On Course: Preparing for a Major Event

When using the term major event, I do not mean any major televised international tournament, but at the most County Championships or invited meetings. Quite apart from the logistics at higher levels, one predominant factor decides the choice of venue, namely length. The introduction of new balls and clubs has trivialised many of the older venerated courses largely due to the failure of the authorities to anticipate the problem early enough to prevent it and fear of penal litigation after it arose. Average drives have lengthened enormously in the past five years and erstwhile challenging par fives are now little more than a full drive and a long iron onto the green.

To re-establish the old pattern it has been calculated that we would need courses measuring 8,200 yards. In this context note that of the 2190 eighteen hole courses in Great Britain and Ireland, only 59 measure 7,000 yards or more and only 138 are between 6,700 and 6,999 yards. No fewer than 63% of all 18 hole courses measure under 6,300 yards. Thus, the venues for top professional tournaments are extremely limited, while still being too short to challenge the long hitters.

Fortunately length is not the only defence. Design, as exemplified by the best golf architects of today and yesteryear can dictate that there is only one way into a green and length is of no advantage if the entry is blocked. Many Clubs while not contending for major events have (and more will follow) carried out a strategic survey of the bunkering on their course using a skilled and reputable golf architect. Sadly, not all those using the title can be so qualified! Elimination of old bunkers, that no longer trap any golfer other than those who carry their own bunkers with them wherever they go, saves costs on upkeep and can be replaced where they will challenge the long hitters.

Tightening up a course by narrowing fairways where the longest drives reach has long been practised, but must be started well ahead of the date. I have no patience with top professionals who expect their drives to finish, however off line, with a perfect lie and grumble when they finish in rough that it is too severe. Admittedly, at the last Carnoustie Open some resolved the problem by finishing on adjacent fairways! Growing in rough needs long term planning and the last thing that we want is to stimulate the wrong kind of growth by using fertilisers. This is where knowledge and experience count. I have long maintained that to achieve perfect conditions for a Championship, the man in charge, i.e. the Course Manager, must have four attributes. Skill and experience with dedicated hard work are obvious, plus luck and the ability to accurately forecast weather conditions!

So, what special steps should Secretary/Managers take in preparing for a major event? My answer is very little. If you have a good head man, cherish and reward him and his team, brief him fully on what is required and when, explain any special requirements, and leave the rest to him. Few managers would dream of telling their catererss how to cook their greens so why do some feel it is incumbent on them to tell the head greenkeeper how to cook his? If you are unlucky and have a poor or disorganised head-greenkeeper, you have three options. Educate him, demote him or dismiss him (obeying statutory regulations, of course). Doing this job yourself is not an option. I have seen too many cases where astute if wrongly orientated greenkeepers have run circles around Green Committees and Secretaries – at least for a time. Some were re-educated, others left.

In my experience, the secret of success is to establish a team. Not just between direction and management, but by fully involving the members by telling them what is going on and why. In a like vein, never let your adviser attempt to act as a surrogate head greenkeeper. His job is to advise on long term policy and to detect problems before they become troublesome. It is certainly not to propound the heights of cut! Walking the course with the team (often the entire staff and talking things through, especially avoiding technobabble, will produce without hidden reservations an agreed long-term policy. Many Clubs have enhanced this by creating a ‘course management policy document’ with constitutional backing against changing whims covering all conceivable facets in principle but not in detail. It is certainly not the responsibility of anyone other than the Course Manager to lay down the law about heights of cut or Stimpmeter speeds. That implement is the tool of the devil, being sued by unqualified people to lay down the law, whereas its main value lies in checking conformity of speed, green to green.

Above all else, resist all proposals to tart up the course for the event. Remember that peaks are always preceded and followed by troughs. Why should the members have to suffer for several weeks before and after the event for the benefit of those playing the course for one day? It was the proud and justified claim of those top men in charge of our famous Open Championship links that they could take The Open at any time if the need arose

If a course is reckoned to be good enough to warrant hosting any event, then it needs no tarting up. By all means warmly welcome your guests, see that they are well entertained and sort out the administration, but do not try to paint the course green to impress the visitors (and viewers) nor do anything more than present it in a tidy, well groomed but natural way. That is just my view but it was one that prevailed for the 18 Open Championships, which with my team, I presented and in the same period fought promoters, television and the trade who took the opposite view for professional tournaments. Traditional standards demand vigorous and often unpopular support!