Brown - Green - Brown Fairways? Isn't there a better way?

[JESII]

Does the television enhance the color contrast between the irrigated and non-irrigated portions of the fairway or is it really that stark? The playability looks great but the TV makes the presentation seem anything but natural.

I understand the goal and the intended message and can't help but think the crew hedged their bets instead of going all the way. What benefit is provided by single line irrigation if they leave 50% of the fairway outside its reach?

I think I would prefer water control as opposed to water elimination...but if we're going with elimination, why not go all the way?

[Adam Lawrence]

Jim - I personally don't think this is the case. It seems to me that the fairways get progressively browner as you move away from the centre, which would be entirely consistent with irrigation coming from there - less water will fall as you get further out. This is in line with the philosophy Bob Farren and others have expressed since the restoration - that they want the extent of irrigation throw to define the grassing lines.

[Scott Warren]

Lower or nearer to the centre = green.
Higher or further from the centre = brown.

Exactly as I found Morfontaine last summer and it was maybe the best conditioned golf course I have ever played. The quality of the turf under the ball was consistent, but the colour varied.

Maybe a downside of colour TV is that viewers get all tied up about the things that don't matter.

[Russ Arbuthnot]

Maybe a downside of colour TV is that viewers get all tied up about the things that don't matter.

Well said.

[Brent Hutto]

Does the television enhance the color contrast between the irrigated and non-irrigated portions of the fairway or is it really that stark? The playability looks great but the TV makes the presentation seem anything but natural.

Not this tournament specifically but in general I'm certain that TV coverage is tweaked to make colors (especially green) "pop". Some football broadcasts are over the top with amping up the saturation. But I get a similar sense on many golf broadcasts.

When they play golf courses in my area of the country, I am quite familiar with the grass types, foliage on trees and so forth from having lived here all my life. The pictures as presented on my television typically seem very amped-up when showing those courses.

[JESII]

Maybe a downside of colour TV is that viewers get all tied up about the things that don't matter.

Well said.

I disagree that this is well said. Color does matter. It doesn't mean bright green is good and everything else is bad. I am a big fan and proponent of bworn but it looks to me that this single irrigation model is simply a step back to the 50's or 60's or whenever single line irrigation replaced no irrigation.

Can anyone see 20 years forward to the decision that there's no reason to maintain it all at fairway height if only the middle half is irrigated?

WOuldn't multi-line sprinklers with use regulators (even if just written...) accomplish the goal better?

[Keith Grande]

Brent, you make a good point.  Perhaps not the broadcaster is to fault, though.  Today's HDTV's color settings are defaulted to "Vivid" or "Torch" mode which pumps up the color spectrum in an unnatural manner.  If you go to your tv's settings, select "natural, or even "cinema" and you will see a stark difference in the greens, reds and blues represented.  

Here's one example of default settings and how to adjust, but you can also do a search for HDTV torch mode as well.

http://www.hdmi.org/installers/getting_column_joel_silver.aspx

[Brent Hutto]

Jim,

My experience with alternative maintenance regimens is very limited but it seems to be that short irrigated turf, short unirrigated turf, long irrigated, long unirrigated...all these are distinct playing surfaces. I do not think you can meaningfully conflate mown, fairway-height grass which sees little or no irrigation water with unmown, rough-height grass receiving the same non-irrigation.

[Brent Hutto]

Brent, you make a good point.  Perhaps not the broadcaster is to fault, though.  Today's HDTV's color settings are defaulted to "Vivid" or "Torch" mode which pumps up the color spectrum in an unnatural manner.  If you go to your tv's settings, select "natural, or even "cinema" and you will see a stark difference in the greens, reds and blues represented.  

Here's one example of default settings and how to adjust, but you can also do a search for HDTV torch mode as well.

http://www.hdmi.org/installers/getting_column_joel_silver.aspx

Keith,

Thanks for pointing that out. It's an important element. In my case, I run the Avia (tm) setup on my display once or twice a year to keep it somewhere in the more conservative realm of picture settings. But very few TV screens I see are set to anything other than the default screamingly-bright mode.

[Russ Arbuthnot]

The point isn't that color doesn't matter. It's that, since we can't be there, and are viewing images on a screen, it might cause us to focus on the wrong things instead of the right things: turf, contours, playing angles, roll, playability, etc. If you take the color factor away, what do you see?

[Keith Grande]

I will say it is VERY difficult to see the slopes in the greens, due to the steep falloffs on the outer edges of the greens, as they are presented on TV.  It seems that internal slopes are generally easier to see, than the ones on the outer edges of the hole. 

I was viewing a color coded chart of the green slopes on Golf Channel this morning, I believe it was the second green where about 10 % of the outer edges of the green has more than 5.8% slope where the ball would not hold, 70% where the slope was between 3 and 5%, and the remaining 20% had slope less than 2%. 

If there's any sport or event that needs proper 3D or Holographic 3D, it is golf.  I could do without 99% of the other garbage in 3D.

[Scott Warren]

Maybe a downside of colour TV is that viewers get all tied up about the things that don't matter.

Well said.

I disagree that this is well said. Color does matter. It doesn't mean bright green is good and everything else is bad. I am a big fan and proponent of bworn but it looks to me that this single irrigation model is simply a step back to the 50's or 60's or whenever single line irrigation replaced no irrigation.

Can anyone see 20 years forward to the decision that there's no reason to maintain it all at fairway height if only the middle half is irrigated?

WOuldn't multi-line sprinklers with use regulators (even if just written...) accomplish the goal better?

Jim,

The brown turf is healthy. It just doesn't look pretty.

When I lived in London, I got well acquainted with my home club R.Cinque Ports and the neighbouring R. St George's.

Now, RSG has good R&A money behind it due to the Open hosting, and so it has the funding to water enough to keep it green but F&F even years away from hosting.

RCP, on the other hand, has to be pragmatic with its course spend and so often we see the most undulating fairways (2, 3, 5, 6, 15, 16, 17) very much two-toned. 9-11 may be all-brown.

No mistake - the turf across both properties is comparable, but watching on TV you'd say RCP seems near-dead in places where that's untrue and likewise that RSG is far healthier, which it isn't.

Watching in monochrome, you'd reckon both look and play brilliantly, which they do.

Colour isn't always an indicator to turf health and qualityand should not be a major factor in judging a course.

Yes, there is brown grass at Pinehurst - that doesn't mean it's any less to play golf on than were it green.

Golf is at its greatest when the ball moves on the ground. I don't really care what grass type or colour facilitates that, I just want fun golf. If the method of maintenance makes the course cheaper and easier to maintain, that's gravy.

[Thomas Dai]

Perhaps golf is better viewed in black and white.

Imagine the folks on Sky or the Golf Channel coming up with such gems as that once supposedly said by a commentator on another game/sport - "For those of you watching in black and white, the green ball is behind the brown".

atb

[JESII]

RA,

In my second sentence I say the playability looks great. I think the course would look better if it were brown from wall-to-wall.

Brent,

Not so sure about that. Isn't single line irrigation the primary culprit for the narrowing of fairways on older courses?

[Ken Moum]

Does the television enhance the color contrast between the irrigated and non-irrigated portions of the fairway or is it really that stark? The playability looks great but the TV makes the presentation seem anything but natural.

Not this tournament specifically but in general I'm certain that TV coverage is tweaked to make colors (especially green) "pop". Some football broadcasts are over the top with amping up the saturation. But I get a similar sense on many golf broadcasts.

When they play golf courses in my area of the country, I am quite familiar with the grass types, foliage on trees and so forth from having lived here all my life. The pictures as presented on my television typically seem very amped-up when showing those courses.

My wife and I had it hammered home last year when we showed up at St Andrews not long after the Women's Open. It was bright green and odd-looking during the event but a beautiful pale green/brown when we got there.

Ken

[jeffwarne]

Jim,
the fairways in the middle and tees do seem electrically green (for bermuda)

yesterday,(before the rain last night) I saw Justin Rose draw very moist turf, if not mud on a chunked pitch.

a step in the right direction though.

I'd say irrigation salesmen are shuddering

[Brent Hutto]

Brent,

Not so sure about that. Isn't single line irrigation the primary culprit for the narrowing of fairways on older courses?

I think the distinction is still there but people probably didn't like having the 'mown, un-irrigated turf" on the edges of the fairway so they just eliminated it by bringing in the mowing lines.

Or that's what I presume, anyway. I wasn't around back in the 80's, not playing golf I mean.

[MClutterbuck]

RA,

In my second sentence I say the playability looks great. I think the course would look better if it were brown from wall-to-wall.

Brent,

Not so sure about that. Isn't single line irrigation the primary culprit for the narrowing of fairways on older courses?

I have to agree with Jim. I love everything in the restoration except the single line irrigation. If irrigation is there, it is because it is needed for grass to survive. When it needs to be used, there is no agronomical need for more water in the middle than on the sides.

It would be much better, and potentially use even LESS water, if they had 3 lines of irrigation, the 2 outer lines with partial irrigation heads. Then the precise minimum amount of water could be delivered to all areas in the fairway, and no excess in the middle. Less water potentially, and a more even color, healthy brown, throughout the fairway.

Everything else on the course looks great.

[Jon Wiggett]

I would have thought that what is important is the QUALITY of the playing surface from a playing point of view. Why do people get so hung up on colour.

Jon

[JESII]

Jon,

Playability is most important...I've said that.

If you were starting from scratch, and building fairways ranging from 40 to 50 yards wide, would you put in single line irrigation?

[MClutterbuck]

Jon,

Playability is most important...I've said that.

If you were starting from scratch, and building fairways ranging from 40 to 50 yards wide, would you put in single line irrigation?

No. Optimum (minimum) delivery of water is not produced by a single line of irrigation. If you have the economic resources, it pays to invest in 3 lines, 2 of which would be partial heads, and if there is wind, you would not even use one, to avoid getting water into the native areas.

[Paul Gray]

I would have thought that what is important is the QUALITY of the playing surface from a playing point of view. Why do people get so hung up on colour.

Jon

Exactly.

He speaks volumes about the insidious effects of years of 'postcard golf' that even people here are talking about something other than playing conditions.

[JESII]

Paul,

Maybe you could take a minute to attempt to understand my position...

[Paul Gray]

Jim,

Firstly, apologies for the use of 'he' rather than 'it.' A genuine mistake and, whilst I confess to now veing a little confused about your position, I did not intend a personal attack. I save those for Mucci. 

So, if you would, please try to explain to my dim witted brain why you would like to see a different look.

[JESII]

I think the single irrigation line leaves the bordering short grass ripe for an eventual shift in mindset to let it grow a little longer. I would have suggested three rows and control the use so it plays as well as the centers play today.

Second best would have been to go all-in and remove all irrigation lines and the course today would be brown from wall-to-wall...which is my favorite golf color.

The green mohawk down the center is ugly, but more importantly leaves plenty of room for a later revision to 3 inch rough where today is brown short grass. The stark contrast being the driving force behind that type of decision.