When professional golfers start comparing notes in the locker room about short putts they shouldn’t miss, something unusual happens on the greens.
That appears to be the case at this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
Ask Patrick Reed.
Reed is the leader heading into the weekend after a second round of 66 pushed him to nine under, one shot ahead of England’s Andy Sullivan on the Emirates Golf Club’s Majlis Course. But moving up the rankings wasn’t easy.
“The way the golf course played yesterday and how firm and fast the greens were, you just couldn’t find yourself in the rough conditions,” Reed said Friday. “And I seemed to do that every time I made a bogey. I missed a few short putts.”
In the second round, Reed found his touch on greens that confused large swaths of the field.
“I heard a lot of guys talking in the locker room, missing quite a few short putts that we’re not used to missing,” he said.
The greens, he noted, were unusual in appearance and feel.
“Yesterday they had a silver tint,” he said. “When the wind blows, it just dries them out and it’s hard to see the grain. Sometimes the ball slides instead of turning. You don’t know if it’s going to break or stay straight.”
The Majlis Course, the first true grass course in the Middle East, opened in 1988 and has hosted the Hero Dubai Desert Classic since the tournament’s inception in 1989. The course was renovated following the 2021 event, with the greens enlarged to provide additional hole locations and resurfaced with TifDwarf Bermuda, a high-quality, drought-tolerant variety.
What exactly Reed saw is difficult to say, according to Dan Cutler, superintendent of FireRock Country Club in Fountain Hills, Arizona. The “silver tinge,” he said, could be related to grain, the directional growth pattern of grass. A color change can also be caused by stress, as the blades become inactive for self-protection. For example, it is not uncommon for bentgrass green to take on a bluish tint as a tournament week progresses.
But greens so fast that putts “slide” instead of roll? “I’ve never heard of that,” he said. “That would suggest almost no resistance, like throwing a bowling ball across an ice rink.”
However, pause is a function of both speed and contour. When the greens are lightning fast and holes are punched in slippery locations, even the best players in the world can throw a fit.
Reed wasn’t the only one judging the challenge. Rory McIlroy, four-time winner of the event, also said the putting surfaces were particularly tough.
“A lot of putts that looked like they were going in, but they didn’t,” McIlroy said.
Brace yourself for the weekend. The greens won’t get any easier.
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