Watering Greens During A Tournament

I know I promised I'd asked my last Masters question, but the debate is just too good to let go of in light of all the great comments that this years Masters is generating.

In the Rosaforte and Davis pieces critiquing the setup and architecture, there were a couple of interesting comments about the Saturday night green watering.

Is it the sign of a good setup when you have to water greens during tournament play (with light winds)?

Is it a sound setup when you play three days firm and then soak them for one day?

Consider what Rosaforte wrote: 

 Some players felt the water should have been turned on earlier, but Ridley and the Competition Committee did eventually turn on the hoses. "Yesterday we saw the weather and relocated some of the pins to make it fairer," said David Graham sitting at lunch. The two-time major winner has served on the Cup and Tee Marking Committee for 17 years and stated the goal was to make it as difficult as possible without crossing the line, "but this week was more difficult than a British Open."

And here's what Davis submitted:

In the past, the competition committee has aimed to get the greens here to dry out as the week goes on. On Sunday morning, the greens were wet and receptive even though it didn't rain here on Saturday night. That's what you call a concession, but by then it was too late. Even though Sunday was a relatively wind-free, balmy day, the average score was 74.33, and the lowest score was a 69 (and only three players shot that).

It seems that the ideal setup is one where the greens do not have to be artificially controlled by such a dramatic shift in watering. One could argue that a SubAir draining of moisture is just as contrived, but I would argue that that is done in an attempt to firm up conditions in order to accentuate skill.

The watering this year was, as Davis wrote, a "concession." A move made after Daddy had whipped the boys around, and decided to let the flatbellies have their Sunday fun. I don't get the sense this concession was one made with great pleasure.

So is this what the Masters will be in the future: three days of torture and one day of watering to shut up the critics who dare to dream that we might see another '86-Masters type finish?

I can only recall such dramatic green watering happening to mitigate impending setup fiascos. And not coincidentally, Fred Ridley was the head man during the two most recent examples: 2004 at Shinnecock and the 2007 Masters.

Thoughts? 

Comments

[noz]

What's it matter if they watered the greens? The scoring average was still over 74 in nice weather. The greens just drain too well at Augusta and the ball just won't go far enough or stop quick enough. When will Titleist come out with something that really works? Just goes to show no matter how good technology is - cool temperatures,hard fast greens and difficult hole locations can beat up the worlds best players at any moment. Are you happy the boys are back making 10 birdies a round on the relatively soft greens at the 6,900 yard Harbour Town??

[Hux]

Geoff,
One of the guys on the Iseekgolf board made the point why play one tournament for 54 holes and a completely different tournament for the final 18?

We see it every year at the US Open: two shots in front is actually a fairly decent lead because most holes are either pared or bogeyed. There are fewer swings of two or more strokes and that's how it was at Augusta the first three days. Contriving to play the course soft for the final day on the whim of the setup committee was grossly unfair on the players who had established their lead through three rounds. It is like having the 'catch up' function enabled on two player driving games on Playstation.

I have often said golf needs to take a leaf out of international test cricket's book. In cricket, the curator may prepare the pitch any way he sees fit during the lead up to the match, but once the match is under way not one drop of 'artificial' irrigation may touch the surface. The evolution of the pitch over the course of a five day match and that evolution's influence on batting and bowling tactics is what makes the game for the purist.

[Hawkeye]

noz: "Are you happy the boys are back making 10 birdies a round on the relatively soft greens at the 6,900 yard Harbour Town??"

If you recall that MacKenzie quote on Geoff's site yesterday, the words of wisdom were that the truest sign of a good, fair golf course is if the leading players score low, but the average score is still relatively high. That's what Augusta used to be like, and that's what's on offer at Harbour Town this week.

[Josh Hoisington]

I like the directive taken from cricket. You just have to be extra careful at the beginning of the tournament if you're sworn off from touching the course between rounds with watering, because there is the danger of things getting out of hand. There should be a firmness meter like there's the stimpmeter for speed. I think that in many ways the difference in the conditions from the first three days to Sunday almost made it a one-day tournament. It was so flukey and chance-based the first three days that it came down to how you played on Sunday, there was no complete performance...building a body of work so to speak.

[Smitty]

What I fail to understand about all these set-up problems is that, despite modern technology, weather forecasting, and agronomy, that the people in charge of the set-ups don't take into account evapotranspiration variables such as wind, UV indices, humidity, soil type, soil permeability, grass type, altitude, barometric pressure, etc. They seem to just guess, which is very bad. You would think that they are measuring soil moisture 3 times a day and water accordingly, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

[RM]

This website is truly educational. Until recently I had never heard of indices. Thanks Geoff for providing a forum where the lexicon of Carolyn and Smitty can be shared...and treasured.

[Four-putt]

>>"One of the guys on the Iseekgolf board made the point why play one tournament for 54 holes and a completely different tournament for the final 18?

>>"We see it every year at the US Open: two shots in front is actually a fairly decent lead because most holes are either pared or bogeyed. There are fewer swings of two or more strokes and that's how it was at Augusta the first three days. Contriving to play the course soft for the final day on the whim of the setup committee was grossly unfair on the players who had established their lead through three rounds. It is like having the 'catch up' function enabled on two player driving games on Playstation."<<

Please tell me you're kidding, right?

4p

[FWIW]

Seth Davis' extremely simplistic story has so many errors and inconsistencies it in that it is hardly worth ridiculing. But since it is perpetuating misinformation, here goes. He refers to Sunday as "relatively wind-free and balmy." First off, relative to the day before, there was less wind but not no wind. And relative to International Falls, Minnesota, the 50-degree temps were certainly balmy as you could tell from everybody bundled up in blankets and stocking caps instead of short-sleeve golf shirts and baseball hats. Having been to more than 100 golf tournaments of every caliber, this "concession" to nature we call watering greens has been made at every one of them. Let's not let one idiot's distorted perspective distort actual reality.

[JT]

Geoff-

Before they bowl the last frame in the PBA U.S. Open "can we have lane 2 re-waxed"!

What difference will that make?

Both bowlers will still have the same oppertunities right?

Have the commenters here lost their marbles?


Senior Ridley, we can ROLL da greens in the middle of da night. Mirar Carlos, no loco - no loco, comprende?

[Smolmania]

Depriving a putting green of water is not a natural thing. Having played Dubsdread after the greens aren't watered for a week, I'll note that it took Ken Lapp (the superintendant) a number of years to figure out how to keep the damn greens alive after the tour finished with the Western Open.

They water the greens at my boss's club (Ridge CC) all the time, but I'd put those greens up against any we have here in the Chicago District. Cutting and rolling can make them firm and pure, without depriving the grass of the necessary elements for good health.

[Smitty]

RM, I was being half-serious and half-mocking when I offered my entry; I was merely stating that a little common sense and thinking would go a long way on this set-up matter. I hope you were amused, though--:)

[Ace]

Cutting, syringing, and rolling's even better, Smol.

[Mark Holthoff]

The course's natural defense has always been its greens, so it's seems an even further bastardization of the course to water them overnight in an effort to make conditions more "fair." But, of couse, watering the greens overnight is a whole lot easier (not to mention less visible) than removing trees, restoring old tees, or mowing the rough, now isn't it?

[Fishman]

If that photo of the crew watering a green was from the 2007 Masters and not some stock shot, then everyone is making too big a deal of the watering. The amount of water put on the night before by a single hose is nothing, when compared to a full irrigation set or a good Georgia thunderstorm. It does little more than keep the already stressed out grass alive. We're talking about a few thousand gallons of water, not several hundred thousand gallons. (For example, at my course a full August watering is 800,000 gallons with greens and tees getting a full 45 minute set from overlapping heads.) Subair systems, drainage, and the rest of the minutae the golf geeks are talking about mainly illustrates a lack of perspective. The National greens were probably quadruple cut for 10 days before the final round by 350 certified golf course superintendants who were going bonkers seeing bent tortured to that extreme. Ridley is just another dumb suit to these guys. The supers probably begged the committee to be able to put on the water they did--not for the golfers, but for grass.

[Hawkeye]

JT: "Before they bowl the last frame in the PBA U.S. Open "can we have lane 2 re-waxed"!
What difference will that make?
Both bowlers will still have the same oppertunities right?"

No they won't, since the guy who can control his rev rate the best will be deprived of his advantage.
Btw, does anyone know if there's a GShack.com-like site for bowlers out there?

[86general]

We only hear about greens being watered when the tournament has featured something unusual, like overly high scores, or something ridiculous like the hole at Olypmic a few years back or the Redan hole at Shinnecock.

But is it ever "routine" to water greens or fairways during a golf tournament? I would think that it's necessary to avoid the grass becoming over-stressed and burning, although maybe that's not an issue in cool weather. Is it routine to _not_ water the greens during the 4 days of the Masters?

Having said that...

If they were watering the greens because they wanted birdies and drama and excitement on the last day, this would be proof, in my opinion, that the club has gone a bit overboard in their course alterations intended to "keep the course current." If the course needs significant tweaking within a tournament just to make things exciting, there is something wrong with the course in the first place.

[Hux]

>> Please tell me you're kidding, right?

Four-putt,
Those were three rock solid points. I can't imagine what issue you could possibly have.

[noz]

Geoff: Could we at least have a picture of the folks at Augusta watering the greens?? What's with this USGA malarkey?

[noz]

Can't go by scoreing avg. It's a historical fact rounds 1 and 3 play harder than round 2 and 4. You have to keep in mind 1/4 of the field at Augusta is on Social Security and another 1/8 of the field has never played in a PGA Tour sanctioned event. The scores were high and the weather was bad. Looks to me like they need to make a change at the first and 11th holes. Soften those two holes a little bit and the scoreing will come down. Next year it will probably rain and Titleist will come out with a new ball and the low scores will be back. This year was just an anomaly. jmo

[RM]

Smitty, Just having fun with ya...nothing but respect for the Smitty brand.