Pat, Pat, Pat...
What can I say to that other than you are the classic example of a member that only knows enough to be a huge pain in the ass to everyone at your club?
I really dont have to spend the time writing another post showing where your wrong because the people reading your statements can figure that out themselves.
But for your sake....
1. Your statement about USGA greens being built because the people building them are lowly, poorly paid fieldworkers. How does that not
sound like JK and how is that factual? You are a member at a club. You preside over committees at your club. That does not give you
the experience or the right to make a statement like that. Its an ignorant stereotype a la JK. Please enlighten me and the readers how
vast your experience is in the golf course construction field is. How many greens have you built? And please give me something
better than "the greens at my club were rebuilt" or "I watched the construction crew work as I drove by on my golf cart".
Ive been on the construction crew first as an intern for a year and a half in college. Raking and shoveling my ass off building greens,
tees and bunkers. Ive spent entire days in muddy drainage ditches over my head laying pipe. Ive spent day after day after day with
my ass planted firmly on the seat of a bulldozer or an excavator. Ive been a construction foreman for several projects around
the metro NY area. My point is, Ive been that guy building the green who you say is a minimum wage and unmotivated fieldworker.
I have alot of friends and colleagues all over the world in the construction business who build greens, very talented and make
a great living doing what they love. But you have headed a couple committees at your club and have SEEN a construction crew or two.
So I guess you do have the background and experience to say such things. All in all I have been involved with the construction
of over 100 greens so far, as someone who has been in the trenches your statements are very offending and is just another reason
why being a superintendent sucks because there are members like you to deal with.
2. I need you to be involved in the construction of at least 1 green before you try to prove to me that building a severely contoured green is
hard. And by involved I mean actually working with it. Getting your hands dirty. Do I need to repeat myself when I say look at this
past weekends greens at Dove Mountain. They are some of the most severe greens anyone has seen. They are USGA. The hardest
part about building those greens was the actual imagination being used by Jack and his associates to come up with those shapes
and tying them into the green surrounds. Building them to USGA spec did not make them any harder to construct. Was it more
time consuming than just pushing some dirt around and calling it a day? Yeah. Is it more expensive than just pushing some dirt around
and calling it a day? Yeah. But Dove Mountain now has high performance greens out of that investment. If they had just pushed some
dirt around and planted some seed, those greens wouldnt have grown in as well as they have and they sure as hell wouldnt have had
them PGA tournament ready within 1 YEAR!
Severe contours on a USGA green like Dove Mountain are not the norm because of green speeds and low mowing heights. It has
nothing to do with the fact that its a USGA spec. I thought you would even know that. Hell, I could make a USGA spec green shaped
like an egyptian pyramid if I wanted to with ease. Wait..... that might be cool.
Ive tried to answer your questions and comments a couple times I think now....
Will push-up greens make a comeback? They never left! And if a sites soil is suitable, that soil is always an option.
Why do 80 year old push-ups work just as well as USGA? God man!!! Because of 80 years of freaking topdressing with sand!!!!!
Patrick could you please elaborate on the numerous problems youve cited that are associated with USGA greens? And compare that to why
there are not the same problems with an 80 year push-up?
Did the USGA forget to send you your free US Open hat this year or something?