Point: Speed doesn't have to kill / Counterpoint: Speed is not good for game

Golf Course News, May 2003 by Scott, Jon, Devries, Mike

POINT

Speed kills, right? At least that has been the mantra of superintendents and agronomists ever since courses started using the Stimpmeter to gain bragging rights at the 19th hole rather than to get consistency in putting quality from green to green on the same golf course. At the risk of losing friends and getting hate mail, I'm going to stick my neck out and say speed does not necessarily kill.

Today we have at our disposal the means to grow and mow greens at heights and stress levels that would have made the greenkeepers of old go into early retirement. Superintendents do this as a matter of daily routine without giving it a second thought.

What sacrilegious tripe are you throwing about here, Mr. Scott? I'm trying to say that everything is relative, and at different times in the history of golf course maintenance, there have been breakthroughs that have allowed for faster greens without sacrificing turf health.

When I started growing and killing grass over 30 years ago, my 328 bermuda greens were mowed at a whopping 5/16 inch. On special occasions, I dared to go down to 1/4 inch, but only for short periods. Green speed, if you could call it that, was probably somewhere between four and five feet, but we didn't measure it that way; we just tossed the ball toward the hole and watched where it stopped. Some of the greens were so steeply sloped that the ball didn't stop, and you had to get your driver out to putt it back uphill. This was golf in 1972.

Why didn't we stay at 1/4 inch? Because a few superintendents dared to trim their 328 down to 5/32 inch with the new nine-blade reels and the golfers loved it. This drove a demand for a turfgrass that would hold up under that absurdly low mowing height and the market for Tifdwarf was born. The same thing happened with bentgrass, only with lesser gradients; that is until we took a quantum leap with L-93 and the A and G series in recent years.

What drove this march toward lower mowing heights and better grasses to withstand them? Excitement. It is just pure fun to putt on fast greens. I'm not talking about the 12-plus speeds they talk about on TV (and don't believe everything you hear), I mean a good, solid 10 feet on a well-- contoured surface that tracks pure and feels firm. The current breed of greens grasses can do this far more often than those in past years without causing harm, and there is no turning back as far as the golfer is concerned.

Notice I said "far more often." That doesn't mean always, and never should. There will always be reasons to mow grass higher and accept slower green speeds when environmental conditions warrant. Further, if you don't have the new grasses and equipment at your course, mowing close to produce fast greens will be detrimental to your mental health. But don't blame Augusta, Bethpage or Muirfield Village for showing just how much skill it takes to get a ball in the hole on glass surfaces. Admit it; you like to see these guys challenged with fast greens. And, if you are really honest with yourself, you'll say you enjoy the excitement of putting when the ball takes one more half turn before it stops and falls in the hole. Speed doesn't have to kill if you have the right grass.

Jon Scott is the vice president of agronomy for the PGA Tour.