The greens at Colonial Country Club are expected to be firm and fast this week. (Martin/Getty Images)

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Course preparation is all about balance for Scott Ebers, which may explain why Colonial Country Club’s superintendent isn’t all that concerned that rough isn’t thriving or uniform at this week’s Crowne Plaza Invitational.

As with other recent stops, the unusually cool spring has hindered bermudagrass growth at the longest-tenured regular stop on the PGA TOUR. But what’s troublesome for bermuda has been a boon for the bentgrass greens.

“That’s always one of the challenges at a mixed-grass golf course like we are,” Ebers said. “We’re trying to keep the bentgrass happy, but as it gets warmer the bermudagrass gets happy.

“Rarely, if ever, are they both wonderful. There’s a range in there where one is going one direction and the other is going the other way. But the cool spring really helped the greens out. They had a very good start because it’s been cooler.”

It’s far better, Ebers said, than some editions of the Invitational where the thermometer approached 100 degrees and crews were challenged to keep the greens from wilting.

“We’ve had some really rough ones,” he said, “where we’ve had to really work.”

With optimum growing conditions for the past 10 days, Colonial’s rough is expected to reach the prescribed 3 inches in many areas. In general, though, the median length is likely to be about a half-inch lower.

In addition to the cool spring, other factors come into play such as shade, high traffic and other grasses that have mixed in with the bermuda over the course of decades.

“It’s kind of a hodgepodge,” Ebers said. “But I don’t think it’s going to be something where players say, ‘My gosh, there’s absolutely no rough at all.’ Like most years, there’s a little rub of the green in where you miss and what kind of rough you find.”

No matter what the conditions, he added, the byproduct ends up being something of a mixed bag. Shorter rough would encourage low scoring – but firmer greens could neutralize that to a certain extent.

The strong thunderstorms that brought deadly tornadoes to Oklahoma are forecast to reach down into Texas today, so it could be an anxious day for Ebers and his men. If they can avoid damage, the rest of the week calls only for isolated storms during Thursday’s opening round.

Dicky Pride hits his tee shot on the par-4 18th in 2012. (Carroll/Getty Images)

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Like his colleagues at the PGA TOUR’s previous two stops, Rusty Wilson had plenty of reason to be concerned two weeks ago about what Mother Nature had given him in the days leading up to his event.

Fortunately for the TPC Four Seasons superintendent, the added time was on his side.

“We kind of turned the corner in the last 10 days,” Wilson said during a break from preparations for this week’s HP Byron Nelson Championship. “It’s a heck of a lot better.”

Two weeks of temperatures in the 80s finally kicked the bermudagrass into growing mode, allowing TPC Four Seasons to challenge players with its usual 2 ¼ inches of rough.

As April ended, though, Wilson was still looking at lows dropping into the 30s. “Those little 30-degree days kind of knocked us back for a bit,” Wilson said, “But we came back.”

Hey, it was far better than the cold weather that impacted Quail Hollow's greens or the heavy rain that left crews scrambling to ready TPC Sawgrass at THE PLAYERS Championship.

Though the tournament’s mid-May date negates any need for overseed, this year’s cold spring made it a closer call than usual. Members and hotel guests have been restricted to cart paths since February, and Wilson kept all machinery off the turf during the last cold snap.

“It’s a young plant that’s emerged out of winter,” Wilson said, “So you’ve just got to be real careful.”
 
Work crews focused on other aspects around the perimeter during the snap, then resumed their normal schedule once temperatures moved back into the 70s.
 
“We’re positioned very well to have a very successful tournament with no issues,” Wilson said. “The rough has come on strong, so that concern we had two weeks ago is not there anymore. And we’ve still got two days of growth to go.”

Plans called for topping off the rough again at 2 ¼ inches Tuesday afternoon, then letting the PGA TOUR’s agronomy staff make the call on any further mowing. More than likely, it’ll go untouched the rest of the week.

Though storms could hamper Wednesday’s pro-am, the tournament schedule should be set for optimal conditions until the final round. Sunday’s forecast currently calls for a 20 percent chance of rain.

Warm temperatures helped the overseed areas come in quite well at Redstone. (Cohen/Getty Images)

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

The thermometer hit 90 degrees in some of Houston’s northern suburbs early last week, breaking a 106-year-old record for the date.

That was last week. On Tuesday, practice rounds for the Shell Houston Open were held up by a frost delay. “It’s just been a weird year in Houston,” said Randy Samoff, Redstone Golf Club’s superintendent.

Timing is everything, though. And if Redstone was destined to face such extremes in such short order, at least Mother Nature got the sequence right.

Before last week’s hot spell, the overseed on Redstone’s Tournament course had been in a holding pattern. The high temperatures jolted the ryegrass back into a growth mode, and this week’s cooling pattern will help keep conditions firm and fast.

“Everything came together to get the course ready,” Samoff said. “Speeds are going to be right where we want them to be. We’re not going to struggle to get to those ranges. We had the warmth, then a little chill just at the right time.”

Speed is important at Redstone, where Samoff and his crews have earned praise for their ability to simulate conditions that Masters participants might expect at Augusta National. Wide fairways give way to rough of no more than 1 ¼ inches, and short grass around the greens funnel rolloffs into chipping areas.

“It’s not too much of a transition from what we try to do all year long,” Samoff said.

But a dry winter and cooler-than-usual temperatures kept the overseed from coming in as densely as usual. Despite a fair amount of hand-watering and fertilizing, it wasn’t until temperatures warmed up that the turf filled in.

“Until the temperatures get to that level,” Samoff said, “it’s just not going to come.”

Minor tweaks to Redstone’s final three holes should improve viewing for fans in attendance, though none are expected to greatly impact play.

Spectator mounds were added behind the greens at Nos. 17 and 18, raising the surface as much as 6 feet for better viewing. Rolloff areas just behind the putting surface were left intact, with the ground raised behind them.

The par-3 16th, meanwhile, will use a different set of tees to accommodate new footbridges designed to improve spectator traffic. The hole now measures 188 yards, a reduction of 16 yards.

Bunker play should be easier this year at Bay Hill but don't expect the course to be a pushover. (Cannon/Getty Images)

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM contributor

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Take heart, pros. A set of kinder, gentler bunkers awaits stray shots at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. Even so, they’re still likely to offer more hazard than many other PGA TOUR stops.

“We’re making some inroads,” said Matt Beaver, superintendent at Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge. “Are they perfect? No. But we’ve really tried to manage how much sand we’ve got up in the [bunker] faces and tried to make it a little bit better.”

Bay Hill’s soft sand might be the most lingering dilemma from the course’s 2009 renovation, as plugged lies have created challenging shots in the past two Invitationals. In a few cases, shots splashed so deeply that players couldn’t identify their balls without brushing sand aside.

Course officials tried keeping the sand moister last year, but two days of 90-degree temperatures and warm winds negated their efforts.

“We want it to be fair,” Beaver said. “We don’t want it buried all the way around. We’re trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Beaver and his crew meticulously checked depths in every bunker this winter. Several were targeted for sand removal, including two front bunkers on No.10 and others on Nos. 7 and 12.

“We worried more about the front bunkers than bunkers back of the green,” he said. “The likelihood of you hitting it in the face of a back bunker isn’t nearly as high as it is in those front bunkers.

“I’m sure we’ll see some [plugged lies] this week. But we’re really trying to make sure it gets better every year.”

Elsewhere around Arnie’s Place, a warm winter has helped create some of the best conditions in recent memory. Even with Bay Hill’s active membership play, the course is getting high marks from pros.

Scattered thunderstorms are in the forecast for most of the week, which could make Bay Hill’s 3 1/2-inch rough even more punitive. The probability of storms ramps up to 60 percent on Sunday, which could force a shift in tee times.

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM contributor

One year after tweaks to the Copperhead course’s last two greens helped bring the Tampa Bay Championship its first playoff – and a chorus of player complaints – the greens have reverted to something closer to their previous state.

“There was too much movement on the greens,” said Ryan Stewart, Innisbrook Resort’s course superintendent. “Trying to read putts, there was just an unbelievable amount of movement.”

Nos. 17 and 18 are part of the Copperhead’s finishing “Snake Pit,” which last year ranked No. 4 among the PGA TOUR’s most difficult three-hole closing stretches. But in trying to add new pin placements and toughen up some flatter areas, the pendulum swung.

In adding a new front-left pin position at No. 18, the loss of rough there kicked many approach shots toward the grandstand. The Sunday flag wasn’t quite so severe, but nonetheless taxing on the four-man playoff.

Jim Furyk, Robert Garrigus and Sang-Moon Bae couldn’t get close to the hole, and Luke Donald won by sinking a 10-foot birdie putt.

“Donald got a little lucky on his [approach],” Stewart said. “It just stopped dead. Those greens are tough enough as it is.”

After last year’s event, a TOUR architect was called out to soften the most severe undulations. The 18th green also was scaled back to its original dimensions.

As was the case at PGA National and TPC Blue Monster at Trump Doral, the mild winter in Florida means players will find lusher conditions for this week’s event. Not only is the winter ryegrass healthy, the underlying layer of Bermuda is still growing.

“We’ve got the best of both worlds,” Stewart said. “With both grasses being healthy and strong, it helps us out this year. I’d say the course overall looks really good.”

Stewart said his biggest challenge is on the greens, where the poa trivialis also is thriving in warm conditions. Too much leafiness, he said, threatens to slow the accustomed putting speeds.

Rain is in Tuesday’s forecast, after which sunshine and gradually warming temperatures will rule the weekend. An 80-degree day is forecast for Sunday’s final round.

Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM contributor

Compared with all the weather vagaries that beleaguered the West Coast Swing this year, a warm winter in Florida has made for prime growing conditions – and fewer headaches on those in charge.

“I’d rather have it too warm than too cold, especially in South Florida,” said Lukus Harvey, director of agronomy at PGA National Resort, site of this week’s Honda Classic.

“It just makes the grass grow a little more. We’ve just got to use some growth regulators and mow a little more, that’s all.”

Since becoming the Honda’s new home in 2007, the Champion course has rivaled Bay Hill as the toughest on the Florida Swing. It ranked No. 11 on the PGA TOUR’s list a year ago, and this week’s setup figures to be no less demanding.

The warm climate, in fact, has created a surface in which the summer bermudagrass has kept growing while the overseed has taken hold. Growth regulators also have helped create a tighter surface.

With 2 ½ inches of rain falling in the past two weeks, Harvey has turned off the sprinklers to let the course get as fast and firm as possible before Rory McIlroy defends his title.

“The bermuda gives us a bit of a firmer surface in the fairway,” he said. “And it allows us to really cut the water back for competitive rounds. We’ll go to only hand-watering with the hoses.”

Several bunkers have new sand this year, following a record wet summer that dropped nearly 40 ½ inches of rain on Palm Beach County. Harvey estimated a dozen bunkers got an infusion, particularly around the closing stretch that includes the famed “Bear Trap.”

The bunker behind the par-3 15th green got specific attention, as did the bunker behind No. 17 and the half-dozen bunkers that frame the approach at No. 18.

“We’re going to hand-water all the bunker faces all week long,” Harvey said, “just to firm them up and try to prevent the fried-egg lie.”

After all those high temperatures this winter – including near-record marks last weekend – the thermometer is slated to dip to some of the season’s lowest once the tournament begins. Saturday’s high is forecast to reach just 62 degrees, with Sunday topping out at 65.

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Thanks to a change on the Torrey Pines maintenance calendar, this week’s Farmers Insurance Open can expect its most consistent terrain in several years.

In years past, the two Torrey Pines layouts were first on the overseeding schedule at the five courses operated by the City of San Diego. That tended to leave the new ryegrass thin in spots, unable to take root properly in the warmer days of late September and October.

City officials switche the schedule last fall at the PGA TOUR’s request, moving Torrey Pines to the end of the schedule. By seeding in mid-October, it has produced a lusher ryegrass.

“That small adjustment in the program made a big difference,” said Jay Sporl, the PGA TOUR agronomist in charge of monitoring Torrey Pines’ setup.

Both courses are a mix of kikuyu and bermudagrass in the summer. If the warm Santa Ana winds blow from inland, the higher temperatures make it difficult for the overseed to compete with the summer grasses.

While the ryegrass would take hold in shady parts of the course, sunnier spots would provide less opportunity.

“The warm-season grasses wake up and crowd out the juvenile ryegrass,” Sporl said. “By virtue of going later in the season, we caught cooler weather that makes the warm-season grasses more dormant. Now we’ve got a more consistent overseed.”

Conditions still aren’t quite ideal, with cold temperatures over the Christmas holidays slowing development of the rough. Sporl said the rough currently measures 3 inches, about a half-inch shy of their target.

“I’d have to say the conditions here are as good as they’ve been in many years,” Sporl said. Greens on the South course are running near 12 1/2 on the Stimpmeter, with the North holding at 10 1/2 to account for the sharper contours on its putting surfaces.

The South course also will have new sand in its bunkers, installed about four months ago. Extra moisture is being applied this week in an attempt to keep fluffiness down.

“But keep in mind -- they are hazards,” Sporl said with a laugh. “In this case, I’d advise (players) to stay clear of the bunkers.”

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Though frost delays bring no joy for anyone, they are generally accepted as part of desert golf -- as much a part of the winter landscape as the cactus and crisp afternoon air.

There does come a point of absurdity, though, and PGA West’s Dean Miller suggests this winter has been flirting with it. As the iconic resort gets ready for this week’s Humana Challenge, its director of agronomy estimates 25 of the past 30 days have been hit with frost delays.

“Usually we get a few stretches of three or four days where we see frost,” Miller said. “This one just kind of hit and stayed with us the whole time.”

And not just minor inconveniences, either. Some days, tee times have been delayed by as much as three hours. Imagine the backlog if the Humana’s 156 entrants and their amateur partners are left cooling their jets for that long.

And did we mention that most of California was hit with record lows last weekend?

“Obviously, you wish for sunnier days,” said Miller, who has been applying extra fertilizer to the Palmer Private and Nicklaus Private courses in hopes of kick-starting an overseeding of ryegrass that has been slow to grow in. La Quinta Country Club is the third course in this week’s pro-am rotation.

Miller acknowledges that the rough won’t be as thick as most years, and the courses may look a little browner to the TV viewer.

Even so, it’s a better alternative than last year’s Saturday high winds, when hospitality tents were knocked down and a huge scoreboard blown into a lake. The pro-am was called after 36 holes, halting former president Bill Clinton’s round with Greg Norman after nine holes, and pros faced a long Sunday.

“We had some real strong gusts that caught everyone off-guard,” Miller recalled. “We really weren’t prepared for that.”

Forecasts for the rest of the week call for highs in the low to mid-70s, with lows dipping down into the mid-40s. With any luck, that’ll keep the frost away for the Humana’s duration.

By Jeff Shain, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

To the delight of PGA TOUR fans -- and the 20 players jetting over from Kapalua -- two factors immediately stand out about this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii.

Winds at Waialae Country Club aren’t forecast anywhere near as relentless as what put the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on hold for three days. And even if gusts blow stronger than expected, chances are slim that a ball would roll off the green.

“We don’t have all that undulation,” said Dave Nakama, in his 13th year as Waialae’s superintendent.

“Of course, we were talking about 50 mile-an-hour gusts (at Kapalua). The ball will still move a little, but I don’t think it’ll blow off the greens.”

Waialae, on Honolulu’s eastern outskirts, lies in stark contrast in terrain to Kapalua’s mountainside layout on Maui. And though the two are separated by just a 20-minute flight, they don’t often share the same weather.

“We’re in the middle of an ocean and each (island has) little microclimates, unless there’s some big storm that affects the whole state,” Nakama said. “It’s not unusual to have rain on one side of the island but not on the other.”

For the record, Nakama said, Waialae has taken about a half-inch of rain in the past week -- “actually about perfect” to keep the turf green but provide competitors with firm fairways and putting surfaces.

Other than thicker rough, Waialae’s setup for the Sony Open in Hawaii isn’t much different from what members see the rest of the year. And even the rough, Nakama said, has been scaled back over recent years.

Perhaps five years ago, rough of 3 ½ inches awaited those who strayed from Waialae’s narrow fairways. This year’s orders are for 2-inch rough, with an eye on giving players options other than to bump the ball back into the fairway.

“They run the chance of hitting flyers,” Nakama said, “but they want players to go after the green.”

A wind switch also could come into play on the weekend. Trade winds from the north are forecast for Thursday and Friday, turning into southeasterly “Kona winds” starting with Saturday’s round.

By David McPherson, PGATOUR.COM contributor

As the cliché goes, the “third time’s a charm.”

Berry Collett relates to this philosophy. This year marks the third year Sea Island Golf Club has hosted The McGladrey Classic, and the director of golf maintenance, who in addition to the tournament course oversees four properties, says preparing for the TOUR’s arrival this year was a breeze.

“The first year we were in the dark a bit … so it definitely gets a lot easier,” Collett said. “We get better at it each year and know what to do a little bit more. We also learn from our mistakes … we are actually having a little bit of fun now!.”

Water, and the lack thereof, was one of the major challenges Collett’s crew faced getting the course set up this year.

“We were really dry in the summer and then August and September we started to get a lot of rain,” he explained. “Being on the coast, we have a lot of sodium and salts in our irrigation water and we weren’t draining very well. When we were in a drought we were watering all summer, so we had some challenges with a couple of our fairways, but they are back ready to go now.

“It’s always weather. Knock on wood, it’s about 70 degrees today and we’ve dodged the rain so far, so we are getting firm.”

Staying within the approved budget and still making sure all the preparations are done prior to the TOUR arriving is another constant challenge. “There is always stuff you want to do and you can’t do," Collett said. "Being a resort course is also a challenge since we never close.”

The course only closes at 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, the weekend prior to the event. To keep the greens firm and fast, Collett’s crew is often on the course at 4:30 a.m. to verticut the putting surfaces ahead of play two or three times. 

Prior to last year’s tournament, several course changes were made -- such as sharpening the edges of the bunkers -- but not much was altered this year. The back tee on No. 6 was enlarged to give players another option since last year this tee was only used for one of the rounds.

With two days to the first round, Collett is excited; it’s all systems go.

“From green to tee, I feel really good about the weather,” he said. “We had our last bit of rain last week, so we’ve been able to measure the water levels on the greens. They are getting firm and the fairways are also firm. Last year we got pounded with rain on Wednesday. This year we’ve been dry for the last week.

“The weather has been real good for us and we have not had a lot of other obstacles … the good Lord has been taking care of us.”