Niall,
I think you're missing a "k" in there.
"The s_ eptic was a lovely bloke and a pretty good golfer as well."
Pat,
Maybe at courses with sandy soils, but not in the north east where it would entail too much drainage.
It's ironic that we're discussing cost savings on one thread and Firm and fast on another.
cause firm and fast over sustained periods of time ain't cheap unless you've got a british isles climate
Jeff
I think you have hit the nail on the head. What might make f&f prevalent in the US would be the economics. If there isn't any ecomnomic advantage going f&f then I can't see it catching on but then I'm struggling to see how f&f wouldn't be a more economic.
Niall
Niall,
First of all the supers on here can answer better than I but....
Let's say you have bent fairways with a decent irrigation system, but not state of the art.
It's July and your fairways are burning (as in dormant, and anymore dormant they're dead-as in checked out)
You can run your irrigation longer, but parts will be overwatered, therefore softern than ideal in many parts, but no grass will be lost.
Or you can hand water, which is expensive.
Or you can upgrade your irrigation sytem so the parts that are burning or being missed get hit, but hopefully not overwatering other areas-that's expensive.
Or you can go firm and fast, and lose a lot of grass in many areas-and resseding in the fall which is expensive.
The cost of water in many cases is a nonissue, so often it's cheaper to run the irrigation than it is to hand water sparingly.
The culture of clubs may tolerate brown firm fairways in July as long as they're simply dormant, but when they turn to dirt in the fall you may have a problem (or not if you simply reseed and accept the labor/cost/disruption) ex. Maidstone-which is not pure bent and loses a lot of grass every hot summer due to no irrigation.
If the warmest day you ever get is 80 degrees (UK/Ireland) none of this is a problem) but when it's above 90 for 6 weeks in a row, only the best supers with the right turf, soil, budget and member expectations are going to attempt firm and fast.