf courses, it's not universal, but it's a sad majority. I also must add that I didn't play any modern courses this year, the golf courses I played were all built before 1930.

The evil spirits have invaded and successfully entrenched themselves at some clubs that used to "get it" too. We have discussed the whys and where for's of changing memberships on several threads on this site, is this instant visual gratification part of the natural evolution from memberships that remember fast and firm, to memberships that have experienced only beautifully manicured cranberry bogs to play their golf on ?

I recently played a well known course in this area that should institute lift,clean and place as a local rule and we hadn't had any rain in over 10 days !!! My host( a newer member of this course) all the while was gushing (pun) about how beautiful (green) the course was. The whole place was damn near casual water,the Arnold Arboretum is beautiful too, but you don't have to hit any fairway woods there. Even six or seven years ago this club was always fast and firm especially in August and September, unfortunately the member that I used to play with has gone to the great practice green in the sky and apparently took fast and firm with him. The way this course is currently maintained it would make an exceptional field laboratory for Footjoy to conduct waterproof testing on their Dryjoys. Even the squirrels that live on the course must be developing webbed feet.

There were a few notable exceptions in my travels but those courses were of the nationally known variety where time stands still and the game of golf and their golf course is still their primary reason for existing.

I'm curious to hear from those of you in the treehouse that play all over the country (world) if you find the majority of the courses you play to be greener,wetter,softer than what you as a player and GCA fan would consider optimum playability.

[wsmorrison]

I know one course you played on your journeys that isn't kept soft but in fact is Firm and Fast everyday that Mother Nature allows.  Hope to see you back soon, maybe later this month, right?

[Tim Taylor]

ROTFLMAO. I think we have a future in comedy for this man.

<snip>
The evil spirits have invaded and successfully entrenched themselves at some clubs that used to "get it" too. We have discussed the whys and where for's of changing memberships on several threads on this site, is this instant visual gratification part of the natural evolution from memberships that remember fast and firm, to memberships that have experienced only beautifully manicured cranberry bogs to play their golf on ?
<snip>
The whole place was damn near casual water,the Arnold Arboretum is beautiful too, but you don't have to hit any fairway woods there. Even six or seven years ago this club was always fast and firm especially in August and September, unfortunately the member that I used to play with has gone to the great practice green in the sky and apparently took fast and firm with him. The way this course is currently maintained it would make an exceptional field laboratory for Footjoy to conduct waterproof testing on their Dryjoys. Even the squirrels that live on the course must be developing webbed feet.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Ed,

I"ve noticed the soft, lush conditions on courses I"ve played this year as well.

The question is, is it solely Mother Nature, a defensive reaction to last summer's problems on the part of the superintendent, or both ?

I hear so many members say how good the golf course looks, when their sole criterion for making that statement is the color of the grass.

If you worked for 400 employers who felt that way, what would you do ?

Getting to F&F, brownish-yellowish-green remains a difficult uphill battle.

[JESII]

Very difficult!

Unfortunately there does not seem to be the understanding at the management level that the best defense against weather events like 2005 is a firm - fast maintenance program that strengthens the grass.

Understandably, and unfortunately, superintendents are reluctant to get too far down that road because it is generally more than a one year committment to "strengthen" the grass for the endurance of a long , hot and humid summer and the risk of losing a fair bit of grass in the first year or two is substantial. Club memberships do not generally have that type of patience. A better understanding of the long term benefits is sorely needed.

Plus, it's cheaper.

[Ed_Baker]

Redanman & Jes II,

Sand,sand, and more sand is the answer, or at least part of it.

Oyster Harbors on the cape has been sanding the begeezuz out of the whole course and will continue until they get the degree of fast and firm they want. I played the course last week and they are well on their way to the perfect maintenance meld, nice little dents to fix on the green after short iron shots and smooth fast putting surfaces, through the green is consistent as well, as you say, areal treat to play.
Ironically the green chairman who "get's it" at OHC is none other than Sandy Dowling, apropos nes pa? More sand Sandy.

[Rick Shefchik]

I'm happy to report that Hazeltine is F&F. On 18 the other day -- a few days after the U.S. Am -- I pushed my drive right of the trees on 18, and punched a five iron under the branches with idea of trying to roll one up the fairway somewhere close to the green. The ball continued rolling right up the hill, onto the green and didn't stop until it settled in the back fringe.

Boy, was that fun.

On the other hand, my home course watered like crazy all summer, and still got a few burn-out spots during the heatwave we had in August -- probably because the root system isn't deep enough to withstand a few hours of 100 degree temps.

[Jim_Coleman]

  After too many years of suffering (I actually think I spotted rice growing in three greens last year),  Rolling Green is FIRM and FAST!  It's actually exciting to be there.
  I don't think wet conditions are always membership driven.  We have been asking for firm conditions for years.  It was only after we hired someone who "got it" that we have been rewarded.
   

[Mike_Sweeney]

Ed,

I have been up your way the past 2 weeks. Eastward Ho!'s super from Shinnecock may have the best conditioned course that I ever played. It was the poster child for Paulian maintenance meld. On the extreme opposite, Farm Neck was exactly the condition that you speak of, but it was after 2-3 days of rain. Somewhere in between was Wianno and Mink Meadows.

The member that I played with at Eastward Ho! did comment that the conditioning came at a price, but I did not ask how much. He was the President of a Ross course outside of Boston, so he did understand club economics.

In a nutshell, it is a mixed bag.

[Pete Lavallee]

Ed,

I often wonder whether this is really a problem of economics rather than playability. I grew up on a muni in Mass. which had no fairway irrigation; the course would be burn to a crisp (a good thing) through August. We'de pray for rain and miraculously the place would green up just enough for the Labor Day MG. So they had neither the ability or the inclination to water the fairways; I guarantee no water was wasted on the greens either. Many of the privates didn't have fairway irrigation either; perhaps it was Yankee frugality that kept the membership from installing it.

But eventually these clubs saw it as progress to install full irrigation systems. Of course, once installed they had to be used; supers no longer had an excuse for the course not to be kept green al summer long. It's my impression that these same clubs spend more money, in adjusted terms, than they used to, mainly to "keep up with the Jones".

[Adam Clayman]

F&F isn't dead, but it does feel like it's dying on many course that earned their reputations on F&F.

Public courses like Rustic Canyon and Wild Horse are being softened because of ignorance and economics. The reason can likely be blamed on golfers love of their lob wedges and flop shots.

Don't gey me wrong, Josh Mahar still provides a decent surface at WH to play ground shots, just not with the speed of years past.

Sadly, asking the American golfer to use his right brain, is taboo. What a pity!