Every time I play here I feel the need to comment on the amazing job they are doing at Lakeside. I'm playing in The Kelly Cup, and the condition of the golf course is simply perfect. Some highlights:
1) The tree removal of a few years ago has now fully taken effect. The course has a bit more of an open feel than it did before and the fairways are all healthy and equally covered with perfectly manicured bermuda. Gone are any soggy, grassless patches that crop up when there are trees lining every fairway. In fact, gone is any sogginess anywhere on the golf course. Also absent is the need to hit tee shots into tiny openings. Are there still trees at Lakeside? Of course. But now they are just a part of the experience, whereas the course used to be too much about negotiating trees, if you ask me.
Just an amazing job with the tree removal.
2) The course truly plays "firm and fast," though it is as green as green can be. Well, let me put it a different way: If you golf you ball, it plays firm and fast. If you are errant with your tee shots, it plays like hell itself! The rough during The Kelly Cup is 3 inches and as thick as I've ever played. But, if you keep in in the short grass, you are rewarded with firm and fast conditions the like of which I have rarely played -- especially on shots that are played into the almost always present "openings" to the greens at Lakeside. One of the things the new superintendent did (along with the greens committee, I'm sure) is to re-seed (sod?) every single "run-up area" on the whole golf course with a different grass than the Bermuda that is found in the fairways. (BTW, if anyone knows what kind of grass was used, I would love to know). The resultant surface is a perfect medium to play low, releasing shots into. The ball reacts truly, and you can actually plan to hit the ball 5 or even 10 yards short of the green and pitch it forward and on.
This decision was truly a brilliant one, as Lakeside is an extremely difficult test, and with the greens (nearly?) as firm and fast as at a PGA major championship, the average player needs an "escape route" in lieu of simply firing at the pin. In fact, one of the reasons Lakeside is such a great course today is that very reason: variety of shot-making options. Well done, Lakeside.
3) The greens. Oh my, the greens. First of all, they are tiny. They may be, on average, the smallest set of greens in the country (or at least close). They are probably 100% poa annua, but they are the best poa greens I have ever putt on. True, fast, and firm. They will (barely) accept a well struck 8 or 9-iron, but if you catch one just a fraction thin or fat: Good-bye golf ball.
A few hole highlights:
1) I love stepping on number one at Lakeside. It's a relatively simple slight dogleg left of 390ish yards. It's not the best hole on the course, but to me, it's one of the best because when I'm teeing it up there, it means I'm at Lakeside, which always gives me butterflies. If the hole is rather ho-hum, the green is great -- one of the best (of many) on the course. It's small, like nearly all the greens at Lakeside, with an opening in the front left, and deep bunker guarding the right and middle of the green. There's a mound in the middle left that is just large enough upon which to place a pin position that is "fair" (I know many of you hate that concept) under tournament conditions, and that mound influences all putts on the green.
So a word on that (the smallness of the greens combined with speed and mounding): Because the greens are small and fast, any internal mounding must be negotiated with the utmost skill, since there is rarely much green to work with at the end of each mound. That means that one must control speed coming off of mounds and slopes to a very exacting degree, unlike on larger greens where there is often much more "real estate" at the end of a mound or slope. In my opinion, the greens at Lakeside strike this very delicate balance perfectly.
3) Number four is a 570 yard true 3-shot par 5. The drive is relatively straight forward, but a drive to the left side of the fairway yields a better view of the demanding lay-up shot. If you are right of the tee, there is a small group of trees that require you to either go over them or bend one left to right. The second shot, though, is deceptively difficult. Because of the way the first and second "sections" of fairway are laid out, they first portion aims you left, but the second portion is off and too the right a bit, requiring careful aim to find the fairway and not leave yourself in the rough trying to hit to one of, if not the, most difficult greens on the course to hit.
The green is simply diabolical. It's tiny, with an opening front right and a kidney-shaped green that goes from front right to back left. There is a bunker that guards the front left and two(?) to the right as well, in addition to one long, center. If the pin is in the left portion, just about the only way to get it close is to bring the ball in from the right. Firing straight at the pin is a recipe for disaster, as most shots will bounds over the green (even with a wedge!) and you will be left with an extremely difficult up and down from even two or three yards over the green, as that portion slopes from back to front fairly significantly.
Another cool feature of the fourth is the transition from the green area directly into the fifth tee. It's just brilliantly done, natural, and creates a perfect flow into the next hole. I will try to get some pictures today.
That's it for now. Will come back tonight and post more. Have to go stretch my back and warm up for the second round!!