Women’s Golf Blog: Same Sport, Different Playing Surface

If you follow most sports, you notice similar surroundings. A basketball court will measure out the same whether you are in the Carrier Dome or Cameron Stadium. The hoops will measure the same height of ten feet, and each will be equipped with a special netting and backboards. The courts will be played on hardwood surfaces each with a distinct logo as a reminder of where they are playing the game. The court is surrounded by spectator seating generally similar, with the exception of the colors used to reflect the “home team” colors. This applies to several sports across the board outside of cross country and golf. Ironically, many Universities cross country tracks weave in and around the school’s golf course. 

We just returned from our Big Ten Championships played in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at Fox Chapel Country Club. It was a treat to have the site so close to our home base, not to mention a top 100 golf course to compete on.  

The golf coaches in the Big Ten decided a decade ago to find “neutral sites” to host the Championships, with one big reason being fairness across the board to the visiting teams.  Playing a tournament on your home course can have true advantages since golf courses can vary widely from place to place.  Preparing for different venues is something competitive players are used to doing.  It requires skill to adapt to changing speeds on greens, to rolling fairways that offer various lies, to types of grasses that can be different and react differently to a shot played. 

It was a pleasure playing in our “backyard” and certainly offered some familiarity with grasses and vegetation.  However, the Seth Raynor designed course from the early 1900’s was no duplicate to the Penn State Golf Courses.  The players were adjusting to the green speeds which rolled out much faster as well as the rolling terrain offering a number of bounces that required careful aim to execute the right line of the shot.  Personally, it is fun to play a course like Fox Chapel, as it requires a great deal of creativity and feel for the shots needed to play each hole. 

The 17^th hole was a par 3, with a 75-yard-deep green (most greens average out to 36 yards deep).  In the middle of the green was a swale that ran five feet deep.  A ball falling short of a back pin would come to rest in the swale and offer a very interesting putt…