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Colby Norton
Natural Lines Golf
When the TV turns on to watch golf, some people expect to see the best players in the world playing on green grass. When a PGA Tour player steps on their playing surfaces for the week, do they ask the same thing?
I remember when I was watching the 2022 British Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews on my television with my family, and my mom said, “That course looks terrible, the grass is brown, why do the players have to play on that?” I then explained that the brown grass can be a good thing, especially with the Old Course and the undulations the ground possesses. That means the course is firm and the ball will run along the ground more, therefore using the contours of the natural ground as they were intended to be played. I then told her that the holes at the Old Course are where some of the greatest golf architects who have ever lived got their inspiration from. They used that inspiration and strategy on their courses in America to make some of the greatest courses in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPUDqjdsvBk
Once you are on the Final Round video from the 2022 Open, go to 10:48:30. Here you will get a good glimpse of the road hole, the color and playability of the turf, and Cameron Smith will show you one of the most clutch up-and-downs in Open history.
My mom, not being an avid golfer, then learned at that moment that maybe her expectations about seeing green grass when turning on the tv doesn’t have to be so high, because that doesn’t always mean the course is playing well depending on the golf course being shown. This is an expectation that a lot of avid golfers can change just by being told why a course is brown, and it can also save golf courses money since they don’t have to live up to the unrealistic expectation.
Look at Old Sconset Golf Course on Nantucket, with no irrigation in the fairways but beautiful, fast, rolling greens with an old school links style golf course. The clubhouse sits atop a hill right outside the 1st and 7th tees as well as overlooking the 18th green. Adirondack chairs sit atop the hill, while golfers sip their drinks and watch their friends or other players hit their approach shots to par 3’s or finish up their rounds on the devilish 9th green. A beautiful little golf shop, a small golf bar, lounge area, and porch which is all open to the public to enjoy. Not to mention, firm rolling fairways where players can land the ball 30 yards short and it will still run up to the old-style squared off greens. As long as you have an enjoyable and healthy culture like Sconset, with greens in good shape and a quality architecturally sound golf course, the people will come, just like they do to this 9-hole gem with a par of 33.
Old Sconsets' tees and greens have irrigation, while the fairways do not.
The end result is awesome playing conditions.
Scottie Scheffler, world number 1 golfer, has been outspoken about his interest in golf course architecture and his love for links golf. In a press conference before the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club, Scottie was talking about links golf overseas compared to golf in the U.S. “To me it’s a much more traditional style of golf, where you can tell that the game is invented over here because if you come out here with an older gentlemen who’s maybe a ten handicap and he can't really hit the ball very high, he can still play these golf courses because you can run the ball on the ground. No matter where you are, there is a shot to be played.”
He also discussed how he takes only his 60 degree wedge and 56 degree around the greens in the U.S, and playing links courses he will take his 60 degree all the way down to an 8 iron since he doesn’t have to deal with heavy rough and hitting flop shots all the time like there is in the U.S. “Over here I’d say there’s just more options, and it’s just a little bit of a different test than some of the tests we see at home”. Scottie has never said he doesn’t like the test of golf in the U.S, but he enjoys the fun battle between the player and the golf course like at the U.S Open.
Will an average recreational and amateur golfer enjoy thick rough green side like Scottie does? Most likely not, especially since Scottie even said nobody has perfected the thick rough, green side flop shot.
Scottie is also used to PGA Tour courses, with 10 of the 35 being played on TPC courses (courses that the PGA Tour owns and operates). The oldest of these courses being TPC Sawgrass, built in 1980. Of these TPC courses, especially TPC San Antonio, TPC River Highlands, and now TPC Sawgrass, they are perfectly green with very bold stripes on the fairways and greens. Growing up as a kid, I always thought that stripes looked very pretty and wanted to play golf courses that were green and had stripes. In reality, stripes have nothing to do with the contours of the course or how it plays, only with how it looks. These PGA Tour courses with stripes come with perfect playing conditions, deep rough, and lightning fast greens.
These are the types of courses PGA Tours like Scheffler get to play, and this is what the viewers see on their television and want to play in return, like I used to think as a kid. Some of the greatest golf holes in the world are so great not because of their green grass and stripes, but because of the strategy behind them, uniqueness, character, and playability. The TPC courses and other PGA Tour courses get very repetitive, and is maybe why Scottie loves going overseas to play links golf courses; because there is actual variety in the golf holes.
Let’s rewind back to the 2015 U.S Open at Chambers Bay. One of the biggest stories from the week were the best players in the world being disappointed in the USGA for the quality of the greens. The course was made up of fescue grass, even the greens. A very sustainable grass, but if it gets a lot of traffic, the grass starts to wear and tear. The results from this at the 2015 U.S Open were bumpy greens that were not rolling smooth and the ball wouldn’t roll on the intended lines that the players were playing. In 2018, the course re-sodded its greens to poa annua which is the prominent type of grass for putting surfaces in the Pacific Northwest. Now the greens roll a lot smoother while still keeping their firmness. Also note that in the 2015 U.S Open, the fairways are brown, firm, and roll forever, creating exciting golf for the golfers as well as the viewers. The course was intended for its contours to be used as a defense, and the fescue grass in the fairways allows for this to happen and the public can enjoy this playability similar to the courses in the British Isles.
Although there were many complaints about the greens at the U.S Open, all the players still had to play the same golf course, which still led to an exciting finish with the top players in the game at the time: Dustin Johnson (7th in the OWGR), Jordan Spieth (2nd), Louis Oosthuizen (12th) and many other of the top 20 players in the world finishing in the top 20 like Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott, to name a few. An exciting finish that came to the end put the murmurs about the greens in the review mirror, although not completely, as Dustin Johnson lost the tournament on a 3 putt par on 18, missing a 3 footer on the last.
This tournament proves that although the green may have been rolling in unfair directions, the course still highlighted some of the best players in the world. Chambers Bay is an example that if you save smooth greens, the golfer will be happy. It does not matter if the fairways are brown, for that allows professionals and amateurs to use the contours of the ground as they were intended to be, whether it’s to the advantage of the player or for defense of the course. Chambers Bay being public exposes all players to the playability of firm, rolling turf, that is sustainable and doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, while now having smooth rolling greens. Is this considered the ideal golf playing conditions? From a pros perspective, it looks like it is. And from an amateur's perspective, especially in the U.S, they get to use the ground game that they are not used to, they get exposed to playability similar to those in the British Isles. More recreational golfers need to be exposed to this type of golf to show what ideal playing conditions really are. It doesn’t always mean green grass. It’s sustainable, and most of all, fun while showing the traditional side of the game of golf.
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