Matt Shaffer on Merion conditions for the Open

[Brian Laurent]

Good video from Golfdom with Matt Shaffer discussing the conditions leading up to the Open and what players might expect that week...

http://youtu.be/UAWNK_mY92M

[Donnie Beck]

1000 posts about Tiger and not one comment here....  Bump back to the top ...

[jeffwarne]

Very interesting stuff.

Weeds OK,"like to see someone hit a shot out of white clover"
 Losing grass OK,
 grain OK

Needs to be on a loop tape in every locker room in the country during US Open week....

[BHoover]

As someone who does not know much about agronomy, I thought the video was fascinating. Sounds like they try to grow every type of grass at Merion, perhaps in the hope or with the intent of growing the perfect blend? How common is it to roll fairways?

Besides the concession that Merion is okay with losing grass, okay with grain and even okay with weeds, I took away that they don't overwater. So I take it the membership approves of and encourages F&F playing conditions?

I think they key is to have a membership that understands playability rather than aesthetics is the name of the game. Whether it's F&F conditions, tree removal, etc., the membership needs to be on board. Unfortunately, that seems all too uncommon.

[Bill McKinley]

fascinating indeed.  I liked a lot of the stuff that Shaffer said, but did anyone else get the impression that he was maybe trying too hard to be different for the sake of non-conformity?  Maybe I'm off base there but I did kind of get that impression.

[Dan Herrmann]

Bill - Matt is different, but not for the sake of non-conformity.  He does it to make Merion East and West the best they can be.

Brian - from what I know, the membership fully supports F&F.

As far as rolling fairways - I was discussing this with me head greenkeeper, and we both laughed about it.   This may be a little over the top.

[Joe Bausch]

From a Lurker:
 
I sent a message to Shaffer the other day congratulating him on a terrific interview on Golfdom. Given that back in the teens a unique grass was found around some old spring house out there before the course was finished, that was later named "Merion Blue," I asked him if he knew if he had any marijuana or some other type of mind-expanding weed out there amongst all those strains of grass and weed?
 
His response was:
 
"HEH, MAN----thanks a lot-----like, I mean, like, GROOVY DUDE. I said in that interview, like, there are so many different grass and weed strains out there it's like, hard to keep track of them all, and that question is, like, a bit too heavy for me right now because I tasted some weed I found in the rough out there yesterday and I'm, like, in an ultra-edgy place right now---I'll get back to you some other time when I, like, come down from this space that appears to be, like, some kind of temporary high."

[Bill Brightly]

1000 posts about Tiger and not one comment here....  Bump back to the top ...

C'mon Donnie, a video link that only turfheads could even pretend to understand!  Did he mention over or under 25 different grass types? You know damn well he is talking WAY over the heads of 99.9% of golfers. I guess fellow supers like that!

What I enjoyed most was listening to a superintendent who is obviously extremely confident in his knowledge and secure his position!

But I really like his underlying premise: rough lies should be inconsistent. That should be part of the penalty for missing the fairway or green. I have this conversation all the time with the sticks at my course about the consistency of our bunkers. They complain to me because I am a former grounds chair and they think I'll run to the super... and I say: "you hit the ball in a hazard, what kind of lie do you think you deserve?"

[Dan Herrmann]

I was out lurking around the perimeter of Merion today - wanted to see how the stands and other infrastructure was coming along.

Driving up Golf House road from College and noticed a group of about 20 up on the 15th tee.  So I parked and politely watched from the temporary fence.  Masters champ Adam Scott was playing a practice round (and no, he didn't need to use the mats!).  My god, does he have a great swing.  Tried 2 approaches to a front hole on 15 from about 130 (very close to the road).  One hit the green but rolled back.  The other was to the left of the green, but got a good bounce onto the green itself.

Nice to see him using a Sun Mountain (Titleist) carry bag.  I'm sure his caddie was thankful.

Back to the course - it looks incredible.   Fairways - A+  Rough - A+.     

[William_G]

thanks Brian

[Jim_Coleman]

    Rumor has it that Tiger was there at 6:30 this morning.

[Kris Shreiner]

Dan,

Thanks for the report. I was out there today for a good look and her teeth are just starting to show. With dry conditions...game on!

Cheers,
Kris

[Jared Kalina]

Anybody else find the "8,000-10,000 plugs a year" comment to be absolutely mind-boggling? The man hours alone needed to rip out and install that many plugs per year is staggering. I'm all for pushing grass and survival of the fittest, but that seems to be going too far.  Those greens aren't that big too begin with. That many plugs means in any given round over a typical summer you could be seeing and trying to putt over dozens, maybe hundreds of plugs each time you go out to play. Any other turf managers have a take on this?

[Donnie Beck]

Anybody else find the "8,000-10,000 plugs a year" comment to be absolutely mind-boggling? The man hours alone needed to rip out and install that many plugs per year is staggering. I'm all for pushing grass and survival of the fittest, but that seems to be going too far.  Those greens aren't that big too begin with. That many plugs means in any given round over a typical summer you could be seeing and trying to putt over dozens, maybe hundreds of plugs each time you go out to play. Any other turf managers have a take on this?

9000 plugs/210 day season = 43 plugs per day / 19 greens = 2.26 plugs per green per day. Not nearly as many as it sounds. Not all of their plugging is to remove dead turf. I would imagine a lot of those are to remove Poa patches from the greens.

[Ian Larson]

Anybody else find the "8,000-10,000 plugs a year" comment to be absolutely mind-boggling? The man hours alone needed to rip out and install that many plugs per year is staggering. I'm all for pushing grass and survival of the fittest, but that seems to be going too far.  Those greens aren't that big too begin with. That many plugs means in any given round over a typical summer you could be seeing and trying to putt over dozens, maybe hundreds of plugs each time you go out to play. Any other turf managers have a take on this?

Depending on the size of plug they use...a standard cup cutter size plug would mean they're replacing up to 11,000 sq ft of nursery onto their greens a year. But I'm sure there's also a lot of hex plugs, which could double that number or maybe it's the smaller plugs that could cut it in half. But I'd say up to 10-11,000 square feet would be the average that is replaced.