Are course conditions too perfect?

[Joe Hancock]

Peter,


Healthy, firm turf is as much a choice to be made by the folks in charge as it is a construction issue.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Agree 100% with Joe.  The architect and construction team do not have their hand on the sprinkler system controls after their work is done...they can advise but cannot supervise once the construction is done.  But of course, drainage is their issue.

[Thomas Dai]

Quite a few of the top echelon of links courses seem to be somewhat overly manicured imo. Some heathlands as well. Nothing wrong with being a little iffy around the edges, and the incremental cost of making something 'better' needs to be related to the 80-20 rule of thumb. Irrigated fairways on links courses being a prime example.
Atb

[SL_Solow]

A continual argument dating back at least to the 20's when Behr and Joshua Crane debated the role of chance.  Crane like many better players wanted rewards for good shots and punishment for bad.  Tom Doak has done a far better job than I could in discussing the fallacy of proportionality.  But the "arms race " for better turf is here to stay and, so long as it is affordable (an important question), I don't see any benefit from bad lies in the fairway or greens that are not true.  By the same token, emphasis on grooming rough seems somewhat out of touch.  To that end I recall being called over , as greens chair, by a member who proceeded to point out a weed in our 18th hole rough.  I responded, " that's one of the reasons they call it rough".  I confess to enjoying the look on his face.

[Matthew Petersen]

Speaking as someone who plays public golf in Phoenix, the perfect maintenance expectation really hurts courses here. In Phoenix, the winter rains stop usually in early to mid February and it rains maybe 2 or 3 times until mid July when the monsoons get here.


Tough conditions for golf, to be sure, but despite this every course is so obsessed with being green and "perfect" that even in June, when Phoenix hasn't even seen a cloud in two months, most courses are so soft tee balls get no roll, let alone any firmness around a green.


And then in mid July the monsoon hits and it actually does rain and the courses go from too soft to really be fun to downright unplayable.


There are a lot of problems with desert golf.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Speaking of problems with desert golf conditions, actually September is the best month for course conditions in "The Valley of the Sun" as the Bermuda grass is in full glory, rough is up,greens are faster,fairways are somewhat firmer and then BOOM, it's overseeding season. Our 45 holes are essentially closed for the month of October and then after opening,  fairways and greens  are kept longer and wet. Cart paths only prevail. All this so winter visitors can play on lush green courses. Very few, if any, courses do not overseed.

[Matthew Petersen]

Speaking of problems with desert golf conditions, actually September is the best month for course conditions in "The Valley of the Sun" as the Bermuda grass is in full glory, rough is up,greens are faster,fairways are somewhat firmer and then BOOM, it's overseeding season. Our 45 holes are essentially closed for the month of October and then after opening,  fairways and greens  are kept longer and wet. Cart paths only prevail. All this so winter visitors can play on lush green courses. Very few, if any, courses do not overseed.

The only course I remember not doing it consistently was Vistal, which wasn't necessarily a great candidate for it given their terrain, and which closed a few years after stopping winter overseeding.

[cary lichtenstein]

I was once an advocate of perfect conditions, but I now think, that was WRONG. The cost is too great, and we can all see and adapt to varying conditions which in fact, make golfers betters.The ridiculousness of perfect conditions is soooo expansive, as to be a joke

[Jon Wiggett]

It all depends on what you pay. If you are forking out high greenfees then the course should be but if your playing a £20 twilight rate then maybe not. It also depends on what is meant by good conditions.


All too often it seems people only look at optics where as anyone with any inkling about it knows it is the playing qualities of the playing surface. Things such as stimp meter readings take the average of three balls which is less interesting than knowing what the difference is between the individual distances of the balls which show how consistent a surface is. Also, taking reading on cross slopes to show the differences in deviation of the line would be interesting. I am less interested in how fast a green is than I am in how consistent that speed is.


Jon