Course conditions | Fall 2015
G olf D esign – A cres to M illimeters BY PAUL ALBANESE, ASGCA
Even though The Masters is played on a hallowed golf landscape that is over hundreds of acres in size, the game still comes down to centimeters, and even millimeters. The 15th hole at Augusta National, a great and exciting hole built on acres of land, can change in strategy and excitement based on a change of only a few millimeters. This change is related to the height of turf cut in the front of the green. In years past, the turf height in this area was only a few millimeters lower, which had made all the difference in the playability and challenge of this hole. Golfers playing this hole in the past, if they came up short of the green surface, would roll back into the water, creating a penalty, and a nerve racking shot back over the water. In other years, shots that came up short, and started to roll back, stopped short of the watery grave. Once golfers made this realization, they did not fear attempting to go for the green in two shots. Without fear, golfers are left with fewer choices, and with fewer choices, the less interesting the hole. So, these few millimeters of turf height at the front of the 15th green have large design strategy ramifications. The greens at Augusta, notorious for their speed in combination with their contours, are all dependent upon millimeters. By simply raising the height of cut by only a few millimeters, the entire character of the golf course will change. Tiger Woods noted to the press after his three putt on the 11th hole this year, that he played his mishit putt based on his past knowledge of the hole – prior to the green surface being rebuilt. And, to the naked eye, the change of the slope of this surface was only centimeters. Yet, it caused one of the greatest golfers at the time to make an ill-timed bogey. Millimeters and centimeters are as critical to the design of a golf course as are yards and acres. For this reason, when we design a golf course, we spend a lot of time working to ensure the golf greens are graded to within tenths of an inch of the desired slope and grade. A common mistake made by novice golf course builders is that they will “eyeball” the final grade of the green
surface, believing it seemed to be fine. Often, greens built without checking the specific tenths of an inch of slope will either be unplayable (too much slope) or not drain well (too flat). Small dimensions are also related to a story about the origin of the game. It is commonly believed the small diameter of the golf hole was determined by the size of a drainpipe that was randomly selected by the first golfers on the links land of Scotland. Was there any good rationale or reason for the golf hole to be that diameter? I have always wondered how the whole game of golf may have been altered had those golfers simply utilized a little bigger pipe for the hole, such as a 6 or 8 inch diameter? Would these few inches have changed the game dramatically? Would the game have been more popular? Or less? A few inches may have changed the course of golf history. Golf is great sport because the ground on which it is played combines both expansiveness and compactness. This combination of scales, large and small, is why golfers are intrigued and the game is so popular worldwide. There is nothing quite as interesting as standing on a green alongside a vast and imperceptibly sublime ocean, yet needing to gently navigate a short putt that depends only on centimeters. This dichotomy of scale creates a feeling like no other, in any other sport. Which makes golf unique. Paul Albanese, ASGCA is a principal with Albanese & Lutzke, Golf Course Architects/ Construction Managers. They have an office in Plymouth, Michigan and are currently working on golf course projects in many countries.
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