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U.S. OPEN

Brookline's Small Greens are a Challenge to Play and Maintain

By George Waters, USGA

| Jun 19, 2022 | BROOKLINE, MASS.

The small, tightly defended greens at The Country Club present challenges to golfers and the maintenance team. (Russell Kirk/USGA)

The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., has all the hallmarks of a classic parkland golf course: rolling topography, big trees, thick rough, and fairways that wind around bunkers, ponds and rock outcroppings. Then there are the greens – some of the smallest, steepest targets in major championship golf. The greens are true throwbacks to the early days of American golf course architecture and you won’t see many like them built today.

The average green size at Brookline is 4,388 square feet after a recent restoration project by Gil Hanse expanded the surfaces by an average of around 20 percent. Even after the expansion work, Brookline still has seven greens smaller than 4,000 square feet – with the smallest, on the par-4 17th, measuring 3,222 square feet. To put that in perspective, a recent USGA study found that the average putting green size among U.S. courses is 5,600-5,700 square feet.

Pebble Beach, with an average green size around 3,500 square feet, has the smallest greens among U.S. Open courses of recent decades. Chambers Bay, which holds the distinction for the largest greens of any modern U.S. Open venue, has an average green size of approximately 9,000 square feet – more than double the average size at Brookline! The small, tightly defended targets at The Country Club are one of the key challenges facing competitors in the 2022 U.S. Open, and they also pose challenges for the maintenance team.

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Managing small greens at a busy club with high standards is not easy. “Small, classic greens like the ones at Brookline are not uncommon at older courses in the Northeast,” said USGA agronomist John Daniels, “but there’s no doubt that smaller greens are under more pressure than ever with today’s expectations for conditions and the amount of play we have been experiencing lately.”

For Dave Johnson, director of grounds at The Country Club, managing the famously small targets requires a multifaceted approach. “The putting green restoration was a huge help,” said Johnson. “We recaptured a lot of hole locations around the edges and that made it easier for us to manage traffic and keep the course interesting and fresh for the golfers. But we still have to be very careful if we want to keep the greens in good shape throughout the season.”

Because of tight access into and around the greens, they are mowed exclusively with walk-behind mowers that are turned on boards to reduce pressure on the collars and surrounding rough. Spray applications on some greens must also be made with a walk-behind unit because there simply isn’t enough room to maneuver a traditional sprayer.

“When it comes to mowing the greens, we train our staff to be observant and sensitive to what they’re seeing. If an area looks a little tired, we might skip mowing it for a while to aid recovery,” said Johnson. “Even taking some pressure off the handle of the mower as you pass over an area can help it heal. We also mow some greens only in certain directions to avoid turning in tight areas that are quick to wear down. Each green has its own recipe.”

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The bunkering and slopes around greens like the par-3 11th make routine maintenance a challenge. (Russell Kirk/USGA)

Golfer traffic patterns on and around the greens are another key management consideration. With limited access points and relatively small areas to set holes, concentrated traffic can quickly lead to turf damage. “It starts with setup for us; we’re very mindful of traffic and changes in turf health when we set the hole locations,” said Johnson. “We shift traffic patterns by moving the flag so we can give areas on the greens a break. The added flexibility we got with the greens expansion has really helped us in that regard.”

Johnson and his team also need to be aware of their own traffic patterns because repetitive maintenance practices can contribute to damage. “We have to be very mindful of where we park and how we access the green complexes to work on them,” said Johnson. “We make maps for our roller operators that show where we’d like them to approach the greens at a particular time, and we’re constantly out with the staff showing them worn areas to avoid and training them to recognize the signs of damage. That work pays off because they end up noticing issues that I or my assistants might miss.”

Wear and tear in the rough around Brookline’s small greens is also a concern. So many shots end up missing the greens that the surrounding rough becomes a very important playing area. If the rough gets worn out or lays over from excessive traffic, that can have a significant impact on playability. Careful management of maintenance traffic and occasionally using ropes and signs to direct golfers help to keep the surrounds playing their best.

Without question, small greens with steep contours require a special approach to maintenance, but building a solid foundation is always the first step in any successful putting green management program.

“It starts with growing healthy grass,” said Daniels. “Get the growing environment as good as possible, manage trees, aerate and topdress regularly, and improve drainage. Then it’s about focusing on daily maintenance practices like mowing and rolling and avoiding anything that is going to place extra stress on the turf at the wrong time. If golfers can fix their ball marks and respect course signage and ropes, that really helps, too.”