Ponder:
If all the fine fescue/ native (the flowers were tough little pricks as well!) was water, would our scores ahve been higher or lower? I know each of us had multiple times where it took several slashes to extricate our golf balls from the hay.
Joe
p.s. I don't know the answer other than a timely fire through the naughty stuff.....
This is a timely thread. Having played with a fellow GCA member yesterday the subject of tall, native areas, has dominated the conversation for the last 18 hours.
Playing in NJ, where the rain has caused this stuff to grow incredibly dense, the golf course effectively had hazards on both sides of every hole on the course, with only a 10-20 yard buffer of rough between the fairway and a lost ball. On the occasions that balls were found, even a nine iron was an overly optimistic club selection. Had the grass been water I'm not sure if the scores would have been higher or lower, but the game would have been more fun. But more important, had the grass been water then perhaps those in charge of the course would be able to visualize how limiting and offensive the course, as presented, really is.
We both walked away feeling as if the native areas ruined the day, brought a perfectly average golf course down to the level where one speaks of malpractice, and even in normal conditions would add nothing to the experience or aesthetics.
To be clear, there is a definite difference between wispy fescue and torturous, dense, jungle hay. I have no problem with the former since, more often than not, your ball can be found and played. But when a narrow, parkland, course has
every hole
surrounded by junk (even in the buffer zones between two closely situated holes), and a shot that is offline by more than 20 yards will find it and be lost or effectively unplayable with anything more than a lob wedge, it's an awful way to play golf.
This was just another case of a parkland design trying to emulate a "links" appearance when the soil, native grass, maintenance, and most important, the design, do not lend themselves to that kind of presentation. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig, as they say.