Memorial Park 2024

[Ira Fishman]

Memorial Park this year seems a valuable lesson in grass and season. By moving from the fall to the spring and overseeding the bermuda with rye, how has the course changed in the way it plays for the pros?


Ira

[Tom_Doak]

It will play easier with over seeded rye instead of thick Bermuda in the rough, and the greens (other than the new 17th) will not be quite as firm as they were Year 1.  The players will like that better.  But you can still screw up around the greens and make some bogeys.

[Kalen Braley]

Tom,

In the 3 years I've been watching, I've felt the greens offered the best defense to the course. More than a few difficult pin locations to use for the pros, and I presume not so much for day to day play.

I hadn't heard about the changes to 17, what were they looking for?

Kalen

[Tom_Doak]

The impetus for the change on 17 was as much from the client and from me, as from the Tour. 


It had become clear that they weren’t going to move the tee up for the weekend (they tried it on Saturday in 2021 but few players went for it).  They would never give their reasoning, but I suspect it was because picking a distance for the carry would get them accused of favoring some players over others.


So, we moved the green 30 yards back from the edge but still with the lake along the right side.  If they lay up, it’s a pretty long approach, so hopefully more players will take on the carry.  IF they play the tee up at all, that’s in the Tour’s control, not ours.

[Kalen Braley]

I can see it better when comparing the old version on Google Maps vs new on Bing.

Guessing the water is very much in play on the right side if you get a tad too frisky with a chip/approach shot and it rolls off.

P.S  Whose idea was it to put in the tree near the water on the front right section where the old green was? 

[Ira Fishman]

When not watching Iowa and Caitlin Clark, I have been checking out the golf. I am hard pressed to think of a regular tour stop that has such pushed up and contoured greens. Fun to watch.

[Steve Lang]

Ira,
There are many many push-up greens in the Houston area, quite a few which were delivered notably from Robert von Hagge/Bruce Devlin.  Its so flat in the gulf coastal plain around Houston and when you have to deal with design storms of a foot or more (see https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-updates-texas-rainfall-frequency-values) it just becomes a survival feature, induced topography, no matter where the nearest drainage ditch or creek or river meanders nearby.

For many years at The Woodlands CC we had winter overseed on the TPC Course which was fairly benign during winter-spring play leading up to the Houston Open tournament, unless they just couldn't get out and cut it during rainy periods, very much preferable to the generally nasty summer-fall bermuda in the rough.  Then one year the PGA agronomy folks' guidance changed to just keeping the bermuda in place and not creating those horrible month long transition periods twice a year... Just the tee areas are winter overseed now, mainly for looks.

I used to play Memorial a couple dozen times a year when I worked downtown from 1991-2020 and like this third iteration the best.  Especially with the fairway sand bedding, cleaned out ditches, and extra drainage features now in place...

Like the one shotters 2nd, 9th, & 15th's reinventions perhaps the best of the lot, but definitely don't like the toonamint grandstands creating a sterile shooting gallery at the 15th, complete loss of context there. 

Should be interesting to see who prevails today.

[Ben Sims]

I’m enjoying the approach shots a lot. Players that aim at a pin and short side themselves into playable runoff areas seem to be scoring as well or potentially better than players aiming for the big parts of the green. The announcers haven’t picked up on it yet it I don’t think, repeating their normal stuff about getting up and down. Fun viewing.

[Tom_Doak]

I’m enjoying the approach shots a lot. Players that aim at a pin and short side themselves into playable runoff areas seem to be scoring as well or potentially better than players aiming for the big parts of the green. The announcers haven’t picked up on it yet it I don’t think, repeating their normal stuff about getting up and down. Fun viewing.

I didn't get to see much of it myself as I was traveling to Punta Brava today, but the thing you describe was deliberate.  I'd noticed at The Renaissance Club that the pros were usually able to save par from trouble just by playing to the centers of the fairly big greens and giving themselves an easy two-putt with a chance to make.  We had to have biggish greens at Memorial because of the 60,000 rounds, but I was determined not to have this make it easy.


So, on many of the greens, there is something near the middle that makes it hard . . . there's a crown, or a change from higher tier to lower, or it's the spot on the green without a backstop.  If you aim at the center you often wind up wrong-sided, and that can be worse than short-sided.  I don't think many of the players have picked up on it yet.

[John Bouffard]

I thought the golf course was awesome. Looked great, played great, and very exciting routing and finishing holes. It's a shame it's in Houston; it would make a great U.S. Open venue if it weren't 105 degrees and humid there in June.

[Tim_Weiman]

I thought the golf course was awesome. Looked great, played great, and very exciting routing and finishing holes. It's a shame it's in Houston; it would make a great U.S. Open venue if it weren't 105 degrees and humid there in June.

John,


Not a shame. The new Memorial was a very nice gift to golfers in Houston and a big upgrade to the PGA Tour event.


Tim

[David Wuthrich]

I thought the golf course was awesome. Looked great, played great, and very exciting routing and finishing holes. It's a shame it's in Houston; it would make a great U.S. Open venue if it weren't 105 degrees and humid there in June.

And it is only 95 degrees in June, it doesn't get to 105 until August!! 

[Steve Lang]

I thought the golf course was awesome. Looked great, played great, and very exciting routing and finishing holes. It's a shame it's in Houston; it would make a great U.S. Open venue if it weren't 105 degrees and humid there in June.

John,

Not a shame. The new Memorial was a very nice gift to golfers in Houston and a big upgrade to the PGA Tour event.

Tim

Tim,

Fully agree, but I doubt Golf Club of Houston folks would think so. or Rees Jones and David Toms, involved in design/build of their Tournament Course... 
Let's remember that Champions hosted an Open...