My take on producing firm and fast conditions is that any golf course/club needs to SPECIFICALLY define what they mean by firm and fast FIRST.
By that I mean they need to actually QUANTIFY what they mean and what their goal is. For instance the goal in the LZ's may be 40-50 yards or more of bounce and roll-out, and maybe more. In the approaches the ultimate goal may be 20-40 yards of bounce and roll-out (depending on the type of shot--eg trajectory et al). On the greens I'm talking about analyzing pitch marks etc of really well struck wedges and 9-irons from good players. Is it possible to stick an aerial approach and suck it back, for instance? If it is the green surfaces really aren't "FIRM". FAST on green surfaces is sort of another equation.
So clubs and courses who want to get into a dedicated firm and fast maintenance program need to QUANTIFY what they mean and what their goal is in PLAYABILITY---eg for the BOUNCE and ROLL-OUT of the golf ball FIRST, and then break it down into at least three specific areas, LZs, approaches, and then green surfaces.
Once that's done the club needs to get with the super and have detailed discussions of what it actually takes from maintenance to acheive those quantified and defined playabilities.
Those discussions get into things like altered maintenance practices (more or regular aeriating, tyning (dethatching), less irrigation (wetting agents), less fertilization, sanding etc). Some clubs don't like the reality of this area because it can be somewhat more disrupting of conditions more often. But one cannot avoid the realities of the necessity of these maintenance practices if a truly firm and fast product is to be achievable. The ultimate obstacle to firm and fast playablity is basically just soft wet turf and THATCH.
One always needs to realize that soil conditions, weather, regionalism etc CAN make this kind of thing vastly different to achieve from course to course.
One also needs to realize that rainfall in various quantities and regularity just takes this kind of playability out.
So given the realities of weather the goal needs to be to return the course AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE to that ideal firm and fast condition and playablilty as weather allows.
This is just the surface of it. This isn't even getting into something like aesthetics (various stages of browning). In other words, some clubs can create really firm and fast playablity (50 plus yards of bounce and roll-out) but in most cases they have to pay to get it---and I mean REALLY pay, in some cases. It's possible to maintain really firm and fast conditions with a light green course (no real browning) but to do that one needs a ton of the money that it takes to pay for the man-hours of constant syringing of not just greens but entire fairways or more. Sometimes we're talking up to a score of men out there syringing.
This is the world of the really high end clubs that are into this firm and fast program now who don't even really brown out with ultra firm and fast conditions. I'm talking the likes of Oakmont and Merion, ANGC that have $2 million PLUS annual operating budgets.
But the first order of business is to quantify what is meant by firm and fast---eg 10 yards, 20 or up to 50 and perhaps really plus yardage of bounce and roll-out.
Clubs that can do that on a regular basis (given the realities of weather) have supers and staff that actually go out and watch the bounce and roll-out of the golf ball and very much maintain towards what they see. This is a pretty amazing balancing act when you get right down to it. It takes constant vigilance!!
This is the world of what I've always referred to as the Ideal Maintenance Meld. Most of us understand the various component parts, sort of
but most don't really understand the huge jigsaw puzzle of how to put all the component parts together in a mainteinance program, what it actually takes from maintenance to do it and what it might cost, or even what the various "give and take" is.
For any club to do it they have to completely understand not just the maintenance model necessary to do it but the playability model FIRST.
I come at this subject strictly from playability. Then we get with those who administer the club and the super and SPECIFICALLY define and quantify the goal of firm and fast playablity, and in at least three specific areas---eg approaches, LZs and green surfaces. Of those three the most important of all are the approaches because they are the link or lynch-pin to an effective over-all ground game option to the aerial approach game.
When you define and quantify these things first and in specific areas, the next step with maintenance usually goes this way---"Can do, No can do, or Can do and here's what it's GOING to cost". Those who think they can get with regularity what some of these high-end clubs get (and with their "look") on the cheap or very simply are pretty much dreaming. If you really want firm and fast playablity and you don't mind something that will look a bit ratty from time to time, then the cost may be more to your liking.
These are the realities. If anyone thinks any course can be firm and fast a day after 2" of rain, they're dreaming. And if anyone thinks the can have firm and fast by just shutting off irrigation they are really dreaming---unless they enjoy the mass annihilation of turf and losing golf courses.