GolfClubAtlas.com > Golf Course Architecture
Turtle Back Greens
Scott Witter:
At Pinehurst #2 it has been written that the greens have evolved into the present 'Turtle Back/convex' contours through years and years of topdressing.
Can someone please tell me why I haven't seen this exaggerated physical change on any other greens that have also undergone similar topdressing programs? Because I was fortunate to spend many years in greenskeeping before I became an architect, I look for certain physical changes in a golf course and how it has affected design and playability, but in all my years and travels, I have never seen or heard of anything this radical. What am I missing?
paul cowley:
Scott...If I am not mistaken the exaggerated greens are not a result of years of top dressing but an elevation mistake when trying to tie in the greens previously recorded contours during a conversion to a USGA type green....as I understand they transferred the contours back atop the old elevations, which raised the greens 12" or so, and then tied in these new elevations without a compensating rise in the green surrounds ....hence the somewhat radical slopes in places.
....my info needs further confirmation as I sometimes dream things and believe them to be true, but I think the foregoing is correct.
Scott Witter:
Paul:
I can see this being entirely possible and plauseable, (though I also find this hard to believe with the thought in mind that whomever was doing this work would have been much more careful to monitor and maintain the same characteristics that were there originally!) but as you say, I too will wait to see if any others have comments about their history and this profound change.
Thanks.
Gary_Mahanay:
Scott,
I believe that it was Pete Dye that made the comment on the topdressing and changing the character of the greens. He said that he lived close to Pinehurst in the late 1940s and that he knew Donald Ross and played the #2 course all the time and that they are very different now because of all the topdressing.
That course should have been one of the more photographed places back in the old days. Don't know how they could have gotten 12 to 16 inches higher in greens elevation changing to a USGA spec type green.
Gary
Gary_Mahanay:
Scott,
The old Met-o-matic topdressers that they may have used could sure put out a very large amount of sand if not adjusted correctly. Don't know if they were into light topdressing back in those days. But, I'm like you. Why don't you hear or see this on a lot of our older courses?
Gary
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