The LPGA Was Wrong Not To Suspend Play In Yesterday's Kraft-Nabisco

A strong desert wind tore through the Kraft-Nabisco Championship yesterday, changing the balance of the competition and moving a new set of leaders to the top of the board in the competition. Kristy McPherson and Christina Kim teed off well before the wind started howling in the Coachella Valley, and both moved into the lead at 6-under 138 at the halfway point of the first LPGA major of 2009. Both played earlier on Friday when winds were relatively calmer, giving the two good scoring opportunities that were not to be found later the same day.

In the afternoon games, winds picked up to a steady 25-30 miles per hour with strong gusts that made Lorena Ochoa lose their balance, sent a palm frond into Angela Stanford's ankle and infuriated Ji Young Oh by blowing her ball some 30 feet off the 18th green and into a lake, leading to a one-stroke penalty.

After the incident, a frustrated Oh complained to an official that the course was unfair and unplayable, and was told to play on.

I believe that Ji Young was correct and that play went on far longer than it should.

You could say, on the other hand, that everyone plays the same golf course, but that's not necessarily so. Winds pick up or die down through the course of a given day and it really had gotten to the point where it was an unplayable condition. That's how today's leaders came to the top of the leaderboard, and when a golfer has a ball land well on the green only to watch it blown into a hazard, that's beyond the rub of the green, that's simply an unplayable condition.

Later, in a press conference, Doug Brecht, the LPGA's VP of Rules and Competition, said "we were looking for was an exorbitant amount of movement of balls on the green due to wind situations. We did have some. At last count, it was somewhere between five and 10 balls that actually had some movement that was definitely attributable to the wind."

"[F]rom what I saw, the 18th green, which again was giving us the most difficulty, remained in a playable condition throughout the day," he added.

Ji Young Oh would no doubt disagree. Perhaps Brecht missed her misfortune. Or perhaps he simply overlooked it. "In our opinion, the golf course played very, very difficult, very tough, but it was still playable. That's why we made the decision never to suspend play today," Brecht said.

When asked about the wind creating danger to spectators, fans and ostensibly players, Brecht said "We had an occasional limb blow out of a tree. We didn't see a large amount of palm fronds or anything like that. We had no reports of that. And we were stationed, three officials on the front (nine) and three officials on the back (nine), spread out over the entire golf course. If that would have happened, that definitely would have weighed in our decision and would have actually changed our decision."

Apparently, Brecht and his team missed the palm frond that flew from a tree and into Angela Stanford's ankle.

In my opinion, the LPGA blew it here. The tournament is being covered by ESPN, giving the struggling Tour much-needed exposure, but this is not the sort of coverage that they need. These are the best women players in the world, and they are masterful golfers. Unfortunately, by choosing to continue playing yesterday, the LPGA let them look worse than Sunday hackers, because no one -- not even the best -- can golf in conditions like that.

The Ladies At The Kraft-Nabisco Might Need Radar Detectors On The Greens

If you're a typical golfer, you've no doubt seen some fast greens in your time. In fact, some courses may even have a reputation for them. Faster greens put more pressure on your game because they reduce the margin for error, magnify breaks and can make things tougher all around for even the shortest of putts. Once those challenges get inside your head, look out...after all, too much thinking is a golfer's worst enemy. In championship golf, not having every bit of confidence over putts can make the difference between winning and losing, or even playing on the weekend. And that's what the LPGA players will be seeing this weekend at the Kraft-Nabisco championship that tees off today:

"The greens were rolling about 12 on the stimpmeter early in the week (a measure of how far a ball rolls out a notch in a stick on a flat surface) and someone even tossed out the possibility of the greens reaching 13 by the end of the week."

How fast is a twelve? As a recreational golfer, it's unlikely you've ever had to play greens that glassy. Here's a chart from the Turf Management school at Michigan State University to give you an idea of what a typical non-pro sees on their home course:

Speeds for Regular Membership Play (measured by Stimpmeter)
8'6" Fast
7'6" Medium-Fast
6'6" Medium
5'6" Medium-Slow
4'6" Slow

Speeds for Tournament Play
10'6" Fast
9'6" Medium-Fast
8'6" Medium
7'6" Medium-Slow
6'6" Slow

The main reason a superintendent doesn't keep greens at your club that quick are simple: many climates won't support it long-term in the summer. On top of that achieving fast greens on a daily basis requires more maintenance. Due to labor, material and equipment costs that makes it prohibitively expensive, and if anything is missed, or things go wrong the grass on the greens will die very quickly. Again, from Michigan State, here's a look into what is necessary:

Fast greens must be mowed more frequently. They must be verticut more frequently. They must be topdressed more frequently. Fertilization must be on a light and frequent basis. Watering must be done more carefully. Lower mowing heights needed to achieve fast greens also place the turfgrass plant under more stress. A reduced rooting depth can be expected under lower mowing heights. The shorter roots require more frequent irrigation and syringing during the summer to sustain the turfgrass plant. Shorter roots also reduce the grass plant's ability to recover from insect and disease attack. An increase in insecticide and fungicide use may be needed.

And if you're the super or the head pro, you can expect your higher handicap golfers to howl about how "unfair" the greens are. For example, on "Home" -- the 17th hole at Eagle Ridge, where I live, the green is a slope from left to right as you face it on the fairway, and Tom Kite and Bob Cupp, our course's designers, saw fit to put a false side along the right edge of the narrow green, with a 20-foot dropoff to a creek below that. Miss it right, you are dead, and in the water. A draw is a necessity, fades or slices are punished severely. I've seen dozens of golfers hit the green from the fairway only to watch the ball trickle off and roll all the way down into the gully. In fact, it is cheap entertainment to sit on our back deck and watch this happen over and over during golf season. And we've seen some incredible temper tantrums and flying clubs as a result. Can you imagine a green like that cut at tournament speed?

Pictured: Eagle Ridge's 17 Green looking back up the fairway. You can't see the drop off from the right side, but it looms over the top of the green in this picture. I call it "The Valley of Sin." Photo by Charles Boyer.