When it comes to thoughts on sustainable golf, Jason Goss is right, and Johnny Miller is wrong.Goss, superintendent at Sonoma Golf Club in California's wine country, lobbed a tweet over the bow during the third round of the U.S. Open calling out those who might not understand why Pinehurst No. 2 was so brown, and went so far as to call them part of the problem facing golf.
Goss was right.
At the conclusion of a televised segment on Pinehurst's appearance and playability, Miller, NBC's resident mouthpiece who's never at a loss for words or opinions (until Fox Sports silenced him by outbidding the network for broadcast rights to the U.S. Open for the next dozen years), called the look into question when he asked USGA executive director Mike Davis if Chambers Bay will have a similar look during next year's Open.
Miller was wrong.
NBC play-by-play man Dan Hicks seemingly sensed the cynical tone of the question and cut off the segment just as Davis was able to say the course in Washington will be "different" next year.
The USGA as well as NBC deserve much credit for bringing the conversation about sustainable golf and the challenges it presents out of the friendly confines of the turf maintenance community and into the open where the general public can hear it. And they did so on the biggest of stages - the U.S. Open.
During the third round, NBC aired a taped segment in which USGA Green Section managing director Kim Erusha, Ph.D., discussed what her association is doing to help the game along a path toward sustainability. She discussed the 96-year history of the Green Section, its efforts to help develop grasses that require less water, fertilizer and pesticides and its goal of helping individual courses implement site-specific BMPs that are good for the environment and result in conditions that are pleasing to the golfer.
Specifically, she discussed how this philosophy relates to the unique look of the well-publicized Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw restoration of the Donald Ross-designed No. 2 Course at Pinehurst, which was dialed back to look like it did for the 1936 PGA Championship, and how the already rustic-looking layout with its vast sand waste areas and expansive, yet arid fairways became increasingly more brown during the tournament. She also told viewers that tan turf was a good thing.
"We're combining all those pieces of the puzzle to work with golf facilities to help them get the best quality playing conditions," Erusha said during the segment. "Pinehurst is a great example of what we're trying to do with golf course management. Pinehurst has always focused on sustainability. They wanted to restore what they had when Pinehurst was first created. When you look at the golf course today, you look at the out-of-play areas and the uniqueness of the rough, you look at a little bit of the brownness on the edges of the fairways; that's really what Pinehurst used to be."
Even USGA agronomist Adam Moeller took to Twitter, tweeting a photo and a message from atop a TV tower overlooking No. 18 and stating that "Pinehurst #2 is exactly how USGA wants it."
After the taped segment, Hicks and Miller asked Davis about Pinehurst's new look and how the layout tested golfers in relation to past U.S. Opens held there.
In 1999, winner Payne Stewart was the only player below par at 1 under. Six years later, Michael Campbell won at Pinehurst at even par. This year, Martin Kaymer took advantage of soft, wet conditions early in the week to fire identical scores of 5-under-par 65 in the first two rounds and setting a U.S. Open record before going 1 over par on the weekend to finish at 9 under par. Only two other players, Erik Compton and Ricky Fowler, both at a more U.S. Open-like 1 under, finished below par.
Davis briefly addressed the USGA's contentment with the layout, but, to his credit, largely chose to keep the conversation focused on sustainable golf.
He mentioned how the restoration has allowed Bob Farren, CGCS, Pinehurst's director of grounds and golf course maintenance, and No. 2 superintendent Kevin Robinson to dial back water consumption on No. 2 by 70 percent and how the architects called the project not only a return to the Pinehurst's past, but also a look into the game's future.
"They talk about looking at Pinehurst No. 2 and looking back to the 1930s and 1940s, but Bill (Coore) also said this is looking to the future," Davis said. "(Pinehurst) went from (using) 55 million gallons (of water) to 15 million gallons, and that is a very good statement for golf."
Does this mean that every golf course must look like No. 2 did during the Open? Of course not, and Davis and Farren, said as much. But it does mean those with a stake in the future of the game have to do more to bring this conversation into the open. And it means there is a lot of work to be done to educate golfers on why every golf course must be more sustainable, and it means more efforts like those on display during the third round of the U.S. Open must take place to educate people on what those in the business are doing to meet those needs.
"We took away 40 acres of turf out of the total 90, and eliminated water for it to be a natural ecosystem that it's supposed to be in the sand hills of North Carolina," Farren said during the segment. "The water was the common denominator in all the changes we made. We reduced our water use by as much as 70 percent and changing our expectations and not worrying about being vibrant and green all the time, reducing our carbon footprint in the sense of fuel usage. So, it's really a great statement for golf and what we can do to improve the sustainability of golf.
"Not every course can do what we've done with Pinehurst No. 2, with the history that we have with the documentation of it, the credibility of Coore and Crenshaw. But I think we can take pieces and parts of that and all benefit from it on all courses."
With numbers like that, who in this business can't get behind that message?
Granted, whichever side of the Pinehurst debate one falls on is a matter of personal preference, but it also has to be said that those who prefer a lush, green course all the time, are, like Miller, wrong, because that philosophy represents a long-term strategy that is not realistic.
If you don't understand why Pinehurst looks the way it did, you are, as Jason Goss said, part of the problem, not part of the solution.