The Fescue Math at Chambers Bay
I know nothing about how to play
golf, neither tourney nor links,
yet I'll watch the National Open which will start Thursday
on a course out west called Chambers Bay
although some experts say it stinks
because it's long and quite hilly
and totally lined with fescue,
a grass on on which balls at times slide willy nilly
requiring both luck as well as considerable skill to rescue.
So even if a golfer has muscles galore
which he usually hustles to explore
instead he may have often to use his putter
while stifling any impulse to mutter,
and the outcome may remain in doubt
until the gallery's final shout.
But if golf is such a mental game, as they say,
then why don't they just teach IBM's Watson to play?
HZL
6/16/15
In the news
(including these excerpts))
He was adamant about choosing fine-leaved fescue — arguably the best grass for links golf.
And Jones didn’t want to just make fescue the tall, wispy rough on the course. He wanted the whole Scottish links-style course to bloom in it, including fairways and greens.
“Fine fescue only thrives in a maritime climate as a turf grass — like here in the Pacific Northwest,” said Jones, who has designed more than 230 courses on six continents. “We had a sandy site. It is a droughty grass. That is why it turns colors in the summer, but it is playable.
“Finally, as a player, it allows for the links game — the bump-and-run shots, and the rollout shots — to react like it is on a trampoline. Your clubface kind of bounces through the shot. And you don’t take big divots, but little divots. You cannot put much spin on it like you can on a softer grass. Fescue is hard, like hitting off a table.”
Over in the United Kingdom, particularly in the British Isles, that type of surface for fast-and-firm conditions is referred to as “fine turf” — made up primarily of thin-bladed, deep-rooted, water-and-salt- resistent fine fescue and bent grasses.
.. one day while playing golf at the Oregon resort, a buddy pulled out his putter — for a shot from 170 yards away from the green.
“Try doing that on rye grass or blue grass,” Johnson said.
The problem with fescue care, especially back in the early 2000s, was there wasn’t much available literature on the topic. Starting in 2006, Johnson and a few of his staff members started attending fescue grass conferences in England to learn about it.
While it is not self-sustainable in all but a few maritime climates around the world, fine fescue does not require a lot of water or fertilizer — which is vital for cutting down maintenance costs.
But in the end, isn’t it about if good golf can be played on it?
England’s Paul Casey said for quality links golf, fine fescue has to be the preferred surface.
“Fescue naturally skids, and rolls,” Casey said. “It is awesome. It is like carpet.”
USGA Director Mike Davis said he thinks it will be a wonderful grass on which to stage this year’s national open.
“It’s a great grass to play golf on because it doesn’t have any tackiness to it. It’s a thin blade of grass ... so when the ball hits it, where a lot of grasses will grab it, on fescue, it skids,” Davis said. “And what that means is, when you’re playing golf, you’ve got to think about what happens when your ball hits it — where it’s going to bounce to and roll to.”
Todd Milles: 253-597-8442 todd.milles@thenewstribune.com @ManyHatsMilles
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Mathematics In Golf |
By Michael Zuo on 7 June 2011
(Partial)Transcript of Mathematics In Golf
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