When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Mike Davis on the Merion greens and Johnny Miller, who talks about grain on greens reduced to dirt. But the USGA Executive Director says NBC's lead analyst has room to speak about grain this week. And knowing Johnny, he will!
And I think one of the things that's neat, Johnny Miller is going to have fun this week, because there's grain in these greens. If you get downgrain on these things, they really go. And if you're putting up to it, it's really slow. I think when he does mention that on television, he's going to be right this week, that there's grain. And I think that's neat.
This was also interesting consider that Merion's greens are not of the USGA spec variety, but instead, native soil greens with amendments.
And the putting greens, these are like modern putting greens in the sense that the drainage work they've done is just marvelous. They drain as well as any putting greens I've seen. The course itself drains beautifully. There's a lot of surface drainage to this golf that Hugh Wilson just laid this course out on the land, like I mentioned, and there's been a lot of drainage put in over the years by Matt and his staff. They're as equipped as possibly they could get for that rain event.
There was a lot of post-third round conjecture about Muirfield Village's green speeds and firmness this year, with the Stimpmeter speed of "15" bandied about. I'm not sure if they've reached that any time this week, but with the breezes and meticulous grooming that is possible.
What is interesting, however, is the level at which the green speeds and firmness are now documented. Earlier in the week we were out shooting course videos and ran into Paul Vermeulen of the PGA Tour, who kindly showed us a new device concocted by fellow agronomist Tom Brown to measure firmness.
As seen on the GCSAA Twitter account, a hail storm at de Cordova Bend CC in Granbury, Texas. The Saturday, May 18, 2013 storm was shot by GCSAA field staff rep Brian Cloud.
It's the media conjuring up a story, say a few players quoted by Jason Sobel on the eve of the Wells Fargo Championship opening round.
“You know, in the age that you guys [in the media] have to talk about something 24 hours a day,” Joe Ogilvie explained, “you’ve got to come up with something.”
“Once the tournament starts, I think all of that stuff will stop and it will be about the tournament, about the shots and the scoring,” said Mickelson. “We’ll see what’s made this tournament great in the past and it won’t be an issue. But I think leading up it will be the talk, because we haven’t had the actual action to discuss yet.”
“One thing I’ve realized is that there’s always a new story,” Trevor Immelman added. “There’s a new story every week. Just when you think you’re going to be able to latch onto something and wear it out for a few months, something else happens. It’s amazing to me. I think it’s just one of those things that we work through and next week there will be another story.”
We'll see what the boys say after they've posted their first round scores!
Juding by this image from Jeff Sisner of the Charlotte Observer from his pro-am slideshow, this is more than just a story whipped up by the 24/7 press.
Golf has lost one of the great superintendents and people in Stan George, Prairie Dunes' caretaker for the last 30 years.
Even with the greens slated for conversion after the tournament, Quail Hollow has made the almost unheard of move to resod less than a week before Wells Fargo Championship play.
Ron Green Jr. with new details of the drastic efforts to make two of the worst greens at Quail Hollow playable.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve never done this,” said Cal Roth, senior vice president for agronomy for the PGA Tour. “We’ve had to patch parts of greens a lot of times but this is the first time we’ve done entire greens.”
On a course that is in spectacular condition otherwise, the eighth and 10th greens failed to respond to efforts to generate suitable grass cover. Several weeks ago, both greens were tented in an effort to generate growth. When it didn’t help the 10th green, it was resodded.
When the first resodding failed at No. 10, the decision was made to redo it, this time using a different cultivation approach.
Thanks to Pete the Luddite for sending Shane Bacon's post and the accompanying video for Bubba Watson's Oakley sponsored hovercraft golf cart designed to revolutionize the golf cart. It bears an uncanny resemblance to Luke Skywalker's Tatooine landspeeder.
Warning golf course supers, you'll want to cover your eyes watching this video.
And speaking of Bubba, Scott Michaux's annual and always in-depth profile of the defending Masters champion has been posted by the Augusta Chronicle.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
