Courses with only one height of turf other than greens

[Rob Marshall]

I went to the CME Championship at Tiburon today. I've previously played the course 3 or 4 times. There are two heights of turf on the entire course. Greens and everything else. I started thinking about other courses I've played like that and the only other one I could remember was Streamsong Blue. Why do this? Are there advantages?

[Matt_Cohn]

I feel like there are a lot of these now. In the Bay Area, Baylands. Menlo is close but does have literally about 1% rough.

[Chris Hughes]

That is very interesting, never heard of it before.


However, in the past when I've heard folks complain that "the bunkers are inconsistent" my reaction is "well do you also want the grass cut the exact same length everywhere too"??


After they stare blankly for a few moments I explain that assessing different conditions/lies is all part of "playing" golf, including in the bunkers.

[Kyle Harris]

Plenty of advantage. Less different kinds of equipment and less subsequent management and overhead.

[Rob Marshall]

That is very interesting, never heard of it before.


However, in the past when I've heard folks complain that "the bunkers are inconsistent" my reaction is "well do you also want the grass cut the exact same length everywhere too"??


After they stare blankly for a few moments I explain that assessing different conditions/lies is all part of "playing" golf, including in the bunkers.

In saw Korda and another player chip from just off the green when most of the players were putting from similar spots. It was very tight and I didn’t see any plays with putter that turned out poorly.

[Tim Gavrich]

It seems to be a relatively prominent feature of Greg Norman's work over the years. The first course I ever played that used the two-cut scheme was The Reserve in Pawleys Island, S.C., originally a Norman design. Norman's course up the beach at Barefoot Resort is also primarily like that, too. Norman's now-NLE Great White course at Doral, same thing: fairway cut and green cut, with crushed coquina shell "rough." It's an appealing look that probably doesn't work everywhere, but at places like The Reserve or Tiburon that are routed through pines, there's an interesting crispness to it.