Will Olympic survive the past week?

[JR Potts]

I thought Olympic was a wonerful test and provided a great event.  However, the course was looking a little tired by the end of the week.  Will the grass survive?

I would be interested in hearing how the course is looking 30 days from now.

[David_Tepper]

JR Potts -

The course will be fine.

DT

[JR Potts]

Good.

Must help having the moderate climate.  If the Open were in Chicago and the course got that firm and yellow, I'm afraid if given one bad dose of adverse weather, the course would be toast for the remainder of the summer.

[JSlonis]

I would imagine they'll have to do some resodding work on the green fringes especially.  They looked quite dead in many areas.  For some reason, when regrassing with these new bent grasses, the fringes take a couple years to really get good.  They stress much quicker than the actual lower cut green surface. When my club regrassed 5 yrs ago, we used similar strains to what Olympic used and for the first season, we didn't even have a fringe cut. We re-introduced it the 2nd year.

[Joel_Stewart]

My bet the sprinklers ran all night.  The fairways and greens will be fine.

The course is going to need an amazing amount of work just from the foot traffic of the spectators.  Add in all of the trucks and cranes to take down the tents and grandstands and it will be a few weeks before any conclusion can be made.  I looked at it yesterday and the members can just about kiss the entire summer away.

[Matt_Cohn]

Everything inside the ropes looks fine. Everything outside the ropes looks dead, brown, and bone dry. I know grass is surprisingly resilient but my totally uneducated guess would be a few months for those areas and into next year for all the areas with the tents, etc.

On the plus side, the new work on the Ocean Course is beautiful pristine. Of course the rest of the Ocean Course is trashed! When will that be ready? This year?

[JR Potts]

I guess my bigger question should have been - can a clay/soil based golf course at USGA's desired firm and fast conditions respond as intended, and survive for the rest of the summer - when not in a moderate climate?

Shinny had issues - and it is a sand based course.  Congressional didn't seem to have too many issues but it was wet.  Seems to me, with the hot summers and big rains we've had here in the heartland, it would be playing with fire to significantly firm up a course for a week and get it to US Open "desired conditions."

Merion next year should be interesting.  Will the USGA kill it?

[Joel_Stewart]

Merion next year should be interesting.  Will the USGA kill it?

From what I hear, they already have.

[Kevin_Reilly]

On the plus side, the new work on the Ocean Course is beautiful pristine. Of course the rest of the Ocean Course is trashed! When will that be ready? This year?

Yes...late Fall.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Matt I am not sure the jury is in on the Ocean project.

[Matt_Cohn]

Matt I am not sure the jury is in on the Ocean project.

Regarding date or quality?

[Wade Whitehead]

Imagine if the women were coming to town to play their Open on the same course this week.

WW

[Adam Clayman]

JR, Grass goes dormant before it dies. Starving it for a few days will not kill it.

The same questions came up after shineythingy in '04. I'd be shocked to hear they lost any turf.

[Kirk Moon]

On the plus side, the new work on the Ocean Course is beautiful pristine. Of course the rest of the Ocean Course is trashed! When will that be ready? This year?

The Ocean course is scheduled to reopen for play on September 8.  

[Sam Morrow]

Imagine if the women were coming to town to play their Open on the same course this week.

WW

I see what you did there.

[Joel_Stewart]

On the plus side, the new work on the Ocean Course is beautiful pristine. Of course the rest of the Ocean Course is trashed! When will that be ready? This year?

The Ocean course is scheduled to reopen for play on September 8.  

That will be impressive.  There are certain areas that are just trashed from the buses, parking and tents. 

[Kirk Moon]

On the plus side, the new work on the Ocean Course is beautiful pristine. Of course the rest of the Ocean Course is trashed! When will that be ready? This year?

The Ocean course is scheduled to reopen for play on September 8.  

That will be impressive.  There are certain areas that are just trashed from the buses, parking and tents. 

Agree.  Maybe they will just sod in the areas with major turf damage.  They sodded the new tees and greens when they redid them back in May.  Seems as though the groundskeepers aren't into the "seeding, watering and waiting" game. 

They better get this baby whipped into shape by then.  Us "downtown" members have more or less been shut out of golf at the club since late April and things won't get back to normal for us until the Ocean course is back on line. 

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Quality for sure and September 8 if semi normal conditioning is part of the deal.

[David_Tepper]

The Lake Course will open for member play this weekend. Much ado about nothing.

[Jim Nelson]

The Lake Course will open for member play this weekend. Much ado about nothing.

That's great.  That's ahead of schedule isn't it?

[Kirk Moon]

The Lake Course will open for member play this weekend. Much ado about nothing.

They can't get the Ocean Course open soon enough for my taste. 

Have you looked at the tee time reservations for the Lake Course on line?

Those danged "golf members" are bogarting all the tee times. The  nerve.   : )