Robin Hiseman - European Tour comes to Bahrain

[Adam Lawrence]

David - sorry for the slow response, I've been playing golf at Woking. I saw RGC in construction, and at the time, the greens struck me as being a pretty impressive set. There is a lot of contour, yes, but they are also very large, as has been said, and a lot of them use slopes to create smaller, more easily defended areas within those large greens. The last hole is a good example - there is a small shelf at back right that gives one Sunday pin, and another one in the rear centre where the shelf protrudes into the middle of the green, so it's defended by a downslope on three sides (I'm explaining it badly, but imagine a stage set for a gig where there's an area at the front allowing the singer to run out and be surrounded on three sides by crowd). I liked that pin especially, given that the green is built up at the back, and if you wanted to, you could run the ball up the slope and have it trickle back to the hole. Or the first green, which I've mentioned before, slopes massively away from the line of play. But it is the best part of sixty yards long, so it isn't as though every shot is going to run through the back.

The criticism by the likes of Poulter and Casey is misguided in my view. If a tight pin were defended by a bunker, they'd have no complaints. But because these greens use contour to protect the flags, suddenly they are a joke. They force a player to control his ball, even after it lands; and given the amount of spin these guys generate, it's quite easy for them to spin down a slope and away from the flag. I think that's a good thing.

[David_Elvins]

David,

Just wrong to call him a cheat if the rules allow it.  Anyway, presumably the drop was a penalty drop, so it's not like he's getting away with murder, is it?

No penalty for pugged ball through the green - there are no defined bunkers on this course even though he was in what looks, everyday, like a bunker.  

THe process was as follows:

-Sergio picks up his ball (not sure if in grass face of sand face, does not matter).
-Sergio walks all over where he is required to drop the ball in the 'bunker'
-Sergio call rules official
-Sergio says "I shouldn't have to drop in these footprints, can I rake them'
-Rules offical says yes.

The rule is ridiculous becasue you should not be able to prepare a lie before dropping a ball.  If you are dropping a ball i nthe rough, can you vacuum the area befre dropping?

Sergio is borderling cheating IMO, if he created the footprints on purpose so that he could rake them. (He did not tell the rules official that they were his footprints.

I don't know if it is a rules problem, an offical problem, or a player problem but the idea that you can prepare a nice lie for yourself before taking a drop is not in the spirit of the game, IMO.




Adam,

Thanks for that.

[Padraig Dooley]

David,

Just wrong to call him a cheat if the rules allow it.  Anyway, presumably the drop was a penalty drop, so it's not like he's getting away with murder, is it?

No penalty for pugged ball through the green - there are no defined bunkers on this course even though he was in what looks, everyday, like a bunker.  

THe process was as follows:

-Sergio picks up his ball (not sure if in grass face of sand face, does not matter).
-Sergio walks all over where he is required to drop the ball in the 'bunker'
-Sergio call rules official
-Sergio says "I shouldn't have to drop in these footprints, can I rake them'
-Rules offical says yes.

The rule is ridiculous becasue you should not be able to prepare a lie before dropping a ball.  If you are dropping a ball i nthe rough, can you vacuum the area befre dropping?

Sergio is borderling cheating IMO, if he created the footprints on purpose so that he could rake them. (He did not tell the rules official that they were his footprints.

I don't know if it is a rules problem, an offical problem, or a player problem but the idea that you can prepare a nice lie for yourself before taking a drop is not in the spirit of the game, IMO.




Adam,

Thanks for that.

David

There is an exception to the embedded ball through the green local rule if the ball is embedded in sand in an area that is not closely mown.

[David_Elvins]

Padraig, thanks for the correction, I am more interested in the rule that allows you to prepare the ground before dropping.

[Eric Smith]

It's always nice to read Robin's posts, wherever one is fortunate enough to find them. Check out his post tournament blog posting from today at European Golf Design's site... http://www.egd.com/wordpress/

Congratulations again, Robin!

[Robin_Hiseman]

Well.  What an interesting experience that was!  I think I've found a new definition for 'paradox'.  Questions welcomed.

[David_Elvins]

Well.  What an interesting experience that was!  I think I've found a new definition for 'paradox'.  Questions welcomed.

robin, were you happy with the way the course was set up. Particularly with regard to pin position and green speeds.

 What do you think differentiates good undulating greens from bad undulating greens?

Do you really believe that the fact that the highest ranked player won is, in itself, an indicator of course quality?

Thanks.

[Philip Gawith]

Well done Robin - the course looked great on TV. As for your blog, I particularly liked your tart reminder that the club members are your clients - not the pampered pro's who should go down on their knees every night that people pay them vast sums to indulge their passion.

Maybe you can explain your ellipitical reference to a new understanding of paradox!!

How loud did the Poulter-type criticism play through the tournament (did others echo what he said, did you hear more or less criticism as the week went by?). And what was bothering him about the greens - the extent of the undulation and the speed just being too different from what he is used to? Was their offsetting comment from other pro's who welcomed the different style?

Philip

[Robin_Hiseman]

David:  I was satisfied with the way the course was set up.  Greens speed were matched to contour by and large, though I felt we could have gone half a foot quicker.  The greens were not designed with 12 foot on the stimp in mind.  Had we had the opportunity to sow bent grass greens they would have been very different to what you see, but the original paspalum was, we were assured, not going to produce an especially fast playing surface, so the green were designed within the anticipated parameters.  That said, on reflection, there are a few greens on the front nine where we could have better exploited the opportunity.  Ironically, it is the the three greens on which we moved the least that drew the most comment (2, 6 and 7).  All three are largely at existing contour.

The flat parts of the greens are generally pretty flat.  I think bad undulating greens occur when the strong internal contours bleed into pinning areas which in themselves slope significantly.  That is the problem with Green 2, where I believe the combination of wind blow and further Sand Pro green preparation post surface approval led to a steepening of the pinning areas.  We took 2% as being our general max grade for the pinning areas, maybe pushing it to 2.5% where the internal, dividing contours were lesser. 

Having the best player in the field win the tournament is always a good thing for the sponsors, TV, hosts, etc, but is by no means the sole defining evidence for the quality of the course.  We had a lot of very strong players in the field, many of which had a good chance to win.  Paul Casey adapted better to the unique challenge than anyone else and for that he deserves all the credit he receives. He also cleaned up in both pro-am events during the week!

[Robin_Hiseman]

Philip:

I found it paradoxical to recieve criticism for the course being too tricky, whilst at the same time the scoreboard operators were in danger of running out of red numbers!

We got lots of very good comments from the players, but they aren't so interesting to the media!  The greens were a little slower than normal, but we all know that creativity is hampered by high greens speed.  For once, and don't you think it is a welcome change, we prepared a tournament course where the speed was intentionally capped to allow the contour of the greens to come to the fore.  My greens at Casa Serena, where the Seniors play, are very tame by comparison, but there we knew that they would run at 13. 

[Robin_Hiseman]

Brian:

The course is intentionally very stark.  Two reasons:  1.  It's in the middle of the desert and we wanted it to look as though it is.  2.  Water.  We only had a limited resource and basically we calculated beforehand how much turf/landscaping we could irrigate and worked backwards from that.  Given that Bahrain can be pretty windy, we wanted the course to be generously grassed, which meant the landscaping (the profusion of which defines the other leading courses in the Middle East) was limited.

The site was quite featureless to begin with.  The back nine was so completely flat and without definition that the only way we could pinpoint our location on the initial walk around was with a GPS indicator superimposed on the draft layout plan.  Every bump on the back nine was created.  Visualisation was no different to anywhere else really.  I get a mental image and draft it up.

I've not been to the other countries in the Middle East, but our construction manager, Martin Champion, built both Abu Dhabi and Doha, so he was a great help in turning the design into reality.  It was actually quite an easy course to build.

[Gareth Williams]

I thought it looked wonderful last week Robin so can see why you and your team are proud of this new venue.

Well done,
Gareth

[Jason Topp]

Robin:

I assume that the low scores were caused by the relative lack of wind and possibly being conservative in the set up knowing that there would be some controversy about the course.  Am I correct?

Were there any holes that the pros attacked differently than you expected?  Did they make any big strategic mistakes in your view?

How did the amateurs like the course?  I liked the pro am format with 2 professionals and one amateur on Saturday.  I am sure it was a thrill for the amateurs and I thought it made better television viewing than other pro am formats.

Do you expect Poulter to return?

[Adam Lawrence]

As of next year it'll be a Tournament of Champions, so he'll only be back if he wins something this year!

[Robin_Hiseman]

Jason:

The low scores were mostly a result of the overseeding and copious rain making the course very soft.  It was designed to play much harder and faster, which it does when the paspalum comes through.  The greens get up to 10.5 max.  I didn't think the pins were especially conservative over the whole week, but they didn't go to a few spots that the club use on a weekly basis.

I thought they might have taken on the optional carry on the 5th (see photo below), but they played them off the tips all week long, so they all laid up.  We actually built an extra back tee, because from the next one forward (the original champ tee) the club pro Steve Munro just bombed the green with no bother.  I hope they step forward next year.



Looking back from behind the 5th green.

With such good scoring I couldn't tell you that they made many strategic mistakes!  Few of them chose the optimun line off the 1st tee, which opens up the view to the sunken green, but when you're that good with a wedge what does it matter. 

The ams loved the course and I played in the pro-am on Wednesday, so managed to court plenty of opinion.  We see the game differently to the pro's.  It's always an adventure to play there and it's generally pretty hard to lose a ball, so you're always moving forward.  Quite a lot of the members have brought their handicaps down on the new course compared to the old one.  We definitiely got the tee set up right.  There's a lot of choice.

Here's a few more pictures from last week to illustrate what all the chat has been about.  Enjoy!


Looking back to the 4th green


The controversial 6th green.  They didn't use the pinning areas in the foreground.  It's crept in a bit through the fringe, but I reckon we'll sort that out for next year.


The short par 4 11th.  The last green we built.  There were two enormous water tanks in this location that we couldn't take down until the very end of the project.


The 12th. Perhaps my favourite hole.  Very short and created from a completely flat, featureless desert.  Wish the houses hadn't come in so close, but that's why we made the hole so short.


The 15th green.  I thought this green was pretty wild when we did it, but it raised no comment last week.  The gullies feeding off the green punish anything timid.  The single best tree in the whole of Bahrain in the background.


The 16th is sort of a diagonal Biarritz green.  Toughest hole of the week, but the club members love the pins in the central gulley.


The giant 17th green is essentially two greens in one.  Perhaps the best green we did as it has such wide strategic variety.


The 18th green from the balcony of the hospitality suite.  This is our 'Sitwell' green.  The raised platform in the middle is affectionately known as the 'bandstand' and is the area Adam referred to in an earlier post.  The pin was up there on Thursday.  Shame about the big net, but we had no other choice.


The 15th to the left and the twin par5's of 14 and 13 to the right with the ubiquitous pipeline corridor in the centre that splits the course in two.  I grew to love having it around.  it adds so much character.


Martin Champion was our construction project manager and a really great bloke to boot.  As we walked around the course after play on Friday, we persuaded the scoreboard attendant on 11 to do this for us.  For the life of me I don't know why we didn't put ourselves at -21.  It was still there the next morning! 

[Adam Lawrence]

Rob, let me get that straight: nobody at all went for the green on the fifth? I'm astonished. How much further back is the additional tee? Did everyone hang back way left or did anyone end up on the bottom of the wadi?

[Robin_Hiseman]

Adam:  Not once as far as I'm aware.  The new back tee (which you would have seen) makes it about a 240 carry.  These guys are just too good with their wedges to need to take the risk.  Put the tee forward one and in brings the green into range.  The hole is 400 yards played the safe way.  It's a better risk/reward option for the amateur, who can get phased about the approach shot over the wadi.  A few of the pro's sliced lay ups it into the wadi. 
The hole usually plays down wind, but as the wind was quartering about all over the place, it never really set up for the risk/reward option.

[Jason Topp]

Thanks for the reply and pictures Robin.  What is the experience like playing under the lights and how often are they used?

[Bill_McBride]

Brian:

The course is intentionally very stark.  Two reasons:  1.  It's in the middle of the desert and we wanted it to look as though it is.  2.  Water.  We only had a limited resource and basically we calculated beforehand how much turf/landscaping we could irrigate and worked backwards from that.  Given that Bahrain can be pretty windy, we wanted the course to be generously grassed, which meant the landscaping (the profusion of which defines the other leading courses in the Middle East) was limited.

Robin, looks like a very interesting and fun course!   How many acres are irrigated?  (IIRC only 90 acres can be irrigated on courses in Arizona these days, another low water supply area.)

[Niall C]

Robin

Excellent, thanks for the mini tour. Delighted to note that there is going to be various other events at the course. I didn't get to see it on TV so these pics are the first I've seen of it and it looks great fun. Now that you've seen it played under tour conditions, what parts of the course would you change and what do you think you got spot on ?

Niall

[Robin_Hiseman]

Jason:  I've not played it under lights yet, but it looks incredibly dramatic at night.  Amateurs were out on the course within minutes of Paul Casey putting out!  The lights are on every night of the year.  During the summer that is when most of the play takes place.  You tee off around 4pm and its starting to get dusky after 9-holes.  Stop for a beer and then finish the back nine in the dark.

Bill:  About the same.  Around 35 hectares, which is just under 90.

Niall:  Definitely overcooked two or three greens, but I'm really satisfied with the aesthetics, strategy and personality of the golf course.  It's got character in abundance and really entices you to be bold.  Like you say, it is just loads of fun to play and I don't think you can ever under value fun.

[Ian Andrew]

Robin,

I'm enjoying the comments, questions and of obviously your responses.

Thanks.

Ian

[Alfonso Erhardt]

Robin,

It looked very nice on TV and very interesting comments. The fact that the greens were controversial obviously makes them good. If they don't speak about them it must mean that they are very standard!!!

Thanks for your comments and congratulations.

Alfonso

[Ally Mcintosh]

I see Robin’s course is back on the tour and on d’telly right now.


Looks like fun!

[Jeff Schley]

The Royal Golf Club is good fun.  Some bold greens, short holes to temp you as well. Love the 16th Biarritz green.