Ask a Super
The USGA’s greatest trick for growing brutal U.S. Open rough isn't what you think
Ross Kinnaird
Of course, the U.S. Open is synonymous with long, thick, penalizing rough. But why? Does the USGA have a special tactic for growing especially brutal rough, or are they benefitting from the U.S. Open being held at an agronomically favorable time of year? Or is it both? To learn more about how the USGA is able to regularly grow long and thick rough for the U.S. Open, we caught up with Darin Bevard, the senior director of championship agronomy for the USGA Green Section.
Golf Digest: Darin, I’m curious what impact the timing of the U.S. Open each year has on the rough. Being in mid-June every year, does that encourage more growth in the rough, or is typical U.S. Open rough more so the result of specific agronomic practices?
Bevard: First of all, when you have a U.S. Open mid-June as it always is, in cool season areas, it's a really good time to grow grass. The soil temperatures are very favorable. Here at Oakmont Country Club, they have had quite a bit of rain over the last month, which certainly helps.
But of course, the amount of fertilizer that you put down to keep it growing is a big part of it. We come up with our game plan for rough height and you’ve got a guy like [Oakmont superintendent] Mike McCormick who’s as good as anybody in the business that executes it and gets us to where we need to be.
But definitely this time of year is a good time to grow rough. I live in the Philadelphia area, and you have a period with your lawn in April where you mow it once a week, and then all of a sudden you hit that period where you could mow it twice a week. The days start getting longer and soil temperatures get a little higher. It’s a nice time to grow rough in Oakmont, Pa., right now.
That said, I can argue that the September U.S. Open at Winged Foot had equally thick rough. So much of it has to do with the work that the maintenance team does to get the rough ready. Part of it is keeping golf cart traffic out of the rough so it doesn't get beat down. But again, you're definitely in an exponential growth phase at this time of year which makes it pretty doable to get thick U.S. Open rough.
And frankly at this time of year in the northern tier, mid-June is a pretty good time to prepare a golf course. You just hope to avoid thunderstorms and those type of things, but usually the golf course is going to be in peak condition at this time of year.
Golf Digest: That’s really interesting. What is the science behind why the grass tends to grow so much more in mid-June. Is it because we’re close to the summer solstice?
Bevard: Yeah, that's part of it, and also the fact that you're getting pretty close to the longest days of the year so it has more time to grow in the sunlight. Your soil temperatures have a huge amount to do with it, so you just get into that period with warmer temperatures, and then you get your soil temperatures up and the grass just wants to grow.
Golf Digest: You mentioned that you’ve been keeping golf carts out of the rough at Oakmont. When did the club stop allowing carts in the rough and why is that important?
Bevard: It’s pretty much been since May 1st here I believe, or maybe the second week of May that they went for walking only. You can pick whatever event, when you run over the same area of grass multiple times, the traffic affects it. When that happens, it's hard. You can't just flick a switch and get the grass sitting back up. The grass is generally going to be matted down.
We’ve had other venues where traffic problems around green surrounds made it so we really couldn’t get a consistent rough, and we had areas that are thinner and weaker. For the players that are fortunate enough to find those conditions when that happens, I’m not going to go so far as to say they’re getting a get-out-of-jail-free card, but they're going have an easier shot than they otherwise would because of traffic.
They're not going to get that benefit here at Oakmont.
Photo by Jeff Marsh
Golf Digest: Jumping back to your point about the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot which was played in September. Did you have to take a different approach to get thick rough because you didn’t have peak growing season helping like usual?
Bevard: It’s a little bit more challenging to get the grass through the summer in good condition, getting through 90-degree heat without losing grass. There’s spray applications with fungicides and that type of stuff to protect the grass.
But I feel like at this time of year, you're almost going to have thick, juicy rough—again, within reason. I can give you a scenario where you wouldn't, but in general, on a golf course at the level of Oakmont, you're going to have thick, juicy rough, and it's just a matter of enhancing that a little bit.
Whereas I think [Steve Rabideau, director of grounds at Winged Foot] had to work a little bit harder at Winged Foot to get that rough in the fall. But he still got it because these guys know what they're doing. They made some grass a tenth of an inch on putting greens, they can sure as heck grow four or five inches of rough.
Jeff Marsh
Jeff Marsh
Jeff Marsh
Golf Digest: Last one, Darin. What’s more important for creating penalizing rough: length or thickness?
Bevard: It’s a combination of the two. You can have a thick rough at two-and-a-half or three inches, and it’ll actually support the golf ball—where the ball rolls into the rough and it sits up a little bit. When you get it up into the five-inch range, which is what we will be managing most of the time in the U.S. Open, that ball is going to sit down a little bit in the canopy. They're almost always going to have grass between the golf ball and the clubface. It is amazing to me how strong these guys are and how they can advance the ball out of the rough. The biggest thing is they don't have any control because the golf ball just doesn't spin, so they have to judge what's going to happen when it hits the ground.