[Bob_Huntley]

I started a thread titled, "The Open Road to Sustainability."


It was an R&A account of the conditions at Hoylake last year for The Open, plus a video.

Seventy five people opened the entry and not one comment. Was it that boring?

Bob

[James Bennett]

Bob

I will check it out this evening.  No time for a proper look now.  I may have seen this earlier, not sure though.  Did Jon Wigget raise this (or something similar) earlier?

James B

[K. Krahenbuhl]

Bob,

While some of the technical aspects of keeping the course went over my head in the video I agree with the response to the results.

Tiger mentioned the creativity that firm and fast allows and Club Professional John Heggarty talked about imagination in shotmaking.  This is how I like to play the game and how I like it to be played when watching others play.  Would this 'best practice' be a success everywhere?  I don't know, but applied to the right layout it is hard to beat.

[Mark Bourgeois]

By your leave, my lord:
http://tinyurl.com/2y4dcz

In humble servitude
Mark

[Adam Clayman]

Sorry I missed it too Bob.

As for the question of the thread... as often as possible.

And, if for no other reason, To hear the lazy man howl at an unpredictable result.

When I see balls struck with low enough trajectories, get sucked up by their juicemeister, I howl at the lack of respect I'm being given as a consumer.

[TEPaul]

BobH;

I think you need to elaborate some on your intial post on this thread.

[Andrew Mitchell]

Sorry Bob, missed the thread first time round.

Having played Hoylake in October (shortly after the follow up visit in the video was filmed) it was possible to believe that the Open had never been held there just a few weeks earlier given how the course had recovered.  The rough was thinner than I expected but that was probably due to the dry summer not encouraging growth in the first place and the crowds trampling it down. As can be seen on the video fairways which people stated in July were burnt out and lost recovered admirably.

The R&A say they have learnt their lesson from Carnoustie 1999 and Hoylake last year won much praise for how the course was set up.  Hopefully Carnoustie will get dry weather for the next few weeks which will enable them to offer F&F again.

[Bob_Huntley]

Tom,

Basically  it was a panegyric from Tiger and the R&A about the conditions at Hoylake last year and the steps taken to get it 'brown.'

Bob

[Rich Goodale]

I was up at Carnoustie a few weeks ago and saw (and was told, by somebody who knows) that the rough was almost non-existent.  I spoke to my pro today, who had played there last week, and he says that the corridors are VERY narrow.  We've had a fair amount of both mositure and heat here in Scotland over the past 3-4 weeks, so what it's going to look like mid-July is anybody's guess.  I'd put 100-1 that (agronomically) it is not going to look anything like Hoylake.

[RJ_Daley]

Once again, Sir Boab... I've been sent scurrying for my dictionary.  

Yes, indeed it was a great panegyric on "best practices" and one most turf managers ought to review often.  I think the interview here on GCA.com with Scott Anderson qualifies in the same manner on the same general subject.  

One thing that was stated however was a minor technical aspect that the club committee official said they wanted to provide a test to use all the clubs in the bag.  In Tiger's case, didn't he abandon his driver all week?  On the other hand, it is a set of conditions that lured the others into using the driver, hoping to get even more out of the F&F roll out, and thus missing FWs.  Yet, Tiger was smart enough to know the f&f would give him all the distance he needed with less club and more accuracy to hit the FWs and thus, he knows he can beat all comers from second shots hit from FWs, even giving up a slight amount of distance.

Now, I wonder if the strtegy of assurance to hit the FWs by giving up driver will prevail at the U.S. Open, with narrow FWs, and unforgiving rough.

[Kalen Braley]

Why doesn't Oakmont take the toughness further....

Check this out...

http://tinyurl.com/349fg3

[Craig Sweet]

Letting the course go dormant in the summer heat? Easier said than done....

Today we were verticutting around some tee boxes and a golfer waved me over and asked what we were doing that was making the tee's look so ugly!  I explained, and said we would be coming along shortly with the vac and sucking up the "thatch"...and he was like...oh good, because that is ugly now...this is on a COUNTY OWNED course!!!

You can imagine the howls in August when we brown out a little....something like Hoylake would send our clients right over the edge...

[Jon Wiggett]

James,

yes I have written several threads essentially on this subject. It is a topic accepted by people who either have an interest in strategic golf or those wishing to return to the ways of low cost but good quality golf.

Yes Craig, I am sure you are right. Some people buy wine depending on the vintage and others depending on how pretty the label is, much like golfers with golf courses

[Rick Shefchik]

Craig,

Just keep fighting the good fight. Keep educating 'em, and by the time we're all dead, the average American golfer (what's left of them) might begin to understand.

Of course, growing conditions in the U.S. are different than the seaside courses of GB & I, so we'll never get it quite right. But if we all keep at it, someday the average consumer might begin to get the point that tons of trees and soggy turf is not optimal golf.

[Bill_McBride]

I saw Hoylake in July 2006 on TV and then played it and walked for a couple of days in early October 2006.  It's amazing what a couple of weeks of steady rain will do to a course that isn't irrigated for the sake of being lush.  Even quite green the course still played nice and firm.  F & F = "Fun and fast!"

[Craig Sweet]

Rick...what we can't lose sight of is this fact...here in western Montana from April 1st thru Sept 1st, it might rain a TOTAL of four or five inches...that's a normal year. This one is drier...

So, when I say we are putting down 650,000 gallons per night right now, it's to keep the grass from dying.....not going dormant, but actually dying.....

We watch the weather and when its going to rain, we don't irrigate for a few days...when it heats up, the sprinklers come on....my course will have a mix of brown...green and yellow grass color and the course will firm up a lot by July....but for my tastes, it will still be too wet....what we have going for us by mid July is everything is brown, its dry, the forests are on fire, its in the 90's with no humidity...EVERYONE knows the routine and what to expect...less than an inch of rain for July...they realize how hard we work to keep everything alive and they shut up and say nothing about the yellow and brown grass...

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