Southern Hills bunkers

[cabinessence]

I want to give a HUGE thumbs up for the grainy sand at Southern Hills. Those poor babies, they can't just slam it out of every bunker with a bunch of spin. Let's see more of the same.

[MGP]

That's pretty common for the courses here in the midwest/central plains. Most of the courses I play here have that kind of sand too.

Also, I was noticing the rough at Southern Hills. Not real long but very wiry and the ball sits down in it. Another thing a lot of courses around here have. Rough doesn't have to be 6 inches long for it to be a "bad place to be".

I always laugh when I see guys posting "I hit a 3i out of the rough to the green"... not on most of the courses I play. Youngun5 and I played a local course that has short rough but the ball just disappears into it. He had to just wedge out to the fairway once or twice and I remember hitting a hybrid as hard as I could and the ball went about 100 yds. And that was with pretty decent contact too. We had a hell of a time just locating the ball on drives that ended up just off the fairway.

I like the character of Southern Hills and the way it's set up. A course doesn't have to be 7500 yds. to be a tough track.

[Bravo]

Re: the rough at Southern Hills. We have the same grass here. If the super lets grow up at all....balls will just disappear into it. I saw one greenside yesterday that went hop, hop - disappear. Only 4 feet off the green.

Now I go back to the rules discussion which goes on here ad nauseam. If - everytime - someone in our group saw a ball fly into the rough - they hit a provisional - it would take 5-6 hours to play a round of golf. We'd spend a ton of time not only trying to find the original ball but tracking and retrieving the provisionals.

Are the vast,vast majority of balls found? Yes and the reason is that the superintendent keeps the rough mowed down. But sometimes, after we've had a lot of rain and they haven't had a chance to get the mowers in there - your balls just go off radar. And there is no gallery to spot it for you.

In our Interclub tournament (Ryder Cup Format) he lets it grow way up and it looks like Southern Hills....and lost balls abound.

This is why I will always continue to contend, that playing strict ROG, during a time when your course (either public or private) has a lot of play with groups bunched one after another - is just not practical. It would cause rounds that took so long to play.

My answer to a lost (but perfectly findable ball) is to remove myself from play on that hole and record a 7 on my scorecard, which is the max I can take under ESC. I DO NOT go back to the point of the previous shot and hit another ball while the group behind me stands there staring and fuming at me. If a ball is obviously lost, I do indeed play the provisional and record the score I actually make up to a 7.....

[J.J.]

Originally Posted by MGP

That's pretty common for the courses here in the midwest/central plains. Most of the courses I play here have that kind of sand too.

Also, I was noticing the rough at Southern Hills. Not real long but very wiry and the ball sits down in it. Another thing a lot of courses around here have. Rough doesn't have to be 6 inches long for it to be a "bad place to be".

I always laugh when I see guys posting "I hit a 3i out of the rough to the green"... not on most of the courses I play. Youngun5 and I played a local course that has short rough but the ball just disappears into it. He had to just wedge out to the fairway once or twice and I remember hitting a hybrid as hard as I could and the ball went about 100 yds. And that was with pretty decent contact too. We had a hell of a time just locating the ball on drives that ended up just off the fairway.

I like the character of Southern Hills and the way it's set up. A course doesn't have to be 7500 yds. to be a tough track.

did you drive down to any of the days this week? i was there on thursday... i bent down to feel the rough and that was some VERY VERY sticky grass.. not really thick at all but it was sticky.. and it was mowed just short enough to lose track of a ball..

[cabinessence]

The rough was the same way when we played East Lake shortly after they had the Tour Championship -- we lost balls even playing with caddies, the balls would just disappear. Annoying.