Courtesy of LeeH from another thread;
David Pepper, chairman of the R&A’s championship committee, and in charge of setting up the course, says: "We want to present Muirfield in a true and traditional way. That means we want the course to be fast-running. It should look more straw-coloured than green, even to the extent that the putting surfaces don’t look green at all."
Good news. With the exception of St Andrews in 2000, Open venues over the past 15 years or so have been too soft, and the greens too slow. "Since pop-up sprinklers came in, they have inevitably been used too much," admits Pepper. "Whoever has his finger on the trigger is always tempted to pull.
"Of course, only one Open venue does not have pop-up sprinklers, and that is Muirfield. The only fear we always have, come July, is that if the greens are too fast and we get a high wind, the balls may start moving on the greens. Having to suspend play for that reason is always very embarrassing, so we want to avoid that.
"That doesn’t mean that we can’t have firm fairways and greens. The intention is that the ball should be bouncing and running - and it will be, if we get the right weather leading up to the championship."
Things are well under way on that front. On Monday, when the press pack were set loose on the course - some are still out there, probably - it was all but impossible to make a pitch mark on the firm greens. Then there is the rough, the stuff which caused so much controversy at Carnoustie in ’99. But not this time, if Pepper has his way. And he will.
"As far as the rough goes, I want it to be generally out of play. There are degrees of rough, and we want two cuts of rough before the stuff that has barely been touched. There will be three yards of what I call ‘very semi’, then three yards of stuff that won’t have been cut for maybe eight weeks beforehand. That will be the sort of long, wispy grass in which you can see the ball easily, but will grab the club. Then, of course, you’re into the real hay.
"Six yards is enough, I think. If a well-struck shot hits the fairway, it won’t reach the really thick stuff. A player’s ball should only finish in it if he has hit it in there in the first place. Of all the golf course’s defences, rough comes right at the bottom of my list of priorities. If you have stringent bunkering - which you certainly have at Muirfield - intelligent pin positions, fast greens and a bit of wind, you have no real need for rough at all."
Around the greens, it will be a similar story. Pepper’s vision is to leave players with choices on their chips. To that end, a ball bouncing off a green will continue to roll a few yards away from the putting surface.
"My philosophy around the greens is similar to that of the fairways," Pepper stresses. "Any time a green is raised, the banks will be shaved so that the ball always runs to the bottom of the slope. I never want to see it sticking halfway. There is no easier pitch shot than the one from halfway up the bank."
But the last words belong to Dawson, whose profound knowledge of links golf - proper golf, unlike the one-dimensional stuff too often seen in the US - and how it should be played augurs well for the future.
"I think the essence of links golf is that there is always a side of the fairway into which you must hit your drive in order to gain the most advantageous position for your approach," he maintains. "If you don’t hit it there, on most holes you will still have a shot - but a much more difficult one. It’s a half-shot difference. And the art of links golf is saving those half-shots all the way round.
"I’d like to see the course very firm and browning off nicely with the balls running. As for the greens, I’d like to see them receptive to a well-struck shot from the fairway, but not receptive to a poorly-struck shot from the fairway or a shot from the rough."
Hmmm....I'm not quite sure that it's worked out as planned. :-/