Assessing Medinah

[Terry Lavin]

You cannot just cut grass for an event. You have to train grass to be a certain height.

It's pretty well trained this week.

[Mark Johnson]

The twelfth is probably the best big par-4 in Chicago. Long left to right dogleg to a big green built precariously into a hillside that hangs over a big pond. Great parkland golf hole.

Agreed though you can probably delete the phrase "in Chicago".

[Adam Clayman]

You cannot just cut grass for an event. You have to train grass to be a certain height.

It's pretty well trained this week.

The Club has generally been playing the course with this set-up for two years...you have just happened to play it during the last two Mays while everything was growing in.

Other than the newly sodded areas?

[Terry Lavin]

Adam, does grass ever die in the middle of nowhere?  It does die here from time to time, especially after periods of high heat and humidity. The super at Medinah had a tough year and had to sod some spots because several hundred thousand people were coming out to watch a couple dozen pros play. I suppose you'd be happier if it looked half dead everywhere. Have a nice fall moving cow chips around.

[Jud_T]

What's the story with the turf that guys are chunking a bunch of pitches inside 100?  The greens however look phenomenal.

[Adam Clayman]

Adam, does grass ever die in the middle of nowhere?  It does die here from time to time, especially after periods of high heat and humidity. The super at Medinah had a tough year and had to sod some spots because several hundred thousand people were coming out to watch a couple dozen pros play. I suppose you'd be happier if it looked half dead everywhere. Have a nice fall moving cow chips around.

Judge,  What else are you going to do when your grass dies? Sod. Not a trade secret.

I asked a question. Made no comment other than how great the course looks on TV. And wanted to know when the sod was laid. Why do you assume I'm dissing the course, or super?

[Tom Culley]

I think that the golf course has been set up great. It has allowed for lots of birdies and for players who stray off line to be able to pull off a brave recovery shot.

On twatter however, i have noticed lots of people complaining about the set up of the course and saying that it has turned the course in to a putting contest. I mentioned to an someone (an england international and now challenge tour player) that i believe Seve would have thrived under such conditions, as they allow for magical recovery shots. He replied saying that "I've never heard more shit in my life.".

Do you think that the course is allowing players to show off the best of their skills?

It seems to me that when European players have hit the ball in to trouble, they haven't shown as good recovery skills as their American counterparts.

[Terry Lavin]

Adam, it probably was based on the snide sounding comment you made on another Medinah thread. It's since been deleted.

[Sean_A]

Thanks Phil and Terry.  

I really like how the trees are configurated and that there are opportunities to play from them.  To me this is what a proper parkland course should be - not a wall of green.  Although, looking at Phil's excellent photo, can the mix of cutting lines get any worse?  Jeez - do supers actually think about how the different cuts will look against each each section?


This hole reminds me a ton of Hoylake's great 12th - the parkland version.

Ciao

[Terry Lavin]

Sean,

Over the past years, nearly 1000 trees have been felled. Like the joke about 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean, it's a pretty good start!  Seriously though, the course is measurably brighter and airier than it used to be. They can't do anything about the ugly bulkhead on the water holes, which is an Army Corps of Engineers mandate, but the course has been vastly improved with the last renovation, no matter what the architectural purists constantly bleat.

[Adam Clayman]

Terry, That snide , as you call it, WAS the question of how many truckloads of sod. Nothing snide, unless you feel that information isn't appropriate.

I can see how, and, why you feel that way. It's fact based. Frank has clearly left the building.

BTW, Go play Glencoe muni.

[JR Potts]

1.5 acres....but you knew that answer as you never would have asked the question.

Medinah #3 has 32 acres of fairway grass.

[Adam Clayman]

No, I did not. Know the answer. All I know is the price of cattle.

[JR Potts]

Okay, but that's the answer.

Curtis did an awesome job of getting the course ready through numerous difficult summers and always tough conditions at Medinah.  He's a hero as far as I'm concerned.

After tomorrow is over, he gets to wake up on Monday and start trying to grow grass on the #2 course which as had cars parked on it all week, start restoring the grass the gallery has trampled to pieces on #3 and start the renovation of the #1 course - which currently has bulldozers and tents parked on it.

No rest for the weary.

[Adam Clayman]

Honestly, The course looks amazing on TV. You can't tell from the naked eye where the sod starts and ends. If the aprons didn't react they way they did, I would never have known about the sod. That and a comment Maltbie made about how the grass was soft and full of sand. That's also why I wanted to know WHEN the sod was laid. It was a set up for a compliment. But clearly, you never saw that one coming.  

[JR Potts]

I never saw anything.  

The sod was laid the day Brad Klein was out at the club.  Maybe August 20th?

That said, I think he only sodded part of one approach...and you can't tell on the ground where the sod starts or ends.

Thanks for the compliment though...I will ensure that it's directed to the people who deserve it.

[jeffwarne]

We were talking at  Medinah today about how much FUN it would be to play that course with that setup. It would be a lot more enjoyable than the usual 4 inch rough. I'm pretty sure the club will try it for a club event next year.

If a club chops down every tree , such a setup is not much of an option
food for thought

I enjoy watching players shape the ball through,around, under, and over trees off reasonable lies, a la Augusta

[Ivan Morris]

Brad - I can't see the green for all the spilled blood..........when I played at Medinah if you went into the trees you could not play towards the green - it was sideways or backwards. I agree with a bit of tree-felling. Too many golf courses have too many trees that act as obstructions instead of 'mere obstacles.' 

[Nigel Islam]

I've been very impressed with the course. I love the 12th and the 15th has come off quite well. I think Chicago and Medinah should be very happy with the results thus far.

[Tony Ristola]

As for course set up and hole-by-hole this week, there will be no US advantage in having the rough cut down and the intermediate lane widened, mainly because there's virtually no statistical difference in how the US and European teams drive the ball.

http://golfweek.com/news/2012/sep/26/ryder-cup-medinah-country-club-hole-hole/

Haven't seen a whole lot, but following the singles on SKY, Jack Nicklaus thinks the US has a distinct advantage and believes the Captains shouldn't have an influence on the setup.

I think the US has a bomber advantage, but disagree with his take on the influence of the Captains. It's home field advantage... who is to decide and can we expect these people to have no bias?

[Tim_Cronin]

I've been walking around here all week and can't tell where the sodding starts, ends, or even is. A masterful job by Curtis. Alas, as JRP notes, his early wakeup calls won't end for quite a while. But if you need used plywood, call Medinah. They've got 49 acres of it.

[Tim Gavrich]

All the aerial shots of the course, with the lake in the center of the screen, have convinced me that the three over-water par threes are not that similar. I like them.

#2 plays for a bleeder right-to-left, 13 needs a high long iron or fairway wood, and 17 needs a Nicklausesque high fade (for a righty) mid iron. There's a progression at work; the shots required get more difficult over the course of those three different holes. I actually love it.

[John Kavanaugh]

Medinah has projected itself so well that it has without a doubt become the number one course in the Central Time Zone.

[Terry Lavin]

I would think the consensus view should be that Jones and the super have gotten the course to it's best-ever tournament presentation.

[Matt Kardash]

Based from what I have seen on TV this is not my kind of course.