Why do sawgrass greens look brown

At ground level, finding tranquility may be a bit harder. One of five courses at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort and Spa, The Stadium Course has been honored by multiple golf publications as a top golf destination. Golfweek ranked the Stadium Course the No. And, of course, there is the 17th hole, with its fabled island green, probably the most famous, and most photographed, piece of course in golf history.

It got so bad that Matt Kuchar said he was scared every time he put his putter down on the ground that it would slide accidentally into the ball on what had become a "friction-less" surface. There were five-putts, four-putts and a record number of three-putts in rounds that approach six hours. It's how you go from a year-old scoring mark falling in the morning to complete carnage and the largest swing in scoring average in the history of the Players later in the day Read this excellent review from Saturday night for more on how it all went down.

Mark Russell, a longtime Tour official, has been the front man taking the heat for the Tour with the media. He's a straight shooter and entertaining guy, as far as golf administrators and rules officials go. Russell went on air with Lewis both Saturday night and Sunday morning, explaining how exactly this happened and what the plans were for Sunday. Before the interview, Lewis said Russell told him it "made him sick" to watch what was happening on Saturday at The Players.

It was a pretty honest admission without much defensiveness, and probably not what you'd get from the USGA when things get extreme at the U. Open they're just now starting to acknowledge that they let the Chambers Bay greens last year become trash.

Russell flatly stated that his head agronomist at TPC Sawgrass was "very perplexed by this also. Golf Channel's Frank Nobilo, in a fascinating demonstration , blamed the second roll mid-morning before the third round started. Some agronomists figured there was little they could do to make it much better but so far, the scores are much lower than the carnage from Saturday.

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What began with just a par-3 course and learning center, this 2,acre sporting ranch between Austin and Houston is finally going all-in with an ambitious championship course. By Brandon Tucker. Read More. Now Reading. Even tournament leader Jason Day was impacted, although not enough to put a big dent in his advantage. The No. He didn't make a bogey through 36 holes but then made two double-bogeys in three holes on the front nine Saturday afternoon, with a four-putt and a three-putt.

But he made only three birdies in a round of 1-over-par Hideki Matsuyama shot 67 and Ken Duke had a 65 that included a front-nine 30 to tie Alex Cejka for second, four strokes back.

So scoring was not impossible. But the number of three-putts, double-bogeys or worse and high scores suggest something was amiss. Saturday's scoring average was We weren't expecting a 20 mile-an-hour wind all day, and the humidity 30 percent, not a cloud in the sky.

And they just, you know, sped up on us. There were only three rounds Saturday in the 60s and only six under par. There were seven in the 80s.

The 76 players in the field combined for three-putts or worse -- a record for the course.