ANGC is not over-manicured

[Voytek Wilczak]

This topic has been discussed here, but I am not sure if the following angle had been considered re ANGC:

Architecture (and maintenance) of a golf course should be true to the original land on which the course sits and the land's history.

ANGC sits on a former nursery/arboretum.

Ergo, the "manicured" look of ANGC absolutely fits the arboretum paradigm.

I, for one, am thankful that there are places like Friar's Head or Shinny or NGLA as well as ANGC. Variety is the spice of life.

And ANGC is true to the land on which it sits and its "genteel" Georgian heritage.

I think that the perfectly manicured ANGC fits the land's heritage better than "rugged and shaggy" ANGC that some treehouse dwellers would like to see.

[Doug Siebert]

Speaking of this, what was the deal with the greens today?  I wish I could have seen it in HD today, but even at normal resolution it looked like the greens had been aerated recently.  Did they perhaps do it a bit later than usual this year so it hadn't quite healed up?  It didn't appear to affect the roll of the ball that I could see, but it was a surprise to see.  Sort of like walking into a gas station and seeing the star of the movie you saw last night in sweats without her makeup on

[Tony Ristola]

I remember the flyovers they did after the changes a couple years ago. I wasn't sure if it was a computer simulation or the real deal. It took about half a minute to figure out it was indeed the real deal.

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

  I think what you are seeing on the greens is the result of the dry, firm and fast condidtions Augusta and we are enjoying this year. As the grass begins to show the moisture stress the pattern from the most recent aeration is visable. This is becasue the grass growing over those old aeration holes is healthier and holds color better than the grass in between the holes.
   Watch the ball roll. If the ball is bouncing consistently on all the greens then there may be a problem with the surface. I watched several hours of coverage yesterday and I don't remember many if any putts bouncing. The 18th green did show the aeration pattern but that camera was zoming in from almost straight up above the green. When the camera angle was lower the greens looked more uniform.
    They did put water on the greens late in the day. After Sergio hit his second from the trees on the left of 17 the camera caught a hose running on a green in the background, maybe #6. Whatever water was applied I'm sure was the minimum amount required to cool the grass and prepare it for the PM mowing.

[wsmorrison]

Voytek,

Yet for most of its life the course had been finished with a rugged and shaggy look.  The sentiment changed sometime in the 1960s or 1970s.  Was it due to how it looked on TV?  It seems to coincide.  Anyway the heritage of the course was as a rugged naturalist style.  The pendulum has swung as far as possible in the other direction.  

[Patrick_Mucci]

Wayne Morrison,

Many of the photos from 1934-1948 don't reveal a rugged or shaggy look, but a groomed look.

Perhaps we're looking at different things or our definitions are different.

When you say rugged and shaggy, what do you mean, and could you identify the features that reflect that look ?

[redanman]

Depends on your definition of "over-maincured".  I might even prefer  "hyper-manicured".

I think the perfectly circular rings of pine needles areound the bases of "stretegic?/penal trees is way over-the top

I think that the hyper-consistency of the grass strains is over the top.

I think that billiard table smooth greens (and the whole soft-spike thing) are over the top.

Need I go on?

All of these contribute to rank and file clubs full of rank and file 16 handicap members demanding the same for their course and that is bad for the future of golf.

So yes, Virginia, ANGC is the poster child for many, not all bad trends in golf.

[Voytek Wilczak]

All of these contribute to rank and file clubs full of rank and file 16 handicap members demanding the same for their course and that is bad for the future of golf.

So it is those foolish rank-and-file clubs with their foolish 16-handicap members who think they can emulate ANGC that are bad for the future of golf, not ANGC.

Think of ANGC as the Gardens of Versailles. If you try to emulate the Gardens of Versailles in your back-yard, it'll look quite silly.

(I am assuming here of course that your house isn't quite the Palace of Versailles, but who knows.... )

[john_stiles]

The course seems 'well groomed' from all of the early Christian photographs.

The grass is pretty short, looks well cut, and the 'grass coverage' looks pretty good in those photographs. Cannot imagine other courses were doing a better job in manicuring the course than shown in those photgraphs for 1930/1940s era.   One early aerial shows ANGC manicured quite a large area around 9 and 18.

A Golf Channel trivia story recounted an old Byron Nelson memory.  It was noted that Byron never dug down and took big divots which he thought helped him in the early days of the Masters when hitting out of the 'clover'.

[Marc Haring]

I think you have to ask yourself, if ANGC and indeed all its PGA brethren were to go all eco warrior, what would the effect be on ordinary golf clubs? It is never going to happen but my guess is the result would actually be very positive for the game.

[ChasLawler]

I think you have to ask yourself, if ANGC and indeed all its PGA brethren were to go all eco warrior, what would the effect be on ordinary golf clubs? It is never going to happen but my guess is the result would actually be very positive for the game.

ding...ding...ding

nail....meet hammer

[John_Cullum]

I think the perfectly circular rings of pine needles areound the bases of "stretegic?/penal trees is way over-the top

That is the one thing that irritates me. It's such a CCFAD look. You see it on all of the Fazio courses in Georgia and the Carolinas. Augusta National is above that. Someone get word to Hootie.