East Lake

[Matt_Cohn]

Why is it playing so easy? The worst score in the field is one guy who’s +1 for 3 rounds. Median score is -6 after 3 rounds. These are for actual scores without “starting strokes”

[Kalen Braley]

Why is it playing so easy? The worst score in the field is one guy who’s +1 for 3 rounds. Median score is -6 after 3 rounds. These are for actual scores without “starting strokes”

A few potential reasons.

- Limited field event with 30 instead of ~150
- Those 30 are more or less the best players on Tour this year.
-  Hold a typical event where where only a few top players are in the field and I'm guessing a far different result.

[Pete_Pittock]

fwiw if you take starting points away Morikawa leads Scheffler by 1 and Theegala by 3.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Why is it playing so easy? The worst score in the field is one guy who’s +1 for 3 rounds. Median score is -6 after 3 rounds. These are for actual scores without “starting strokes”

A few potential reasons.

- Limited field event with 30 instead of ~150
- Those 30 are more or less the best players on Tour this year.
-  Hold a typical event where where only a few top players are in the field and I'm guessing a far different result.

Fourteen is now a par five that averages 4.3 rather than a par four that averaged 4.1 last year.

[Forrest Richardson]

I’ve been hearing the whining about internal OB. I’m sure Andrew didn’t intend that, and my guess is that maturity and $50k worth of craned in place trees will resolve this. Let’s not forget one of the earliest internal OB ‘designs’ was the sheds at TOC. They forever changed the 17th and if not there, what would we do — string some white stakes along the right to force play left? I think so.

[Carl Johnson]

Is the manufacturer of Prizm Zoysia a sponsor of the tournament? Just kidding, but boy are they getting a ton of free publicity. Is it really a better grass?

The article in the initial post on this topic says it's Zorro Zoysia, not Prizm.*  I take it Zorro and Prizm are different.  Which is it?  Is it any good?  My only experiences with zoysia, which have been few and years ago, are that it's a terrible playing surface because it "grabs" the ball and you get no roll.  No ground game approaches, either.

*"Fairways have been converted from Meyer Zoysia to Zorro Zoysia . . . . greens have been converted from Mini-Verde Bermuda to TifEagle Bermuda"

[Anthony_Nysse]

Is the manufacturer of Prizm Zoysia a sponsor of the tournament? Just kidding, but boy are they getting a ton of free publicity. Is it really a better grass?

The article in the initial post on this topic says it's Zorro Zoysia, not Prizm.*  I take it Zorro and Prizm are different.  Which is it?  Is it any good?  My only experiences with zoysia, which have been few and years ago, are that it's a terrible playing surface because it "grabs" the ball and you get no roll.  No ground game approaches, either.

*"Fairways have been converted from Meyer Zoysia to Zorro Zoysia . . . . greens have been converted from Mini-Verde Bermuda to TifEagle Bermuda"

Prizm is on the collars & approaches around greens.

[Carl Johnson]

Is the manufacturer of Prizm Zoysia a sponsor of the tournament? Just kidding, but boy are they getting a ton of free publicity. Is it really a better grass?

The article in the initial post on this topic says it's Zorro Zoysia, not Prizm.*  I take it Zorro and Prizm are different.  Which is it?  Is it any good?  My only experiences with zoysia, which have been few and years ago, are that it's a terrible playing surface because it "grabs" the ball and you get no roll.  No ground game approaches, either.

*"Fairways have been converted from Meyer Zoysia to Zorro Zoysia . . . . greens have been converted from Mini-Verde Bermuda to TifEagle Bermuda"

Prizm is on the collars & approaches around greens.

Thanks.  Then, why the difference?  Also, it seems then that it might not be easy to change the mowing patterns, e.g. to extend or reduce approach areas, putting the "wrong" kind of grass in one area or the other.  Could this be a good idea -- locking in somewhat the architect's design?


Carrying this a little further, I understood the TV commentators on the tournament refer to Bermuda rough.  Is that right, so you have Bermuda rough and two kinds of zoyzia (and then the TifEagle Bermuda greens)?  And again, wouldn't this lock in the fairway widths as defined by the grasses?  Which could be a good or bad thing?  I'm thinking, are the fairways for the tournament the same widths as the members will play, and how do the different grasses (Bermuda v. the zoyzias) come into play there?

[mike_beene]

The fairway width flexibility is one of the reasons to my understanding that my club is going with Bermuda fairways. We will only have one grass for fairways and rough, giving more flexibility.

[Mark Kiely]

Whatever grass is surrounding the bunkers fronting 18 sure was sticky. I saw several second shots from long distance land in that area and stop very quickly. Curious if that's how they wanted it to play when the restoration was supposedly following Golden Age principles.

[Kevin_Reilly]

Interesting to read the above.  Brambles in Northern California has Zeon Zoysia on tees and fairways, and Prizm on the greens.  Must be an unusual combination for a California course,

[Chris Hughes]

fwiw if you take starting points away Morikawa leads Scheffler by 1 and Theegala by 3.

Final results at East Lake:


1st  >  Morikawa  -22


2nd >  Theegala  -21


3rd  >  Scheffler  -20




Morikawa won the "golf tournament".


All the no-cut events combined with the B.S. scoring for this event are screwing up the record books. 

[Anthony_Nysse]

Is the manufacturer of Prizm Zoysia a sponsor of the tournament? Just kidding, but boy are they getting a ton of free publicity. Is it really a better grass?

The article in the initial post on this topic says it's Zorro Zoysia, not Prizm.*  I take it Zorro and Prizm are different.  Which is it?  Is it any good?  My only experiences with zoysia, which have been few and years ago, are that it's a terrible playing surface because it "grabs" the ball and you get no roll.  No ground game approaches, either.

*"Fairways have been converted from Meyer Zoysia to Zorro Zoysia . . . . greens have been converted from Mini-Verde Bermuda to TifEagle Bermuda"

Prizm is on the collars & approaches around greens.

Thanks.  Then, why the difference?  Also, it seems then that it might not be easy to change the mowing patterns, e.g. to extend or reduce approach areas, putting the "wrong" kind of grass in one area or the other.  Could this be a good idea -- locking in somewhat the architect's design?


Carrying this a little further, I understood the TV commentators on the tournament refer to Bermuda rough.  Is that right, so you have Bermuda rough and two kinds of zoyzia (and then the TifEagle Bermuda greens)?  And again, wouldn't this lock in the fairway widths as defined by the grasses?  Which could be a good or bad thing?  I'm thinking, are the fairways for the tournament the same widths as the members will play, and how do the different grasses (Bermuda v. the zoyzias) come into play there?

Prizm is a much tighter, dwarf zoysia. Some would say it's a greens grade zoysia, even. They also have zoysia on the bunker faces to cut down on maintenance, among other things. Their lines are locked in per AG's design intent, similar to what you would have with a northern grassed golf course.


Please see the fact sheet-


8.29-tour-championship-(pga-tour).pdf (gcsaa.org)

[Adam Lawrence]

I’ve been hearing the whining about internal OB. I’m sure Andrew didn’t intend that, and my guess is that maturity and $50k worth of craned in place trees will resolve this. Let’s not forget one of the earliest internal OB ‘designs’ was the sheds at TOC. They forever changed the 17th and if not there, what would we do — string some white stakes along the right to force play left? I think so.

In what sense were the railway sheds 'internal' OB? That wall is the boundary of the golf course.

[Forrest Richardson]

Dear Adam — There was no boundary before the sheds. A player could walk a hundred yards out into the dunes and play a second shot. Then a line was drawn and the sheds came along. It’s a fully artificial boundary that in many ways emulates the same concept — OB after the intended design, regardless of whether it is internal or just for property use. Granted, OB to separate holes has its own specifics.

[Edward Glidewell]

My understanding was that they originally planned to remove the pond on 18 entirely -- they filled it in at the driving range.


I don't know if that was ever the plan or if it was just a rumor, but it's absolutely what they should have done. The older version of the hole would have been better without the pond, and new version seems even worse with the expanded water, especially for the regular player.


I'm planning to get out there at some point this fall and see it in person, though.

[Niall C]

Dear Adam — There was no boundary before the sheds. A player could walk a hundred yards out into the dunes and play a second shot. Then a line was drawn and the sheds came along. It’s a fully artificial boundary that in many ways emulates the same concept — OB after the intended design, regardless of whether it is internal or just for property use. Granted, OB to separate holes has its own specifics.

yes, the course boundary was created after the existence of the course but it still wasn't and isn't an internal OB which is what you said it was in your earlier post.


Niall