Yesterday I saw an interview and Calc and he said he felt "sorry for the grass" because it was so brown and essentially dead.  

My question to all those agronomists out there is how bad, if at all, is it for tee/fairway/rough or green grasses to brown out?


Is sympathy for the grass a legitimate maintenance concern or is it just expressing an aesthetic preference?

One of the supers or turf people could explain it better, but I don't think brown grass is necesssarily dead grass. It certainly isn't judging by my yard! I wish that damn grass would die.

You'd think a former Open champ would know that.

I can't speak for greens, but I've played baked out courses around here that seemed to bounce back rather quickly, following a little rain.

Same thing for my yard.

 

P.S. It getting harder and harder to stay ahead of you....

Don't be fooled by the colour, the grass is just fine. As already stated it has just gone dormant until conditions pick up. Such dry periods actually have a beneficial side effect of killing of a lot of unwanted weeds and grass.
As for playability it is possibly a better playing surface now than ever. Haven't heard many players complaining about the greens putting poorly like in the US Open.

Most grass types are just dormant when brown, and will recover when moisture comes back.  

I recall renovating a defunct course in the desert that hadn't been irrigated in years, but with one rain, the bermuda was green the next day. The tan of tall fescues is used in design in out of play areas, where we count on them not getting too much irrigation.  Most northern homeowners have bluegrass lawns and have seen them brown in summer and recover in fall.  Ryes don't go dormant, they just seem to die under stress.....

Overall, turf is pretty tough stuff, and to cross back over to the overwatering thread, there is a reason that they became popular well before irrigation systems - they are cheap and easy cover and are adapted to their climates to use less water than just about any other type of plant materials.

Aren't they hand watering those greens?

The fairways and rough will be fine once the cooler, wetter weather comes.

Tom..you are right, but fortunately there are sod farms.

Some fairways do look as if they are dead grass and dirt right now.

Adam:

And just how am I spreading the Augusta myth?  Good lord man, I love firm and fast likely as much as you.  I love brown likely as much as you.  I know I like firm and fast conditions as much as you....  I understand perfectly well that most grass can go brown and be very healthy, bouncing back to green very quickly.

All I am speculating on, and asking about, is why the PUTTING SURFACES at Hoylake right now still appear green in color - because they do, relative to the rest of the course.   Why are they kept green (relatively) when the rest of the course is left to go brown?  My statement in my post in this thread referred ONLY to the putting surfaces - not to the rest of the course.

I guess your misperception here is caused because what's going on in this thread is tied to what was going on in another... read the "Why we Love the British Open" thread, read the exchanges between me and George Pazin - then this might make more sense.

In any case then, I'd take the education from you as well:  if the putting surfaces can do just fine the same shade of brown as the approaches and most of the fairways, then why are they damn near never - anywhere - allowed to get this color?  Why does the whole world - including the great links of the UK and Ireland - keep them some shade of green?

My understanding was indeed that with grass that short - and it changes depending on the type of grass - it would indeed either die or take a long time to come back.  Thus they are kept at least a little green.

But please do correct me if I am wrong.

But if I am right - well then, I'd appreciate an apology.

In any case the LAST thing I meant is that courses on the whole need to be kept green... again I'm just asking about putting surfaces!

TH

Adam - that is much better - thanks.

 

More education is needed though:  George speculated that they COULD make those putting surfaces faster, but that they keep them as they are because in order to get them faster, they'd have to water them more, then cut them lower (as apparently is what happens with American bent grass).   So they'd gain speed, but sacrifice firmness.

My take was that's not possible with the fescue or whatever it is in those Hoylake putting surfaces - that they are pretty much as fast as they can get now without letting them go brown.  

Any help with that?

The whole thing is very curious for me....

TH

TH, I dont think I can help anymore with Hoylake's greens. But, I'd say the greens going brown won't speed them up, until they get completely trampled. Which won't really happen with so few actually playing there.  As for what George says, it makes sense to me, if I understood what you said he said, correctly.

Hopefully Brad can chime in with some case specifics for Royal Liverpool.

Tom, I think they are feeding them because they don't want another Shinnecock. Which, IMO illustrates just how stupid "they" can be! Links golf is meant to test and recognize the best player. It's also suppose to leave matters to mother nature. Her moisture as well as her glorious often unpredictable bounce and roll. Move the damn tournament later in the fall or earlier in the spring. This summer weather has sucked for most of the last opens, save for Saturday at St. Georges.

I was cleaning out my garage last Sunday and I have an extra storm window in there.  I laid it down on the grass sprayed water on it on both sides to clean the cobwebs off it, and left it there with the other stuff for a couple hours while the garage dried out.  That evening I noticed that area was getting brown and that brown square has become a very light yellow at this point.  Dunno if the wet glass magnified the sun or it acted as a mini greenhouse and burned it out (the temp was about 100F with high humidity that put the heat index over 110F that day)

So that grass I have sympathy for, because I may have killed a nice even rectangular section of my backyard and it is going to look pretty stupid having a rectangular section of weeds there next year if doesn't come back to life.  But I don't have sympathy for brown grass on a golf course, because that's the color it is supposed to be when it hasn't rained much lately!!

My understanding, based on absolutely zero book learning but 25-30 years of observation is that:

1.  It is virtually impossible to "kill" links grasses
2.  You can, however, compact the turf in which they grow if they are kept at the brink of life for too long with too much foot traffic (viz the walkways--they will take some time to recover, but it will involve mostly aeration, scarification and moisture (rain)
3.  Brown links grasses will turn green overnight if you put enough water on them.  The Hoylake greens looked greneer on Thrus. than they did on Wed. becuaes they got rain!
4.  While it is relatively easy to resuscitate stressed out links grasses, if you overfeed and over water them it can take years for them to recover.  Carnoustie is still carrying a few scars from 1999 and Dornoch really didn't get better until the mid-late 90's from inapropriate maintenance practices (Augusta Syndrome) adopted in the mid-80's.

Bottom line.  No sympathy needed for the grass at Hoylake.  In fact they could have probably made it a little faster and firmer if they had wanted to.

All IMVHO, of course.