Soft Kingston Heath and Victoria for the Aus Open

[Trent Dixon]

Interesting comments by Cam Smith in the lead up to the Australian Open at Kingston Heath and Victoria. It seems having both the men's and women's tournaments played concurrently has necessitated a softer setup of the courses, it's hard to argue with what he's saying. More wet weather forecast for the weekend won't help firm and speed things up either.
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[/size]"I've played down here in rain before and it'd still be like that (hard and fast) the next day, so I think that's a bull***t excuse, to be honest, [/size]I think it's just been prepared like this for a reason and it's not how these golf courses are meant to be played."
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[Niall C]

Interesting comments by Cam Smith in the lead up to the Australian Open at Kingston Heath and Victoria. It seems having both the men's and women's tournaments played concurrently has necessitated a softer setup of the courses, it's hard to argue with what he's saying. More wet weather forecast for the weekend won't help firm and speed things up either.


"I've played down here in rain before and it'd still be like that (hard and fast) the next day, so I think that's a bull***t excuse, to be honest, I think it's just been prepared like this for a reason and it's not how these golf courses are meant to be played."

[Matthew Delahunty]

He was making his comments after playing on a course which got 2-3 inches of rain in the space of 12 hours and when several other courses of the sandbelt were closed due to flooding.  And later that afternoon there was almost another inch of rain in period of about 10 minutes.  Victoria GC still had lakes of temporary water on Thursday.

[Tim_Weiman]

He was making his comments after playing on a course which got 2-3 inches of rain in the space of 12 hours and when several other courses of the sandbelt were closed due to flooding.  And later that afternoon there was almost another inch of rain in period of about 10 minutes.  Victoria GC still had lakes of temporary water on Thursday.

Matthew,


Did Smith just not know how much rain hit Melbourne?


Tim

[Kalen Braley]

Seems its not the only thing he's being a whiny b**** about.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/tennis/slow-play-warning-rattles-cameron-smith-who-plummets-down-australian-open-leaderboard/ar-AA1uZhMq?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=79c1254b95ea40daaea8da5a7a6ebb53&ei=22

[Matthew Delahunty]

He was making his comments after playing on a course which got 2-3 inches of rain in the space of 12 hours and when several other courses of the sandbelt were closed due to flooding.  And later that afternoon there was almost another inch of rain in period of about 10 minutes.  Victoria GC still had lakes of temporary water on Thursday.

Matthew,


Did Smith just not know how much rain hit Melbourne?


Tim

He might not have known how much fell on Sunday. It it rained constantly from about 5am to 10am on Wednesday so he’d would have been out playing in it. The courses would have been watered on Friday and Saturday last week as it was 36 degrees and strong winds on those days. If not for Sunday’s rain the courses would have coped with Wednesday morning.   (Then the storm that hit on Wednesday afternoon was torrential, albeit only lasting 10-15 mins).  In my view Smith’s comments were premeditated as part of the protest of playing the Men’s and Women’s Opens concurrently.


More rain through the day today and another downpour at 5pm so it will be soft again tomorrow.

[David Kelly]

Is the rain keeping the spectators away?  The crowd looks like a member/guest.

[Thomas Dai]

Seems as though the players are being permitted to ‘place’ rather than ‘drop’ their ball if it lies in a puddle of water in a bunker?
Atb

[Mike_Clayton]

Is the rain keeping the spectators away?  The crowd looks like a member/guest.

The rain will be the excuse. it hasn't helped but it's more than the rain.


Re the soft greens - and they are nothing like they were in the 1980s and 1990s -  but I've never seen more difficult pin positions at either course. (I'm caddying for Su Oh.)

[Mike_Clayton]

Seems as though the players are being permitted to ‘place’ rather than ‘drop’ their ball if it lies in a puddle of water in a bunker?
Atb

Not that I know of.  It was preferred lies the first 36 because of how the rain affected a few fairways at Victoria on Thursday.
At KH it meant changing from one perfect lie to another - and pretty much the same at Victoria.

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks Mike.
Guess the in-n-out nature of TV transmission from rather a long way away caused some brain confusion!:)
Atb


PS - see the https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,73404.0.html thread for other comments relating to this subject.

[BHoover]

Despite the rain and softer conditions, Kingston Heath and Victoria have been far more interesting to watch than virtually any other course we typically see here in the US. It’s a damn shame that more players can’t be bothered to make the trek to Australia to play in a national open that deserves much more respect than it currently receives.