Bethpage Greens Receive Overnight Watering...

I guess we'll never know what happened Saturday to make Bethpage's greens speed up so much, but count soon-to-be-former-Ryder Cup hopeful Padraig Harrington to the hyperbole.

James Corrigan and Alasdair Reid reported this quote in a story on the likely European Ryder Cup captain's picks:

“The greens yesterday afternoon hurt my cause,” he said, after an admirable 68 advanced him on three-under. “I don’t think I’ve ever putted on greens faster and it doesn’t look good from outside when you start on with a 64 and shoot 75-75. I’m actually really happy where my game is.”

Something led to the greens returning to more reasonable speeds Sunday after Saturday's mysterious speed-up, and Doug Ferguson says it was water:

After a third round in which several players felt the greens were close to dead and nearly impossible to putt, there was plenty of water on them overnight. High scores were more a product of bad play, and it was difficult for anyone to make up too much ground because conditions were comparable throughout the day.

Comments

[Chuck]

300 yards + was the field average for driving on several holes, and 3+ putts were common.

The PGA Tour has pretty clearly figured out what made NASCAR so popular; high speeds and dangerous crashes.

[Brad Ford]

When I played Bethpage Black, I was struck by how little undulation the greens had. While I have only played a few sites that have hosted majors and/or PGA touraments, all of them had significantly more complicated greens. At Bethpage, many of the greens felt like they were a flat "plane" tilted in one direction. Fast, but not complicated.

Of course, Bethpage was first course that I have ever played that went off at 6,400 yards from the FORWARD tees. The White tees, which I normally play, were 6,700 yards and played ever bit of it.