"Atlanta Athletic Club’s formula of grasses will give rise to many new possibilities."

/
I think the suggestion in Ron Whitten's story on AAC's new turf about possible new major venues was a little exaggerated (Talking Stick and Whisper Rock?), but there is great importance in what figures to be the relentless talk about Atlanta Athletic Club's Champion Ultradwarf Bermuda greens this week (beats talking about the architecture). Hopefully the talk will turn to considering these grasses for more courses in warm climates where bent greens are needlessly installed.
Read More

Players Praising Royal St. George's, R&A

/
I've noticed a recurring theme in a few stories about the course: the R&A addressed complaints by widening fairways and keeping the rough tame. Uh, let's give credit where credit is due: the Golf Gods have kept Sandwich dry and therefore, at least based on the player comments I could find, the course is going to present itself well thanks to the lack of tall grass lining the fairways that has become an R&A staple to slow down swelling driving distances.
Read More

Dawson: Today's Higher Trajectory Means More Extreme Bounces!?

/
The beautiful undulations on the 17th fairway at Royal St. George's. (click to enlarge)John Huggan defends Royal St. George's but shares this peculiar theory of R&A in-house course designer Executive Secretary Peter Dawson, talking about the many harsh bounces found at Sandwich in 2003 and how the R&A has widened out the course since then to address player complaints.
Read More

"A fairway to go: some some radical changes to help make what's good into something great."

/
After the latest quibbling over Wentworth continued the bickering over a seemingly endless string of questionable championship setups and redesigns, John Huggan looked at some of the more offensive tweakings and offers a few thoughts on how to get the holes in question back to some semblance of respectability.
Read More

NCAA May Madness: Rough Obsession Returns

/

Northwestern coach and Luke Donald instructor Pat Goss posted this image from the NCAA Men's Golf Championship's today:

Well-informed sources say these signs were posted last year as well, which means the NCAA pulls these out of storage to ship to the NCAA's. All to preserve the integrity of the "rough."

Good to know the NCAA brings its point-missing ways to golf, too.