Newsletters
April 2012 - The Augusta Effect
Has TV changed the way golf courses are maintained?
As April rolls around, all golfers look forward to The Masters. In the north it marks the unofficial beginning to the golf season. Golfers see the lush green grass, the azaleas in bloom and the golf bug starts to hit us. We can’t wait for the warm weather to return and for our own links to look this good.
That brings up one phrase we can all do without, “Why doesn't our course look and play like Augusta National or the courses we see on TV?” You’ve heard that before and probably still hear it each year from one of your members or patrons. I refer to this as “The Augusta Effect” and the effect it has had on how golf courses are maintained.
Golf was first shown on national TV in 1953 at the Tam O’Shanter World Championship outside Chicago. It is hard to find out why, but the owner of the golf course actually paid ABC to televise the event. He even put up a purse – including $25,000 to the winner – that was higher than any total purse on the PGA Tour that year. One can speculate he did it for the exposure for the course, but hopefully for the game as well.
These first televised events were in black and white and began to gain more exposure. In 1956 Augusta National put The Masters on TV, televising the last four holes. It wasn’t until 1966 when the first golf tournament was televised in color. You guessed it, it was The Masters.
Even though golf was being shown on TV and we had the big three – Palmer Nicklaus, and Player – golf maintenance on the local level more or less stayed the same. That all changed when Augusta converted its greens from bermuda grass to bentgrass for the 1981 tournament. Up until then bentgrass was only used on northern courses. As newer varieties of bentgrass became available, Augusta made the switch. It was a change that superintendents, in a Grounds Maintenance article, agree was the correct choice. They say bentgrass is still the right choice for the course, even if today’s newer varieties of bermuda grass had been available back then. The switch allowed the course to create faster, smoother greens.
What has this change meant to the golf industry and golf maintenance?
People began to see the ultra green turf of Augusta with no blade of grass out of place and the sloping, fast greens on TV. (HD and 3D-TV has made this even more apparent.) Golfers raved about the course conditions and how well the greens putt. The tournament became known for its greens. After all, the course is lightly bunkered by today’s standards. Only six holes have fairway bunkers and the course has eight fairway bunkers in total. That total even includes the 10th hole’s famous original bunker that doesn’t come into play. You can see why it is the greens that make the course. These contours force the player to play to proper positions, making it a prime example of strategic golf, even with minimal bunkers.
Golf course managers and superintendents were now faced with golfers, and I was one, who wanted to see their course’s greens play as fast as possible. Superintendents accepted that challenge and wanted to deliver this to their bosses and clients. They started mowing their greens at .125 of an inch or shorter. Courses started having faster greens and this sure helped the golf design business. Everyone decided they liked these fast speeds and bragged about them to get new golfers. But most courses had greens that had too much slope for these speeds, so some wanted them rebuilt. These speeds also raised golf course maintenance costs.
Believe it or not, it is difficult to find detailed numbers on the costs to maintain a golf course in the 1980's. (I spent many hours searching this topic.) Some more seasoned superintendents may recall what it cost to maintain a course back then. During my search, I did come across a 1973 article in The Gettysburg Times titled “Golf Course Maintenance Costs Double Since 1958.” In the Midwest it lists the average cost to maintain a golf course at $5,166 per hole, or $92,988 for 18 holes. Assuming you may spend $500,000 for your annual maintenance today that cost is roughly $27,777 per hole. The good news is we have much better playing conditions than in 1973 and better, more educated superintendents. These superintendents were now starting to get the pay deserved for their education and experience.
The change in maintenance standards has also placed increased stress on golf courses and course superintendents. Over the past few summers we have seen hotter temperatures for longer periods of time. It is no wonder I continue to work with courses on the advancements of turfgrasses and implementing those varieties on their golf course. In 2011, the combination of a wet spring (no root growth) and hot summer in the Midwest made it nearly impossible to keep the greens alive at a low cutting height. More money was being spent to keep the greens alive, money that many courses didn’t have. As fuel and labor costs rise we need to find some place to keep costs in check and newer turfgrasses may be answer. 2012 has started out with a warmer than normal spring, let’s hope it doesn’t lead to another hot summer.
Lastly, keep in mind Augusta National closes its course every summer, from June to mid-October. They do not have to fight the heat to keep the greens alive. When they open the course in October the average high temperature is in the low 70’s. During The Masters, the average high is also in the mid 70’s. It is easy to see how they can consistently keep their greens at these high speeds for the tournament and everyday play. Other courses groom their course to tournament standards for that one week each year. I’d like to see what a course would look like if they kept it at US Open conditions for the entire summer. I don’t think they would be open the next year.
Recent surveys indicate The Augusta Effect may be decreasing. Golf Course Architecture reported earlier this year golfers would rather have smooth greens then fast greens. I hope this is the case and golfers can get on board with accepting a true putting surface over ultra fast greens. It will make it easier on you to maintain and more fun for me to design.
As we roll around to another April and another Masters I hope this gives you a little ammunition with your golfers. If you give your golfers the truest greens possible at a height of cut you can manage they will love your course. Please share your opinions on this topic with me and your peers.
Current News
It seems to happen at every golf course. Either an owner or green chairman has an idea to change the course. Did you know that even Augusta National’s chairman changed one of the holes on his own one year? In David Owen’s blog last week he points out that Clifford Roberts had the mounds removed on the eighth hole for the spectators.
Owen points out that in 1956 Robert’s had the mounds removed from around the entire green. One member said “That’s the only time I can really remember Mr. Jones getting mad at Cliff”. The Mr. Jones he refers to is Bobby Jones, credited as co-designer with Alister MacKenzie. Apparently he didn’t even consult with the architect on the changes.
Click here to read David’s blog and see the photos of the work. You won’t believe your eyes. It shows what happens when you don’t think about how the entire hole plays when making changes.
Featured Topic
Rising oil costs are more then just a pain at the gas pump. It affects our daily life as over 6,000 items are made from petroleum. So you can see how these high oil prices we face can damage a fragile economy. One course that I visited last month has decided to do something about these rising costs.
This 36 hole course in NW Illinois has a beautiful park setting. Mature trees and rolling topography make it a joy to look at and play. But, it sits on 300 acres and mowing 300 acres is not cheap. Last year they exceeded their fuel budget and with the fear of how prices are trending something had to be done.
So the superintendent invited me over for a day and we went around the golf course. Our goal was to select areas that would not affect the playability and convert these to no-mow areas. This would allow them to use less fuel and also free up some labor hours to use on other parts of the golf course. In one day we identified almost 24 acres of turf that they can stop mowing this summer.
The superintendent wanted an architects opinion on the golf course before implementing this program. By bringing in an outside person, he can now go to his board and explain that he had an expert come in to review the course and help implement these changes. This is not new as members of the ASGCA outlined this approach in last springs edition of By Design. Completing this project is easy and cheap. A days visit for an architects review is inexpensive in the terms of your overall maintenance budget. I followed this visit up with a letter to the board explaining what we did and the impact on the look and playability of the golf course. Should this initial experiment work I suspect we will do a lot more in the future.
Featured Course
It would be too easy to put Augusta National into this category for this month. All golf fans know about the history of the course and you get a preview in every golf magazine’s April edition. One course this month that gets overlooked is Harbour Town Golf Links. At only 6,973 yards, it proves that a course doesn’t have to be long to challenge the best players in the world. I had the opportunity to visit and play there during our 2004 ASGCA Annual Meeting. This part of the “Low Country” has some great golf courses.
Designed by legendary architect Pete Dye, the course opened in 1967. While designing another course that year in Columbus, OH, Pete got input from Jack Nicklaus on that course and the two worked together on Harbour Town. It was Jack’s first introduction to golf course design.
It didn’t long for the course to be recognized as an outstanding layout. Two years later in 1969 it hosted its first professional event, The MCI Heritage and has hosted a PGA Tour event ever since. Even though the tournament follows The Masters every year it still gets some of the best players in the world. This is due to the both the course and the Hilton Head area.
The golf course is known for having tight, tree lined fairways and small greens averaging 3,700 sf. It is a true shot makers course that requires finesse over power. The course has a perfect blend of right-to-left and left-to-right holes that is does not favor the draw or fade. While it’s best known hole is the eighteenth, with the famous lighthouse backdrop, holes 14 through 18 is one of the best stretches in golf. Another interesting fact is that it boast water on every par 3. Check it out when you watch this years tournament.
Past Newsletters
Spring 2012
Member American Society of Golf Course Architects
MICHAEL J. BENKUSKY, INC - GOLF COURSE ARCHITECTURE
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Lake in the Hills, IL 60156
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