A busy week of golf on both courses in some great weather and the nice positive comments about playing conditions is always nice to hear.  The crew have done a great job recently so it was only natural to have a BBQ breakfast this morning.  Apologies to the members walking up 9W fairway next to the shed and smelling the bacon and eggs cooking!!

Not the healthiest but very tasty and just reward.

I mentioned last year about some Wintergrass (which is Poa annua) on the courses that has become resistant to our normal control methods and we now have some in 3R green so trials have commenced using alternative methods of control.  Watch this space.

And speaking of Poa annua which was mentioned seemingly a thousand times on last weeks coverage of the US Open golf and was incorrectly referred to as "Po anna" which is most definitely not how it is pronounced.  I mentioned last week that Monterey is not an easy place to grow grass and the Poa thrives there and so they accept it and live with it.  The greens seemed to play very well and considering that the course is really only a par 69 with 2 easily reached par 5's, only 2 players broke par so it was still a very stern test of golf and the course looked and played very well.

Green speed looked to be a suitable match to the greens design at Pebble Beach which is a critical aspect of preparing a course for tournament play.  The old classic courses, especially in the USA, were designed with some severely sloping greens that are not really suited to fast greens.  As an example in 1978 the USGA visited over 500 courses and recorded their green speeds and the results are astounding when you compare them to the same courses today where they all seem to run in excess of 12 feet on the stimpmeter.  Oakmont which is considered to have the fastest greens year round in the USA had their greens running at over 14 feet for the 2016 open on greens that have the same slopes as were there in 1978! 

1978 speeds;

• Harbour Town, 5-1 (5 feet, 1 inch)
• Congressional, 6-4
• Merion, 6-4
• Pinehurst No. 2, 6-10
• Pebble Beach, 7-2
• Shinnecock Hills, 7-2
• Pine Valley, 7-4
• Winged Foot, 7-5
• Cypress Point, 7-8
• Medinah, 7-8
• Augusta National, 7-11
• Oakland Hills, 8-5
• Oakmont, 9-8

At least the foxes that dig in our bunkers are only nocturnal and I am probably the only person that sees them on the courses in the very early morning course inspections I make.  These fellows are a good bit bolder though!!

Foxy!!

I will be on leave for the next 3 weeks so will return to the world of blogging in mid July.  Until then enjoy the golf courses and good golfing to you all.