2013 Wells Fargo Championship

[Darth Biscuit]

Starts tomorrow...

Anybody going?

I'm spectating tomorrow and will be marshalling on #5 Friday and Saturday. Stop by and see me if you're there.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Crowds will probably be smaller since Tiger isn't coming...

[4Corners]

Friday. Had tickets to Saturday but I have to work.

[pstall]

mr t im sure you saw my response on tix? sorry man

[Carolina Husker]

Going today. Interested to see how bad 8, 9, and 10 greens look.

[Darth Biscuit]

Going today. Interested to see how bad 8, 9, and 10 greens look.

Is there a problem with them?

We're probably heading over about lunch... and probably going to sit on the back today.

[Johnny Rockets]

Is there a problem with them?

We're probably heading over about lunch... and probably going to sit on the back today.

 

 

The greens are terrible from what they say. 9 players showed up and left because they were in such bad shape. I think I heard names like Ian Poulter, Vijay Singh, etc. took their clubs and went home. They had to tear up and resod a couple greens just two weeks ago because they weren't playable.  It's a shame that they have done such a great job with this tournament for a decade and now they have this black eye so to speak on them.

[Darth Biscuit]

The greens are terrible from what they say. 9 players showed up and left because they were in such bad shape. I think I heard names like Ian Poulter, Vijay Singh, etc. took their clubs and went home. They had to tear up and resod a couple greens just two weeks ago because they weren't playable.  It's a shame that they have done such a great job with this tournament for a decade and now they have this black eye so to speak on them.

We just found an article about this... unbelievable.

That course has always been in such good shape, that's a shame.

WTF happened?

In other news, there's a lot of talk about moving the tourney to Eagle Point in Wilmington in 2017. You can't imagine how much we will love that.

[SCP]

We just found an article about this... unbelievable.

That course has always been in such good shape, that's a shame.

WTF happened?

In other news, there's a lot of talk about moving the tourney to Eagle Point in Wilmington in 2017. You can't imagine how much we will love that.

They are switching from bent to Bermuda. The greens keeper they hired is a Bermuda expert but the greens are still bent. At least that's the rumor I heard.

[Johnny Rockets]

They are switching from bent to Bermuda. The greens keeper they hired is a Bermuda expert but the greens are still bent. At least that's the rumor I heard.

They were talking about it on 610 this morning and Jim Celania knows one of the executives there and from what I gathered was that they went to Bermuda and the cold March that we had didn't allow the Bermuda to take because it needs heat. I may have misunderstood that but that's how I took it.

 

He was also saying that Augusta has Bermuda and it looked great this early in the year but that is because they put their greens into "a coma" and no one plays on the course in the summer which I have never heard before.  

 

The consensus is that they will be moving this tournament to the summer to now that the greens will be Bermuda.  

[Johnny Rockets]

In other news, there's a lot of talk about moving the tourney to Eagle Point in Wilmington in 2017. You can't imagine how much we will love that.

 

That is the year that the PGA Championship will be in Charlotte right?

[Darth Biscuit]

They were talking about it on 610 this morning and Jim Celania knows one of the executives there and from what I gathered was that they went to Bermuda and the cold March that we had didn't allow the Bermuda to take because it needs heat. I may have misunderstood that but that's how I took it.

 

He was also saying that Augusta has Bermuda and it looked great this early in the year but that is because they put their greens into "a coma" and no one plays on the course in the summer which I have never heard before.  

 

The consensus is that they will be moving this tournament to the summer to now that the greens will be Bermuda.

Yeah, you can't really compare any course anywhere to Augusta. They have hundreds of people there working on that place and have a complete system in place underground to control everything from temp to humidity to hydration... it's quite amazing.

 

 

That is the year that the PGA Championship will be in Charlotte right?

I believe so.

[Kevin Greene]

Yikes.

 

"You can't lie about it - the greens are shaky," defending champion Rickie Fowler said Wednesday. "But I feel like come tournament time ... you're still going to be able to make putts. There is still a hole out there. Someone's going to have to make putts this week. Someone's going to win the golf tournament. They're still giving out a trophy and a jacket at the end of Sunday."

No one is more disappointed than tournament officials, who spared no expense trying to fix a problem that was out of their control. The South has been plagued by an unusually cold and wet spring, which tournament director Kym Hougham said was the primary culprit.

The greens on Nos. 8 and 10 had to be replaced by sod just last week - in fact, the 10th green had to be re-sodded twice because the roots were growing sideways. For the new sod, the club paid for strips of grass that were 4 feet wide and 60 feet long to reduce the number of seams, even though it was more costly. Several other putting surfaces have patches of brown where there is no grass.

On four greens, the players were asked to only hit one shot in the practice rounds and limit their putting to alleviate any stress on the greens.

It was unusual to see players on the practice green leaving 30-foot putts some 5 feet short of the hole. Robert Allenby actually made one, and then he was asked what he was doing.

"I'm trying to see how many bounces it takes to get to the hole," Allenby said. "That was 22 for a 33-foot putt."

Woods decided last week not to play, presumably because he forgot there was only two weeks between the Masters and Quail Hollow, a change in the schedule this year. The Wells Fargo Championship has only one of the top 10 in the world - McIlroy at No. 2 - which is rare for this event.

There already have been nine players to withdraw, including past champions Vijay Singh and David Toms. Ian Poulter was in Charlotte on Tuesday but never made it out to the golf course. He withdrew citing personal reasons. Not all of the withdrawals are related to course conditions, although there were enough to make other players wonder.

McIlroy has fond memories of Quail Hollow, where he won his first PGA Tour title in 2010 at age 20. He made an eagle late in his round to avoid missing the cut, and then closed with a 62 on Sunday. It's one of his favorite courses on tour, and that hasn't changed.

"We come to Quail Hollow and they're - for me - probably the best greens on tour, usually," McIlroy said. "It's just unfortunate that they're not quite up to the standard that they usually are, but it's no big deal. The rest of the golf course is in phenomenal shape. It's going to be the same. Everyone has to putt on them, and the best player at the end of the week is still going to win. I don't think there is a big problem at all."

"I don't mind because I'm not a guy that relies on my putting, per se," he said. "So it will eliminate quite a lot of the field. I don't mind that at all.

 

 

http://www.cbssports.com/golf/story/22172799/players-expecting-a-bumpy-ride-at-quail-hollow

 

 

 

[Johnny Rockets]

Wow, that looks terrible.

[Darth Biscuit]

Yeah, that sucks.

That's weird... when I was coming up here Monday I saw a flat bed truck with huge ass rolls of sod. I noticed because I wondered what on earth those were for. No idea how they laid those out.