ROUGH STUFF
“Narrow fairways bordered by long grass make bad golfers. They do so by destroying the harmony and continuity of the game and in causing a stilted and cramped style, destroying all freedom of play.” Alister MacKenzie.
Payne Stewart made one of golf ’s greatest pressure pars on the final hole of the 1999 US Open. A shot ahead of Phil Mickelson, he drove right on Pinehurst’s finishing hole and into the rough – the typically predictable US Open, gouge it out with a wedge, rough.
Pinehurst is as close as you will find to an Australian course in the United States. Not flat but hardly hilly, it’s on a sand base, the bounce of the ball hugely influences the way the game is played and around the greens short grass is used as a hazard to sweep the ball far away from Donald Ross’ upturned greens. It wouldn’t be out of place on the Melbourne Sandbelt.
