The newest green at TPC Sawgrass? A year ago it was a lake

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The guys who began on 10, half the sector on Thursday and the opposite half on Friday, had been having the time of their lives as they waited to play their first pictures of the day. They had been on among the best greens on the property, at least when it comes to the well being and high quality of the turf, plus its pleasing form. The new apply green, simply down a wee hill from the tenth tee. A year ago, it was a lake.

“You could call it a lake,” Jeff Plotts was saying late Thursday afternoon. Plotts, native son of Stone Mountain, Ga., is in control of something that grows at TPC Sawgrass, and a workers of about 100 individuals who flip his imaginative and prescient into a actuality. “A lake, a swamp, something like that,” Plotts stated. “It could get smelly, certain times of year. Only ‘bout four, five feet deep at its deepest.”

But that was then. That lake — so 2023! This is now: 72 gamers and 72 caddies, strolling throughout this attractive green lined by pale TifEagle Bermuda grass on their approach from the ninth green to the tenth tee, 72 gamers, getting in some last-minute placing as they cooled their jets to start their rounds.

Before the little swamp was stuffed with a 100 or way more bulldozer a great deal of grime from mounds that Plotts and his individuals by no means preferred, there was a tiny (about 2,000 sq. ft) apply placing green behind the tenth tee. You’d see three gamers and three caddies and it was “cramped,” in Plotts’ estimation. One golfer would usually be in one other’s approach. Errant apply putts would hit the heel of some unsuspecting participant’s shoe and bounce off it like a useless pinball flipper. Is that any method to put together for one in every of golf’s largest tournaments? Survey says no. Jeff Plotts says no.

The new green is about 6,000 sq. ft. It was designed, with some committee oversight, by the PGA Tour’s in-house course architect, Steve Wenzloff. It’s a basic, a magnificence, with 5 holes, good motion in some locations, whereas semi-flat in others. It’s attractive in its simplicity.

Rhetorical query: Would it be asking an excessive amount of for contemporary architects to construct greens alongside these traces? Where is it written that good greens ought to appear to be a bunny slope at a New England ski resort? I imply sure, positive, such greens are cool and enjoyable, or they are often, however not when green speeds get north of 12.

“We have a lot of players who live near here, Korn Ferry players who come here to practice,” Plotts stated. By title, he’s the director of golf course upkeep at TPC Sawgrass. His accent is pure nation. His diploma is from the University of Georgia. “In time, I think you’re going to find that this is where a lot of guys will want to come and practice, because it’s quiet and sort of secluded.” A good place to get your placing reps in.

Plotts admires how, at Augusta National, membership chairmen are without end making “improvements” (membership jargon) to the course and membership, within the 51 weeks a year when the Masters is just not being performed. But when gamers and followers and others return for the event, nothing new is screaming at you. That’s an inspiration for Plotts at TPC Sawgrass, aka the Stadium Course.

Fanny Sunesson, Nick Faldo’s former caddie who now does some work some as a European TV golf analyst, paid Plotts the final word praise the opposite day, speaking about a number of the discreet modifications Plotts and his staff made to the course: Some issues are completely different this year; the course extra pleasing to the attention and it performs higher — however what precisely is completely different, I can’t fairly say.

You made the person’s day, Ms. Sunesson!

During his Wednesday apply spherical, Cam Davis of Australia was making the stroll from 9 tee to 10 tee and he was completely sure that he was strolling throughout a apply green that had been a lake. Right? He wasn’t sure. Music!

Plotts is a critical pupil of the course’s architect, Pete Dye. There’s not a tree or a plant on the course he can’t determine from a distance. Ditto for the birds above the course, the animals on it, the fish in its murky ponds, dyed black to look deeper and extra menacing than they may in any other case seem. (“That what part of Pete’s genius,” Plotts stated. That is, have issues look a method and play one other.) Sometimes, sky and sea and earth get all blended up. He described an osprey and an eagle flying over the primary fairway not lengthy ago, in a dogfight over a tilapia. One of the birds dropped the fish on the green. A course employee walked over to it.

“It’s alive, boss,” the person stated.

“Throw it in the lake!” Plotts stated.

Throw it within the lake when you can. Lakes come and lakes go. The gamers and the caddies now stroll from 9 to 10 and by no means set foot on a cart path. Plotts watched the threesome of Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman and Collin Morikawa stroll on by, over the brand new greatest green at TPC Sawgrass. The boss of all moss was happy.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your feedback at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com

Michael Bamberger

Golf.com Contributor

Michael Bamberger writes for GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. Before that, he spent almost 23 years as senior author for Sports Illustrated. After school, he labored as a newspaper reporter, first for the (Martha’s) Vineyard Gazette, later for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has written a number of books about golf and different topics, the latest of which is The Second Life of Tiger Woods. His journal work has been featured in a number of editions of The Best American Sports Writing. He holds a U.S. patent on The E-Club, a utility golf membership. In 2016, he was given the Donald Ross Award by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the group’s highest honor.