Protecting Greens from Wind?

[Paul_Turner]

In a report to Kennemer GC, Colt writes:

"I have selected sites for putting greens in almost every case, which are naturally protected from the North West and North East winds.  I think that gales from those quarters would do more damage than those from the South West."

Does this need to be given much consideration when routing a modern course?

Any other courses where it's obvious the architect sited greens with natural protection from the harshest wind?

[Steve Okula]

I'd be interested to hear from other superintendents, but I don't think that wind dessication is too much of a problem.

Much more likely is the lack of air circulation, which can greatly increase disease pressure.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

That is one of the issues which make Pacific Dunes superior to Bandon Dunes. Doak et all did a great job of providing protection from the wind for the green surfaces. Bandon on the other hand is horrible on tha tissue.

[Steve Curry]

Paul,

From conversations I've had with the greenskeeper from Old Head I gather this can be quite a problem.

I have a green that is very exposed to the prevailing North West wind on one edge and in the winter it is a problem.

Steve

[Tom_Doak]

Tiger:  Honestly we did not think about or discuss that issue very much when we were building Pacific Dunes.  The severe winds tend to come from the north and most of the greens are naturally protected by dunes on that line.

I do know at Old Head the berms around the greens (which ruin the greens complexes for me) were done to get the turf established after a rough first attempt.  However that is one of the most exposed sites in the history of golf architecture.

We did think a lot about not putting so many greenside bunkers at Pacific Dunes in places where the sand might be blown onto the greens ... I noticed in reviewing the plan of Shinnecock Hills that William Flynn probably thought about that issue as well.

[TEPaul]

Once while at NGLA speaking with Karl Olsen he did mention that the greens along the 18th, 4th, 15th, 14th corridor were parlticularly susceptible to wind damage. I don't think he meant to say it was an architectural problem only that the club wanted the greens fast too far into the fall and such. He thought they were in a particularly dangerous wind corridor. He did say if he didn't raise the heights to protect them he could lose them.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tiger,

# 4 and # 11 at Pacific Dunes don't seem to be protected from a north wind.

Only # 6 and # 16 appear to be unprotected at Bandon Dunes, so I don't know why you feel that there's a disparity in the two courses in this area.

[Forrest Richardson]

In Alpine settings a direct southerly exposure can be a problem when wind comes from the south. In winter snow can be blown off and the natural insulation afforded by the snow cover can blow away — the result is a frozen tundra that can take months longer to thaw than the balance of the course.

[Marc Haring]

I wonder if Colt was concerned with wind blown sand at the Kennemer site more than anything. I remember a presentation by George Brown the superintendent at Turnberry where he detailed the extent of the problem. He showed a picture of a 2 ft core sample where you could see years of sand layering interspersed with more organic layers. These were simply a result of high winds periodically top dressing the greens. He had one tee that they lost under about 6ft of sand once after an especially bad storm.
Mind you, it can get a bit breezy over there sometimes.