Old (Course) News: Pushing Green Speeds To The Brink

My Golf World column on the ramifications of Saturday's inability to present a playable Old Course in windy conditions will be out later, but in the meantime a few thoughts on the latest major championship course setup fiasco in the distance era.(Jim McCabe of Golfweek.com recounts what happened here and has many player quotes on what they experienced, filed before the R&A commented in the press center.)

We know we are headed for a Monday finish at St. Andrews only because the green speeds are too fast for the contours when the wind is up. Three straight majors with a play stoppage have established that a Stimpmeter speed of 10+ is too much here. Heck, the nearby Castle Course with its exposed position on a hill and featuring modern greens with massive contours was open.

As Paul Azinger and Dottie Pepper noted on air and on Twitter (and as documented by John Strege at GolfDigest.com), they've played in comparable or worse winds here FOR CENTURIES because greens were not this fast. Azinger nominated 9 on the Stimp as a reasonable enough speed and here's guessing that would work. Pepper reminded us that this is the third straight major that the Old Course has been misunderstood by those setting it up. She also pointed out the overall statement this makes about runaway modern green speeds.

Sadly, we've seen this movie before: governing bodies willing to take things up to the edge in a peculiar and perhaps subconsciously self-destructive effort to hold the line on difficulty via trickery. In this case, trying to maintain certain green speeds on a course overwhelmed by modern distances, grooves and made easier by the impeccable conditioning by the maintenance team. Now we face a Monday finish and questions about the integrity of the championship because of risk-taking over a measely a foot of speed on the Stimpmeter (and to a lesser extent meeting the modern expectations of players who'd howl at the prospect of playing greens mown every other day).

One would hope the latest fiasco expedites and crystallizes two ongoing debates: the push for fast greens and the notion of regulating distance (as we do now), just not enough to impact elite players in a way that allows places like the Old Course to not be compromised.

For some context on green speed, check out Jerry Tarde's column from October 2013 on the evolution of documented speeds in America (suggested by reader Joe Ogilvie) and note Sir Michael Bonallack's resistance to knowing Stimpmeter speeds.

That's in contrast to his predecessor, R&A Chief Inspector Peter Dawson, who knows exactly what the green speeds were today at St. Andrews.

Q. What is the stimpmetre reading for the Old Course for The Open Championship?

PETER DAWSON: Well, we've been targeting between 10 and 10-foot-6, and we were achieving that every day, but we have kept the 11th green about six inches slower than those readings, and we've been consistently able to achieve that each morning.

To nitpick: Dawson recently justified the rebuilding of the hollowed 11th hole ground as able to handle play in high winds and because he didn't want to treat it differently in a championship. But in light of that revelation and more proof that the 10 to 10-foot-6 Stimpmeter range may be too much for these greens, I asked if he might reconsider the peak number.

Q. You said the 11th green a few weeks before the tournament is now puttable in high winds with the changes you've made. You've also said today that the green speed is on that green treated differently. Might you be willing to reconsider what you feel is the championship green speed that you discussed earlier? Is that something that would seem reasonable in light of what's happened?

PETER DAWSON: Well, I think for the vast majority of days here, if we went down to a green speed of something say -- pick a number, nine feet, and we played The Open Championship here, I think most people would think the greens were far too slow, to be honest with you. So it's a balance. 10 to 10-foot-6 is an appropriate green speed at St. Andrews in the vast majority of days. We've had a very difficult day today. The slope on the green at 11 is not directly connected with that. That's connected with slope as opposed to wind speed, and I still think what we did there was perfectly appropriate.

To recap: historic Eden green is changed to handle high wind days and so that it can be treated the same as the other days.

Reality: the changed green could not handle the high wind day if was compromised for and was treated differently anyway.

But more vital than this revelation of architectural ineptitude is the obvious absurdity of tainting a championship in the name of not taking real action on the distance scourge that keeps rearing its head in deflating ways.

Even the Chief Inspector wishes the play that took place for a half hour Saturday at St Andrews could be wiped from the record books, an acknowledgement that this championship may have been compromised by the committee's actions:

PETER DAWSON: Well, I wish we could. Rules of golf do allow you to wipe out a full round, but sadly not part of a round, and it's something that maybe the rules committee would like to look at for the future, but the rules of golf do not cater for that at this time.

First things first. Let's revisit the Overall Distance Standard driving the push for faster greens.

Update on Sunday, July 19, 2015 at 01:40 AM by Geoff

**Scott Hend launched the most pointed attack on the R&A ("absolute disgrace"). Mark Hayes reports that hes's not buying the small wind increase cited by the Chief Inspector.

"They want to come out with a diatribe that the wind picked up 10-15 per cent once they blew the horn, but that’s absolutely ridiculous. We were out there and told them it was no good. I make double-bogey on the one hole that I play and I miss the cut by two shots.

Hend said the players in his group had told the walking rules official that it was unfair.

"We kept saying to our rules guy that this is not fair and we shouldn’t be playing.

We get to the ninth tee and he finally said to us, `Hold up fellas, there’s going to be a back-up on the 10th tee’, so we stood and waited. He got a message from his boss in charge of the rules who said something like, `Why is your group not playing nine, make ‘em hit’.

“It was an absolute shambles and didn’t seem like anyone knew what was going on – it was very unprofessional. By which time, I’d already made a double. My ball landed on the front of the (par-three eighth) green and ran all the way to the back of the green."

Comments

[Joe]

That nearby course may have been open, but I think we all know if the spoiled pros turned up they wouldn't have played.

[ol Harv]

Absolutely great post Geoff. Thank you. And kudos to Azinger and Pepper. What a shame that the golf fan gets robbed of getting to see something that they don't often get to today. Would have loved to have seen these guys battle that wind. Would have been a tough break for Jordan but how many other players through the years have had similar hands dealt to them? Perhaps it was the "spirits" from the postcard trying to make a point. Where is the leadership?

[Chuck]

A devastatingly effective post, Geoff. And lest we be too hard on the R & A, let's all recall that there have been the rare but real occasions on which hyperfast green speeds have led to wind delays on the PGA Tour; even at ANGC.

I thought I heard a stray mention on today's telecast (Azinger?) that 11 green at TOC had been slowed down to an 8.5 Stimp. It did look as though it was putting slower, and 8.5 would be reasonably quick for a recreational player. But deadly slow for a tour player. Your post seems to indicate that 11 was never as slow as 8.5.

[Don]

Great post. Tweet about Golf Gods getting a hand from the Weather Gods was the best I read.

[otey]

Good piece Geoff.

So Dawson has mucked with a historic green (the Eden) for what purpose exactly....?

#SavetheOldCourse.

[Brad Fritsch]

Don't disagree with the notion that perhaps greens should be mowed appropriate to the potential weather the course would face...

But how does this connect to the "distance problem" you always talk about? Not getting it.

[Pro from Dover]

Augusta National 1986 Winner Jack Nicklaus Green Speed 8.5

Played North Berwick on Friday, green speeds were 9.0 .....Turnberry the day before, about the same, and we had wind. They were plenty fast enough. Many American golfers are obsessed with numbers reflecting green speed and have little knowledge how fast 12, 13, 13.5 is.

[Convert]

How many days out of 100 would today's green speeds be a problem? Do you set up a course for the worst potential weather? If Old Tom had today's mowers and rollers what would he have the greens rolling? People seem to be blaming everyone other than Mother Nature, and that bitch did not want to watch golf today.

Why are we not playing 36 tomorrow like they did for 100+ years?.

[Golfinggods]

Sad fact is that without wind, the Old Course is a patsy for the pros.

Equipment and ball won't change. Time to stop playing that blame game

Mother Nature is the only defense. We will have to learn to deal with that every five years when the Open is played there and mistakes like today might well be made again.

36 holes left for everyone, now let's move on.

[JM]

Upon realisation that the green speeds were unplayable for the conditions, could the course staff have brushed the greens with brushes attached to walk mower, without engaging the cutting cylinder. This would have slowed the greens considerably maybe compromising the smoothness in ball roll slightly but ultimately would have allowed play to resume a lot quicker. This could have been done ahead of play so as to be fair to the while field.

[Cory]

I think the correlation with the distance is due to the fact that the governing bodies think they need to get the greens that fast to defend the course. They wouldn't have to do that if the players couldn't overpower the course.

Turnberry at 9??? Don't let Trump see that. Everyone will be fired!

[ol Harv]

Convert, I don't want to mis-speak, as not an expert on weather over there, but have visited several times and I'm not so sure that today is a once a year thing? Have played many courses across the pond, on the ocean, and today is more common than the opposite. I think the question would be, what are the green speeds typically at St. Andrews and why do the golf leaders feel like they have to go right to the edge?

[scall1968]

Right own.

[Irish Golf Nut]

Post par excellence Geoff..the sad thing is that 95% of golfers that I know couldnt care less about these matters.

[Convert]

Harv, My two trips over have seen some tough conditions but never 30+ mph sustained. My sample size is small though, if that weather occurs even 10% of the time then the R&A are playing with fire. If it is once a summer, then it is just bad luck.

[Lynn S.]

They may have to go back to the smaller ball!

[Blue Canyon]

Great write up from Geofff.

[Al Gore]

Dustin johnsons long tee shots cause global warming.
What green sped would have allowed balls to NOT be moved by the wind? Anybody know?

Since I was a kid, fast greens were tournament nirvana, not just in the reviled distance era.
People tried to keep up with Augusta as they incrementally developed faster speeds.
Royal Melbourne was mythological for the greens, and among the fastest I ever played in the 87?)
Aussie Open.
I know the distance is your soapbox, but stupid greens speeds and dumb architecture changes for those speeds are not as entwined as you make them in my experience at least

[JCA]

I have sympathy for the R&A on this one. Sure, the green speeds were too fast for conditions like today's but the main problem was having to finish off the second round after the rain delay yesterday. That meant they were forced to keep Fridays pins on a day when perhaps they wouldn't have done. If the second round had finished on time I doubt anyone would have started today - and if they had, like Dawson said, they would have abandoned play and had the option of cancelling it altogether and just restarting it when it became playable.

[Play It Forward]

Ol Harve - I'll try. Playing The Old in a match play event the wind was so strong that both my opponent, a 1 hcp, and I, a 5 hcp, hit drivers. I made it on and he was short. After about 6 or 7 attempts we agreed to halve the hole and move on. Sadly that is not an option in stroke play. When we returned to the club house and described the hole, we were advised that had it been stroke play, they would have had to suspend. 11 green/12 tee is the highest most exposed part of the course.
FWIW I don't think a green speed of 8 would have mattered with the strength of the wind.

[Buck]

You're right Fritschy, green speed and ball distance have no correlation, but both issues need to be addressed as they are pushing boundaries that probably shouldn't be pushed any further in my opinion

[PA PLAYA]

I'm still trying to figure out where I might find these ultra slick 12 stimped greens here in the U.S. that is often bandied about when these distance debates come up.

With exception of maybe 1 club here locally where I live, it's full shoulder turn city on anything beyond 20 feet at the other 20-something courses I frequent, several of them private no less. Most never approach a 9 on the stimp, let alone an 11 or 12.

[Smith]

Thankyou Geoff - excellent post.

And, since some voice doubts, I think your point is well made that there is a link between the distance explosion and the ever-increasing speed of greens, as courses like The Old and ANGC attempt to defend their "dignity" by making things more difficult for pro players who get huge distances and hitherto unthinkable trajectories from the new equipment. Of course there are other reasons why people are fascinated and attracted by marble-like putting surfaces, but the link is clear.

[mark]

It wont happen, but would like to see wind when it moves a ball on the putting green be an outside agency. One should never have to putt a 18 inch putt from 5 feet. I never thought that 10.5 was that fast, but anything over 11 is fast and I think that 9 is about the right speed for most public courses.

Did anyone els see the plastic tunnel that they used to measure the stimp on #11? That is bad if the ball move that much sideways that you cant use the stemp.

[Brad Fritsch]

PA PLAYA there are very few who understand how fast 12 is.

[Press Agent]

With great respect Geoff, I have to disagree with where you place the blame. As someone with knowledge of how things are handled for setup of pro golf tournaments, as I think are you, I think there should be some concession or acknowledgement that when green speeds are slowed down - it's the players who protest, and thus over the last numbers of years it's the representatives of the players or tours who push for faster and faster green speeds. All one has to do is think about any tournament in the last number of years where the greens were a little slow, and think about who you heard complaining about it......

If the R&A targeted anything less than 10 for a stimp, they would be criticized heavily and probably accused of trying to tilt the advantage towards the Euro tour players. As I understand it, the stimp for the 11th green was targeted at 8.5. which even you will concede, no matter how much you want to lambaste the R&A and Dawson, is reasonable.

This was a weather event. Period. Other than letting the greens grow to match more of a fairway cut, there is not much that could have been done. And as we all know very well, if the greens were let to grow enough and be slow enough to handle this weather event, the complaints from the players would have been fever pitch.... Not fair how you are framing this. IMO.

[Press Agent]

I'm someone who's been lucky enough to play the Old Course. One of the times I played it, our foursome saw: Rain, Snow, Hail and Sunshine - along with blistering winds throughout the round. That's the Old Course - no slower Stimp is going to solve the issues of Mother Nature deciding she wants to make a statement.

As an aside, I was extremely happy to see Duval make the cut. Register me as an official Duval fan now.

[Carl Peterson]

>> One should never have to putt a 18 inch putt from 5 feet.

If Oosthuizen had known the rules he could have putted that 18" putt from about 8" before it became a 5-6' putt (that he made anyway). But, alas, learning the rules seems to be of little interest to today's pros.

[Pasaplayer]

Chuck, like you I also heard Assinger refer to a stimp of 8.5 on no. 11. And I didn't believe it. It was the only reference made as far as I heard to any stimp anywhere. Also, 11 seemed to be running the same as the other greens when accounting for varying circumstances, exposure, slope, break, etc. Did any players refer to a different green speed at 11? Not that I know. Nor did the R&A admit a different speed (see Dawson's comment above). Assinger is terrible, often talking and saying stupid shit, it seems, just to be talking.

[Pasaplayer]

PS: Excellent exposure by Geoff, pun intended.

[Reality check]

That green speeds and the distance the ball goes are interconnected is a false argument. Green speeds have been increasing yearly, WAY before the ball was introduced in 2000. Golf courses were being being built longer WAY before the ball arrived in 2000. you think the ball is too long…fine. But please use facts and not false suppositions to make your case. Do some homework because you sound like Obama's claim that climate change is the greatest threat to security.

[Ted B. (Charging Rhino)]

If the greens at the Old Course were their normal 8-ft to 9-ft, the course probably would have been playable Saturday morning. Similarly, if Chambers Bay had been it's normal Stimp of 9-ft to 10-ft -- rather than 12-ft for the 2015 US Open -- it probably would have been more playable and a lot more "fair" since it would have reduced the Poa bumpiness and the sparse Fescue on the greens.

I detect a pattern; vanity on the part of the Competition Committee.

[ol Harv]

"You're right Fritschy, green speed and ball distance have no correlation, but both issues need to be addressed as they are pushing boundaries that probably shouldn't be pushed any further in my opinion"

The correlation has been explained guys. Faster greens are another defense against lower scores because of the increase in distance., And when they push it to the edge and Mother Nature throws in a kink, you get Shinnecock, Chambers Bay, and now St.Andrews.

[Mark]

Carl,
I did see Mr S not mark his ball right a way, bad move. They are so fast to mark there ball after a missed putt, wonder why he did not mark his ball before it moved again. Nothing to do with knowing the rules, but just dumb. One would think if it moved once, that it may move again.

[Greg V]

I would bet that the wind blowing in excess of 30 mph sustained, with gusts well over 40, is only a few times a year occurrence at The Old Course.

I wouldn't make too much of this event - an extreme act of Mother Nature.

I knew that it was a probability from my windsurfing site forecast across the Eden Estuary at Leuchars. I could see that it was coming from last Monday on. Maybe they need a windsurfer on the Executive Committee of the R&A. My point? They never should have started play early this morning.

Sunday and Monday look to be ideal weather for low scoring.

[Miroue]

"Sadly, we've seen this movie before: governing bodies willing to take things up to the edge in a peculiar and perhaps subconsciously self-destructive effort to hold the line on difficulty via trickery. In this case, trying to maintain certain green speeds on a course overwhelmed by modern distances, grooves and made easier by the impeccable conditioning by the maintenance team. Now we face a Monday finish and questions about the integrity of the championship because of risk-taking over a measely a foot of speed on the Stimpmeter (and to a lesser extent meeting the modern expectations of players who'd howl at the prospect of playing greens mown every other day)."

grooves? and impeccable conditioning (is that bad now?)
In the zeal (or insanity) to attack the distance explosion, some of the thoughts get a bit manic.
Mown every other day? Is there an issue with mowing for trueness but at a higher height of cut?

Overall, I am in my mid fifties, and been around golf my entire life. It seems to me, that the line on St Andrews
was no weather, the old girl will allow low scoring. Wind is her defense.
But keep beating the drum, tour pros aren't any good, they just play a golf ball that goes too far.
Looking a lot like the kid who can't make the team and dad complains tot he coach every practice.

[Buck]

I tend to disagree ol Harv. Fast and smooth greens really aren't much of a defense anymore to pros. They are so good on and around the greens, that's not a defense unless the undulations make it unfair. Fast and smooth has pros licking their chops, fast and bumpy, well that's a whole other story or should I say nightmare

[Barney Panofsky]

"But keep beating the drum, tour pros aren't any good, they just play a golf ball that goes too far.
Looking a lot like the kid who can't make the team and dad complains tot he coach every practice."

How anyone can get what you write here from what was written and has been commented here is beside me and I'm embarrassed for you.

[DTF]

Greg V good catch on that windsurfing/weather site, remember you mentioning that yesterday. Would you post a link to the site? Would be interested to give it a look...

[DTF]

Cannizzaro's take:

"ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Golf’s oldest governing body, which oversees the game’s oldest, most venerable major championship, should know better.

This was the Royal & Ancient — the governing body that oversees the “home of golf’’ — inexplicably turning the game’s prestigious event into an amateur hour sideshow on Saturday morning, potentially putting a stain on the integrity of its 144th British Open."

http://nypost.com/2015/07/18/british-open-disaster-disgraces-golfs-most-prestigious-major/

Given the stumbling, bumbling, fumbling and flimsy stab at rule writing put forth in the decree called rule 14-1b not sure why Cannizzaro would be surprised by what took place today...

Amateur hour.