Donald Steel

In a recent edition of GI the monthly magazine of BIGGA (British and International Golf Greenkeepers Assoc.) welcomes the recent speech by Jim Hyler, the new President of the USGA (the American equivalent to the R&A) who wants to make

“brown the new green”

and move towards a more sustainable game.

Steel writes: “Those leading the crusade for sustainable golf will have a fight on their hands converting the Augusta National Golf Club. It might be easier to abolish baseball as America’s primary sport. British greenkeepers have long held the view that The Masters sends all the wrong vibes where course preparation is concerned but they may perhaps be surprised that they have an ally in the new President of the United States Golf Association, Jim Hyler.

In a keynote address in February, he led the charge to make “brown the new green”, amplifying his message by contending “many of the standards by which we construct and maintain our courses have become, quite simply, unsustainable”.

Hyler focused principally on the environment, noting that maintenance practices that are environmentally friendly are also cost efficient, a crucial consideration for the survival of some courses in these economic times.

He highlights the myth that a great golf course has to blind the eye with greenness. “I believe that our definition of playability should include concepts of firm, fast, and yes, even brown, and allow the running game to flourish”.

He rightly applauded the USGA’s Green Service staff who, in the teeth of the recession, published a report last year entitled “Dollars and Sense: making it in a tough economy”. This listed 14 different areas in which courses can be more cost-efficient, including water use. He also referred to the USGA’s Green Section as “our best kept secret” but here his admission should have been consumed by embarrassment.

As long ago as 1977, the then National Director of the USGA Green Section, Dr Alexander Radko wrote a scholarly article in the now sadly defunct USGA Journal that was both eye-opener and trail-blazer. Under the banner

“Green is not Great”,

it punctured most emphatically many of the beliefs among golfers who are self-appointed technical experts- a large majority of those playing the game. It was for a while compulsory reading and can be found on the GTC website. It is well worth devouring.

For the good of the soul, I hasten to quote extracts such as “Many people have the mistaken notion that the greener the grass, the healthier the turf. Unfortunately, this notion is especially strong among golfers. They equate dark green with good playing turf, and they often refer to it as beautifully lush turf! Those trained in the study of turfgrass cringe at this description.

To them lush means undesirable, soft, succulent, out of condition”

Radko was critical that too often things are done for cosmetic reasons rather than because it is the best thing to do, adding “the pressure of membership has great bearing on the golf course management scene. It has spawned poa annua (annual meadow grass) oriented thinking because, in reality, that is what some memberships want. Poa annua, an unreliable annual grass, is considered a weed by some but a good turf cover by others”.

Experts all over the world agree poa annua is the most common problem in greenkeeping, shallow rooting and requiring more water and fertiliser to survive that other grasses but, as Radko went on, “the result is a forced growth of grasses that makes them uniformly greener but this does not mean the condition is better for golf. A forced growth is not a healthy one. Over-watering is one of the cardinal sins of turfgrass management”.

One of the sadder aspects of the saga is that Radko’s article was written by an American for an exclusively American readership; and yet, here 33 years later, the President of the same organisation is “preaching” as though theories on sustainability are something new although it is not the first time our governing bodies have failed to drive home powerful issues. In 2003, Bill Campbell, former President of the USGA and former Captain of the R&A, and a universally respected figure, commented that “ongoing increases in driving yardages are indefensible and not in the game’s interests” but his influence in getting something done has been no more successful than Radko’s.

Golf has a habit of not listening to its experts

but Campbell also had wise words to say in 1983 in addressing the Golf Course Superintendents of America - words that have gone largely unheeded as well- certainly over here. “Communication is important in any endeavour, but it is crucial for golfers to develop a close relationship with their Golf Course Superintendents. If the Club has a Green Chairman who is really effective, really trusted, and works well with the Superintendent, the club ought to keep him in that position for as long as it can”.

The formula that doesn’t work is a change of Chairman annually but now that Course Managers and Head Greenkeepers are so highly qualified, Green Committees are surplus to requirements. Campbell believed that “the ideal solution would be one where all golfers are educated enough to appreciate the role of the Golf Course Superintendent”. If only it were true.

To visit Al Radkow’s article www.the-gtc.co.uk

GI May 2010

FineGolf was invited by The Editor of BIGGA’s Greenkeeper International monthly magazine, to submit the following article that was then published in May 2010. It acts well as a definition of FineGolf’s Mission :-

“It is only natural that club golfers are influenced by golf as depicted on the television, where the emphasis is on long driving, slow play and fast putting surfaces for professional players.

The problems arise when they want the ‘Augusta syndrome’, or similar, at their home course.

Fine Golf is a campaign that seeks to raise the profile of the ‘traditional classic game’ in golf course design and upkeep, in comparison with ‘lush, target golf’ and encourages club members to support their local greenkeepers in following sustainable principles of the kind advocated by Jim Arthur….  READ MORE

Tucked away on the north-western Cumbrian coast, roving golfers can often overlook this course, as did Frank Pennink in his Golfer’s Companion but it has all the ‘joy to be alive’ factors and, as Donald Steel noted, “is a remote jewel that shines most brightly”.

Narrow fairways of fine fescue and bent grasses are located between high sandhills, abundant heather and, when the wind blows, perhaps too much encroaching gorse! (I am advised a gorse regeneration programme has this in hand) The traditional blind drives and approaches to sunken greens with wide views across the Solway Firth to Southerness and Criffel, give an exhilarating experience.   READ MORE…

The whole thrust of Simpson’s argument for strategic golf course design was that the running play was the key to the future of the game, but only if firm, fast conditions were retained.

READ MORE….

This club has never wanted to be as famous as its ‘Royal’ neighbour, Ashdown Forest GC, or indeed the controversial Piltdown Man, a fossil discovered locally in 1912 that fooled most of the world’s greatest experts for 40 years into believing that a combination of a human cranium and an ape’s jaw was feasible Darwinian proof of a direct link between mankind and the apes.

READ MORE….

The R&A (the body responsible for golf rules outside the USA) and the USGA (responsible for USA golf rules) come in for quite a lot of stick for not policing aspects of the game sufficiently but FineGolf beleives they should be heartily congratulated on introducing some new rules on clubhead grooves, whose effect hopefully will be to promote ‘fine’ golf over ‘target’ golf.

The new grooves on irons, ranging from four through to wedge, will be gradually introduced: immediately in the case of professionals, from 2014 for elite amateur events and from 2024 for all other golfers.

The reduction in spin generated

by a good ball striker using the new grooves will be insignificant when hit from the fairway but the reduction in spin will be around 40% when balls are hit from the rough.

The research team of the USGA has led intensive research over recent years and this helped develop the policy behind the new groove regulations. Their research studies can be seen at: http://www.usga.org/content.aspx?id=24246

Their initial analysis of the driving length, accuracy and putting ability of tour professionals in comparison to those winning over the period from 1980 to 2006 showed that accuracy was becoming a less important factor to winning while length and putting ability continued to be important.

These new groove regulations are designed to have the effect of restoring accuracy to a higher importance.

The new measure will ensure that it will be more difficult to stop the ball quickly on the green from the rough while not making much difference to the ball’s spin characteristics from the fairway. This will, therefore, promote accuracy in comparison to length as there will be in future be a greater incentive to ensure one is playing from the fairway.

The overall effect will be to make golf more challenging, requiring more thought, strategic skill and creative shot making, in comparison to mere brute force.

With irons producing less spin, the change may also encourage course designers and greenkeepers to take the option to firm up the green and its surrounds and make the pitch and run shot a viable alternative again on professional tournament courses. If the option is indeed taken up, it will provide players with a choice of either trying a lofted shot to the pin that may risk running through the green or a pitch and run requiring the associated extra skill of having to take into account the contours of the ground.

The bane of strategic golf course design is the use of soft greens and target golf. The running game is the key to the future and if amateurs see this variety returning to the professional game, it will surely filter through to our Sunday morning fourball and encourage all golfers to call for firmer surface conditions.

The logical next step is for the R&A and USGA to introduce regulations to reduce the moisture content of greens to produce firmer, less disease-prone putting surfaces……but that may be a new regulation too far at this moment!

Nevertheless investment in research

to investigate how a regulation could be developed around ‘firmness’ would be money well spent.

I have always enjoyed playing in the GSGB events over the years and so would like to promote its existence to readers. Therefore I have invited Alan Golbourn, their chairman to write a short piece:

“Founded in 1955 by the late Sir Aynsley Bridgland, of Princes Golf Club, to help generate a spirit of goodwill and international friendship through the common sporting link, namely “the love of golf”.

The Society is flourishing with around 850 members and 33 of the finer courses around the country as “Participating Clubs” who allow GSGB members to play at reduced green fees, albeit with some restrictions.

GSGB runs five or six two day meetings around the UK each year, usually at a Participating Club and another good course nearby. The meetings take 72 entrants and are well supported.

The Society runs early Spring and Autumn tours to some truly memorable locations. Recent years have seen us visit Tunisia, Morocco, Argentina, Chile, South Africa and Arizona in Spring and a bit nearer to home in the Autumn to Belgium, France, Ireland, Scotland and Yorkshire.

GSGB sponsors six junior golf events each year which are open to boys and girls under 14 on the day of the event and the entry numbers indicate how popular these competitions are.

New members to the Society are very welcome - see our web site for more information and an application form.”

www.golfsocietygb.com

Simon Creagh Chapman, the Chairman of Green at Walton Heath, has led the regeneration of the heathland conditions at this, one of our most famous of inland courses, for a number of years.

David Golding, the man most responsible for the growth of professional Greenkeeper training and development in the UK and Europe since the early 1990s and a close colleague of Jim Arthur.

We know their advice will enormously enhance our ability in the future to promote the fine game to golfers of all shapes and sizes.

READ MORE …

If they can develop their ‘fine’ profile, this course could be a wonderful host to The Walker Cup.

READ MORE…

Ron, a native of North Berwick, without the use of a large budget, now has greens that are 80% fescue/bent grasses, which provide firm, true, putting surfaces, all the year round.

From the high first green, views of the Isle of Man and the highest mountain in England, Scafell, only a few miles inland, can be enjoyed. This course offers a stunning seascape and I can confirm that it was a complete ‘joy to be alive’ out on this tumbling links.

READ MORE…