Firm and fast: Gone at last?

Most people watching the recent 150th Open Championship at St Andrews saw a thrilling contest that concluded with the crowning of the “Champion Golfer of the Year” and the awarding of the Claret Jug. What I saw — and likely what you did, too — was “firm and fast” taken to ridiculous extremes.

Granted, there’s been a severe drought in the UK this summer and climate change is upon us. But really? Must we turn a great course — and one of the cathedrals of our game — into a piece of burnt toast to evaluate the world’s best players? And because we all know that what average golfers see on television is what they expect at their home courses, that over-the-top example of “dry and deranged” is going to make our already difficult jobs that much harder. Blasphemy, you say? This is how golf should be played? It’s a bounce-and-roll game and players enjoy seeing their shots roll farther down the fairway (or in the case of St Andrews, into the rough grass)?

Stop and think about your membership/customers. Think about the new golfers who’ve come to the game the last few years. Do you think they’ll accept — much less understand — applying a scorched-earth policy to where they play? Both the 2014 (Pinehurst No. 2) and 2015 (Chambers Bay) U.S. Opens shocked viewers: Countless club officials and golfers since then have said to me, “Don’t think for a minute we want that! We like our course the way it is.”

I’ve been saying for years that despite what golf’s ruling bodies have been preaching, brown is NOT the new green. Certainly not for the vast majority of golfers who already lack control over where their shots will go. They want “reasonable and playable.” And not pricey.

Consider this if you think emulating the Old Course is good for your job security:

• Attaining such conditions over the long term is not feasible at most courses in America. Especially now, when we’re dealing with labor shortages, rising costs and available materials, and tough economic times.
• The optics of overly “stressed” turfgrass is far worse than the over-maintained, super-green, unnaturally lush look of Augusta each spring.
• Think about where you are. In Hilton Head, where I live, we get more than 60 inches of rain annually, so firm and fast conditions are unattainable except in winter when turf is dormant.

Now think about how your players will be affected:

• The Open was a showcase for six-hour rounds. Pace of play is a key factor in enjoyment.
• Firm and fast fairways send balls into rough, bunkers, and hazards, places most golfers can’t recover. Besides making players angrier, their rounds get longer. More slow, pissed-off golfers? Yeah, that’s what you need.
• Forget trying to “protect par.” Par is an unfamiliar concept to most golfers. What shouldn’t be unfamiliar is fun and enjoyment.

The current golf boom has shifted the reality from “brown is the new green” to “green is the new green” — as in cash flow. All the facilities I’ve visited or spoken to lately are happy to report substantial increases in play. We’ve hooked thousands of new golfers: Now we’ve got to figure out how to keep them playing … and paying. It’s certainly not with tougher course conditions, unrecoverable situations around greens or green speeds well into the double-digits. Well-struck shots bouncing off putting surfaces is going to bounce these new golfers right onto pickleball courts.

Scrape off the burnt toast and move toward sustainable golf and water conservation. Try to achieve “firm and fast” that’s appropriate to your climate and your customers. Keep the long-term health and economics of your golf course foremost in your plans. These types of conditions will be better received, and easier to explain, to those NARPs (non-agronomic real people) who have their doubts. Stick to your moisture meters, and remember the following:

There is nothing to be gained by making a course harder to play. For the club championship? Maybe, but even then, be careful. You don’t want the course deciding who wins.Less “green” turf is much more attractive than total brown, both to the observer’s eyes and the long-term health of the course.

There will always be a few low-handicap golfers who think they are better than they are and think they can handle true firm-and-fast conditions. One, they can’t. Two, keep bringing back the 18-handicap and you’ll always have a solid customer base.

You don’t live in Scotland, your course probably isn’t along the water on a sandy base, you don’t have The R&A funding maintenance and it’s unlikely you’ll be hosting the Open Championship anytime soon.

And I haven’t even mentioned wind.