Speed at a price?

With an ever increasing fascination for greens speed we caught up with the guy in charge of getting his course’s greens and fairways rolling at blistering speeds each summer for some of the best over-50 golfers in the world in the Bank of America Championship.  As Director of Golf Course Operations at Nashawtuc Country Club, Marblehead’s Paul Miller has the rare distinction of enjoying the longest tenure of any superintendent in the country presiding over a major golf event (21 years). Each summer he transforms his course’s undulating greens into some of the fastest around for the tournament, but what are the long-term effects of keeping greens rolling at 11, 12 or greater on the Stimpmeter?

NSG: Does speed kill? Can you permanently harm your greens by having them roll at excessive speeds for an extended period?

PM: Unless we come up with new varieties of bent grasses these excessive speeds on greens mean more spraying, more fertilizer and more water and that runs against all these environmental measures we are taking. Speed is good, but excessive speed is not good.

NSG: How fast do you get them going for the Bank of America Championship?

PM: I have them rolling in the 11-foot range which is acceptable given all the contours we have here. We can manage that speed. It’s when you go above that that things get really crazy.  You’ll have pin placements that are sacrificed because of the contours of the greens and you kind of interfere with the integrity of the course.

NSG: Could you keep these greens at tournament speeds all year round?

PM: Not really. If we did, we would be doing a lot of over-fertilizing and over-maintaining and as far as trying to satisfy just a few, it’s really not worth it, and even more so, it’s not environmentally responsible.

NSG: With the fixation on fast greens, has the Stimpmeter made your life harder?

PM:  It’s funny. I actually knew Ed Stimpson and I did the first Stimpmeter trials for the USGA when I was working at Tedesco. We put it in place for consistency reasons, to find out if one green was slower than another on the course and whether we needed to fertilize it more.  We used it as a barometer for conditioning, but now it has become a speedometer. It wasn’t meant to be used that way and that is not what Ed had in mind when he developed it.

NSG: What do you think is a reasonable rate on the Stimpmeter for a public course that does not welcome Trevino, Haas and Irwin each June?

PM: I think anywhere from eight to 10 feet is acceptable. That means it is right around an eighth of an inch. Once you get into decimals and are under .125 you start running into some issues.

NSG: Do you get the feeling that the Champions Tour players appreciate all the work you and your staff put in to get Nashawtuc into tip-top shape each summer?

PM: Bob Charles has become a real good friend. He’s a guy who really recognized a superintendent’s efforts. He got into golf course design and so he appreciated how sensitive this property is and that you could not just do it on autopilot. The older players seemed to appreciate the conditions whereas some of the newer players seem to expect it.

NSG: We know you’re a member at Tedesco, so here’s a simple question: Which club has the faster greens?

PM: (Grins) I think Tedesco does. (Tedesco Super) Peter Hasak has done an incredible job over there, while we have a bit of a moisture issue over here that makes it difficult.