I can’t help but chime in on this one, even though I realize that Mike knows only too well any point I may happen to make. The short answer is NO! American golfers won’t accept anything but lush fairways and as much lush conditioning as they can afford.
Let me give you an example. Our course is sand-based and located at about 3300 ft. in the high desert of southern Idaho where we get less than 10 in. of rain annually. We blow out the irrigation system in late October and recharge it in mid-March. This winter was exceptionally mild with a lot of play. Late fall and early spring the course plays a little like a links, very firm and fast (December & January like a frozen parking lot).
Our super here for 22 years died suddenly last fall. The new guy didn’t start until it was time to turn on the irrigation. We discovered, to our horror, that the central control programming of the irrigation system was basically gone—either by sabotage or because they had been getting the job done by smoke and mirrors all these years. The irrigation guy was gone, too (fired late last season by the old super for incompetence and gross insubordination). The new super had to start from scratch on an antique system that was poor at best. The combination of wear and tear from winter traffic, the difficulties of hiring and training a new staff, a super who had never worked on a sand-based golf course, breaks from a poor fall blow out, and the complete reprogramming of the system created sort of a perfect storm of problems this spring. Add in a mild spring with no rain and lots of wind.
Not by choice or design, the course played like a links all spring. I loved it, my favorite conditions. At no time was it unplayable, the greens and fairways were fast. However, the membership went into full revolt, formed little groups of their golf pals threatening to leave for other courses, and we had all of our core golfers worked up into a frenzy of discontent. This is same membership that plays here because they believe this is the best course in the region. It took us several months to get caught up, but we were never where we should be heading into the hot weather July—September. Despite our best PR efforts keeping our golfers informed about what was going on and finally giving them the conditions they desire—lush green fairways and soft greens—I’m not sure we’ll ever undue the damage done by those two months of revolt and discontent.
During this spring, I happened to play every other course in our market. They all had a slow start coming out of winter, but none as bad and prolonged as ours. They fertilized, punched, sprayed, poured on the water, mowed around the clock, and eventually achieved the conditioning expected by golfers in our market: lush, green, and soft. Personally, I was struck by how much more fun it was to play our fast and firm course than the other venues. Not that we were trying to present the course this way; no, we were trying to achieve the opposite and give our golfers what they wanted, but the perfect storm made it impossible. I knew enough to keep my mouth shut and did everything possible to get the new guy up to speed in meeting the expectations of our golfers and market: a level of conditioning that I’d call perfect for the vanity handicap golfer or, in other words, as easy as possible.
Understand, this is an affordable golf market. We all maintain our courses accordingly and all have relatively low maintenance budgets. In the case of this course, Canyon Springs, we happen to have the bones to present this course as many of us on this board would prefer—fast and firm, plenty of wind, and lots of ground options on nearly every hole. We aren’t a pseudo links and never claim to be. We’re just an average American course in a spectacular setting. Most golfers use carts, and although we’re very walkable, I’m certain we wouldn’t survive without the cart revenue. I’m also certain that if we renovated this course and presented it with the conditioning along the lines preferred by the participants on this site, if we made it a really good course and utilized our bones to full potential, we would be committing business suicide in our market. Golfers that pay the bills around here don’t want fast and firm, tight lies, firm greens, a pallet of colors including brown, challenging conditions, etc. etc. That’s a fact this season has taught me like no other. Oh yeah, I’m also a deranged lunatic and all of our troubles this year are my fault because I’ve tried to educate myself about other ways to play the game. And, because it’s my course and I can run it like I want, I have made the mistake of trying to pass along a little of what I have learned in the completely absurd attempt to educate golfers about other facets of the game. Lesson learned, I hope we survive.