What do you think are the requirements for championship-caliber greens from a conditioning standpoint?
I don't want to see a major championship on greens stimping at 5. But I thought the greens at St. George's clearly rolled true, played reasonably firm, and had a reasonable amount of speed.
I'll echo Jeff Warne and others - I'm just a recreationally competitive handicap golfer, but I absolutely struggle more with slow greens than fast ones. I recall a tournament last year when I went into the final round sitting 4 strokes back, and came out firing by my standards. I hit 6 of the first 10 greens, but played bogey golf for that stretch. On greens running about 9, I struggled mightily to inject the right amount of "hit" into my stroke to roll the ball the correct distance. I think I three-putted 4 times in that stretch. Compare that with the club championship at my home course, where greens consistently run 11ish and where I've had two 3-putts in 108 holes over the last two years.
I guess my vote would be anything running at above 8 or 9 is just fine, provided the roll is still true. Grain is fine - good, even - but the plinko nonsense that happens at West Coast US Opens on poa annua is ridiculous, and one of the best arguments not to just pursue speed at the expense of everything else. I'm more likely to devalue the quality of a championship based on softness of greens than slowness of greens, personally. Sometimes weather dictates softness, but fly-and-splat golf in a major is lame.