[Richard Choi]

Last week, I had to travel to Korea for a business trip. During airplane rides, I always look for golf courses and during the approach to the Narita airport in Japan and flying across Korea, I saw several golf courses where they had double greens like this:



I understand using a double green for a hole or two or using them for a 9-hole course, but why such extensive use of double greens on an 18 hole course like this one? Does anybody know why they are so popular in Korea and Japan?

[Matthew Rose]

Just a guess (and a very un-educated one at that), but I believe they use one set in summer and another in winter, with (presumably) different strains of grass.

Maybe this is an alternative to overseeding?

I know a lot of Japanese courses I've seen tend to have grasses that go dormant and really super-brown.

[Alex Miller]

I don't know why or if they are popular in Asia, but if I may comment on this particular set from a GCA point of view.

I don't see the point of these. If you have the resources, why not build a really good green complex instead of two bad ones? They don't look that much better than say sticking a green 30 yards short of the existing one in the fairway and using it as an alternate.

I doubt the current golf boom in Asia will continue to incorporate this. 

[Jay Cox]

My understanding is that originally most of these courses had one bent grass green for the winter and one korai green for the summer.  At least some of the courses now have abandoned the two-grass approach but have kept both greens now seeded with the same type of grass.  The cutsom, though, is a relic of the bent/korai days.

[Carl Nichols]

It is a fairly masculine society, if you get what I mean. . .

[Gary Slatter]

IMHO the R&A has been leading the way educating parts of Asia and most of their students pass through St Andrews regularly, to attend seminars or go to golf school nearby in Cupar.  They view the Old Course and possibly think double greens are the way to go.
The R&A have really established themselves around the world during the past 20 years in advance of the boom in Asia.

[Garland Bayley]

I think I read that Allison built double greens in Japan to allow for the seasonal difference in growth of grass types. Perhaps it was something he felt necessary back when he was working, and it is still being copied even though grass strains and green maintenance may have moved past the need for it.

[Adrian_Stiff]

I don't know why or if they are popular in Asia, but if I may comment on this particular set from a GCA point of view.

I don't see the point of these. If you have the resources, why not build a really good green complex instead of two bad ones? They don't look that much better than say sticking a green 30 yards short of the existing one in the fairway and using it as an alternate.

I doubt the current golf boom in Asia will continue to incorporate this. 

Many of the older Asian courses use a 2 green system, bent grass for the summer and a native winter grass green.

[Tom_Doak]

I would bet big money that the course in Korea was designed by a Japanese designer.  In the 1980's and early 90's, when American designers in Japan were encouraging clients to go to one green per hole, the Japanese designers were arguing that their climate made it unwise and that their tradition was two greens per hole ... and that's what their own home-grown designers were building.

Now that there is no more new construction in Japan, those same Japanese designers are trying to convince existing clubs to convert from two greens to one.

[Ally Mcintosh]

At The World Forum, one of the Japanese architects talked about this subject... I think he mentioned that there were 2,500 courses in Japan, almost all of which used the double green approach at one point (grasses, seasons, as above)... And that the last 20 years have been spent changing to the one green approach... so that there are now about 800 courses left with double greens...

I stand to be corrected on these figures but that is my memory...

[Tom_Doak]

Ally:

I think you are remembering those numbers right, although you should have said that all of the golf courses in Japan built between 1930 and ~1985 had two greens per hole.  Before then, they hadn't thought of the idea; and it was about 1985 that the American architects' call for one green started winning over the developers.

Tai Kawata's note in his speech that Japanese architects were now doing conversions to one green struck me, because 25 years ago they were all completely against the idea ... they saw it as the only issue that would keep Americans out, and they insisted loudly that one-green courses would never work in Japan.

[Ed Oden]

I was reading Brad Klein's "Remembering Donald Ross" last night and came across a sketch of the 7th green at Atlanta Athletic Club, No. 2 Course, circa 1925.  (Is this the old East Lake location or something else?)  Klein's description next to the drawing says "Note the double putting surface, one for winter and one for summer.  It's approximately 13,000 sq. ft. in size and divided by a huge swale 3 feet deep and 15 feet across."  I assume Ross designed the entire course this way since it doesn't make any sense to do a seasonal double green on only one hole.  Was this a practice once in fashion here in the US similar to that described in Asia?

Ed

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Interesting and
Tom the business angle is as well

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()