Have You Played on Sand Greens?

[Colin Macqueen]

Gentlemen,

As Scott and Matt have mentioned they are out there in Australia.  I played pennants onsand greens at the Bomballa course in the Southern Highlands not too far from Canberra. Rake/Smooth your path to the hole, just once, and give the ball a fair dunt!



This photo is from Bomballa Golf course's web site so it seems they've still got 'em after all these years!

Cheers Colin

[Matt Day]

looks like they've got plenty of Castrol GT in that oil /sand mix Colin 

[Garland Bayley]

My wife is from Jamestown, ND.  Before we were married I spent a couple of days with her folks.  At that time my wife did not play golf but did like to walk the course with me.  Jamestown had a 9 hole public course.  I had never seen sand greens before and was taken by surprise.  Fortunately, I was playing with a guy who knew the ins and outs of playing them.  First and last time I saw sand greens.

Course is now 18 holes, and grass greens. Actually plays through some nice land with movement in it. Not a bad place to play.

[Garland Bayley]

I have never played on sand greens, but my cousin Tommy learned to play outside Cairo on then.  His knickname was "Motorboat.".  Putt Putt Putt.

I learned on sand greens. First hole I played on grass greens, I five putted. Just call me Motorboat II.

Addis Abeba CC was sand greens when I played there in the 70s. Only round of golf I have ever played right handed, as I rented clubs and all they had were right handed.

[Garland Bayley]

Rustic Gardens was what immediately came to mind for me. When I played there as a kid, the (metal) cup lips were above the sand on some holes meaning that if the putt wasn't center cut and FIRM, it was rejected. Great place for small wagering for sure.

...

This sounds suspiciously like you didn't know how to handle the situation. When I played sand greens, the metal cup was inside another metal ring. When the lips worked up above the sand, you took it out, reached down inside the ring, and scooped some sand out by hand so that it set back in  well below the sand.

[Steve Wilson]

I started on sand greens, and the amount of sand on them was minimal.  It was seldom necessary to use the rake to make a path to the whole.  There were only three holes with lengths of 175, 135, and 125.  The first hole crossed the third fairway, the 2nd hold also crossed the third fairway and obviously the third crossed both one and two. 

There was very little grass on the course as it was built on fill comprised of very poor soil.  Lots of small rock worked their way to the surface.  Consequently, the ball bounced quite a bit.  The ground game was not only available it was the exclusive way to play The art was judging how far short to land the ball and let it carom in. 

Since the sand greens were more often just oiled bare ground, there wasn't a great deal of difference in the speed of those "greens" and the first grass greens I would play.  In fact, I think at times the sands were faster than some of those greens from the fifties.  Best of all, it was golf.

[Jay Flemma]

If you wanna count NYC public course greens circa 2001, then yes! 

[Andy Stamm]

Rustic Gardens was what immediately came to mind for me. When I played there as a kid, the (metal) cup lips were above the sand on some holes meaning that if the putt wasn't center cut and FIRM, it was rejected. Great place for small wagering for sure.

...

This sounds suspiciously like you didn't know how to handle the situation. When I played sand greens, the metal cup was inside another metal ring. When the lips worked up above the sand, you took it out, reached down inside the ring, and scooped some sand out by hand so that it set back in  well below the sand.

I definitely didn't know how to handle the situation. As I remember the cups, I'm not sure that would have worked, but honestly I don't remember much. What I do remember is that there were plenty of people in front of us, and if that was the solution, none of them knew it either!

[Mark Luckhardt]

I only play on sand greens these days.
Bruce Beach GC a few miles from the house.
Oldest golf club in Bruce County, ON circa 1908, designed by a Scottish minister.
Course is rally short, but 1500sqft greens require precision shots to get on them.
Of course hickory clubs secure pure enjoyment for this sort of facility.

I have several pics on my blog at http://blog.greensdrainage.com

[Andrew Summerell]

I've played on quite a lot of sand (sand & oil) greens around Australia. I've played Bombala (the one Colin mentioned) and it is a good example of the New South Wales version that tend to have more sump oil than others I've played. As Scott said, it's useless flying the ball to the green & 5i tends to be the best club from anywhere inside 100 metres.

Most sand green courses are small, often shorter of length, courses maintained by the members or local community. Ariah Park, a 9 holers in western NSW is typical. It has about 30 male members who are rostered to cut the fairways once a week & it closes down for a few months in summer because it gets too hot. Coolamon, just down the road from Ariah Park is maintained by the local council & has a small paid maintainance crew, but this is unusual for sand green courses.

The best I've played is Riverview Country Club in Albany, Western Australia. It's around 5800m for its 18 holes on some good land, but most have a large amount of quirk. Cobargo had 9 holes played around its cemetry & Candelo-Kameruka (designed by Laurie Auchterlonie after he came to Australia from Scotland over 100 years ago) had quite a few greenside bunkers, many of them as large as the greens themself. Ariah Park has a par 3 around 110m that is played over a row of pine trees.

I actually find them fun to play from time to time and they really make you think differently about your golf.

[Jason Thurman]

I played my first round on sand greens today. Or, at least, my first four holes before getting rained out by a terrifying deluge.

I played at the aforementioned Dannebrog.

Not sure why everyone complains about golf being expensive.



The galleries are a little rambunctious but fairly well behaved (I joke now, but they followed me down the first fairway like the last group at a major, which was a little sketchy even for this former farmboy. They then beelined for the opposite side of the property, a harbinger of what was to come).



Approach to the first.



From the left side of the green. Not much internal contour on these bad boys, but how much can you have and keep greens playable when they're running at a lightning fast 5 on the Stimp after a rainstorm?



My greenskeeper resume:



The infamous 125 yard 2nd, which Pete Dye cites as the inspiration for the 17th at Sawgrass in Bury me in a Pot Bunker.



The approach at 9. Some legitimately interesting contours in the fairway.



Just for kicks, a panorama from the parking lot.



Unfortunately, a huge storm rolled in as I came to the fifth tee so I didn't make it all the way around. Did manage to get into town for some of the famed Thursday Night Pizza at the Danish Baker.



There's not enough to be said about what a cool town Dannebrog is, or what a gem of a golf course it has. I met some wonderful people and had a great time despite the deluge. I hope to make it back someday.

[Josh Stevens]

I spent years playing them in Kalgoorlie - cant recall much of achectural merit, but it does teach some skills not often found elsewhere.  Apart from sand greens, the fairways in the warmer months were largely devoid of grass and so quite literally, it was like playing off concrete.  Did teach you to nip the ball cleanly .

Oiled sand not always the most envirobnmentally sensitive type of green.  I recall one club stalwart who was an enviro guy for one of the mining companies.  Spill a teaspoon of oil on a mine site and he was on you like a tonne of bricks.  But on weekends he was out there dumping gallons of the stuff on the greens.