Round 3: Course set up tips.

This morning was an earlier start for the
team as the tournament moved to a one tee start with a one ball off at 7.50am.
This meant that I had to be on course from just before 7.30am to check all the bunkers
and pin locations for the day.

It struck me today that the bunkers looked different to how I remembered them two years ago. I am sure that I wrote at that time how interesting it was to watch the maintenance crew prepare the bunkers each
morning, with the initial stroke of the rake in a greenside bunker being drawn directly on a line to the hole. Each subsequent stroke then followed this so that the ball always sat in a furrow on a line to the hole.

As of last year the PGA TOUR changed their directive on this and now the bunkers have a fluffier appearance with virtually no furrows whatsoever. This makes the job far less time consuming for staff and prevents problems with footprints being left in the sand.

When I spoke with the course super the night before, he said that they would need to put some water on the greens as they were drying out considerably. This may have had an impact on scoring today as our own Steven Bowditch and Justin Rose both posted -7 rounds of 63. These were exceptional scores
since the course is still playing very tough. This venue has stood the test of time as a Championship course and really is a traditional golf course.

It has been awesome as always talking to the other staff about course preparation and the little things that are done to improve the aesthetics and playability of the course. Things like having a bevel cut done between the step cut and the rough. If you have a rough height of 75mm (3 inches) you can
end up with a virtual wall of grass for the ball to rest against. By raising one side of the wheels on a hand mower you can angle the blades and thus bevel the transition point. It makes the rough look great and prevents unfair lies for a ball that has rolled to the edge of the fairway.

The weather conditions were so good today that down my end of the course very few players got into trouble and consequently rulings were few and far between. Pace of play was again excellent to the extent that we will be starting five minutes later tomorrow so that we can finish as close to the agreed
time as possible.

Not much chance to catch up with the players from down under today as I moved over on to the back nine as soon as everyone had made it through the 7^th hole. The only person that I haven’t had the chance to say hi to is Adam Scott so hopefully I will see him tomorrow. At least I know that he will be at Whistling Straits next week. Big news over here today was that Rory McIlroy was over in Milwaukee practicing and was hopeful of making
a return at the PGA.

We did take the opportunity to go to a minor league baseball game with the PGA TOUR staff tonight. I am sure that it must have sounded strange to the locals to hear a Scottish Kiwi explain the rules of the game to our colleague from South Africa who had never seen baseball played before.

Hopefully Bowdo can kick on tomorrow and post another low round to get him into contention.

Related Links

19th Blog / Scotty on Tour: Bridgestone Invitational Day 1
19th Blog / Scotty on Tour: Bridgestone Invitational Day 2
19th Blog / Scotty on Tour: Bridgestone Invitational Round 1
19th Blog / Scotty on Tour: Bridgestone Invitational Round 2
19th Blog / Scotty on Tour: Bridgestone Invitational Round 3
19th Blog / Scotty on Tour: Bridgestone Invitational Round 4