Should They Have Watered the Greens at the British Open?

A good golfer can adjust to the cirumstances that changes each day.

If you start the first day at 7am and then second day at 2pm you have to adjust aswell to greens ect.

If you have 60+ people playing on a day you can't make it so everyone have the same conditions but that is just my opinion.

I hate inconsistent greens as much as the next guy and don't think it is good to see the best players in the world so off on their speeds, but Phil was right when he said that the greens looked like they were dying in spots on Thursday.

They interviewed a(n R & A?) guy yesterday who basically said that the course dried out more than they anticipated Thursday, so they adjusted.  It still played very hard and fast for the guys Friday afternoon so overall I think they did a good job.  On Sunday, with temps a bit cooler and more clouds...it did not dry out as much from the early to late players.

Tiger made a comment that the course was changing hour by hour- getting harder and faster- there is really no way to prevent this unless you actually do some watering during the day (which I recall seeing at some tournaments years ago, but don't remember recently).  Even with this, there is going to be a difference on a green that was just watered compared to a green that is about to get watered, so hard to keep greens uniform in certain weather conditions, so players need to be able to adjust.

I think the conditions snug up on them in the sense that they got drier than they expected Thursday afternoon.  Even with the water Thursday night, they were still pretty hard and fast Friday afternoon and were similar for the top players over the weekend.

In hindsight, maybe they should have watered (more) Wednesday night, but your OP asked if they should have just left them alone the whole tournament which I think would have been a definite mistake as many areas would have died or become so worn and baked out that they would have been bumpy.  I said elsewhere that I thought the greens didn't look smooth Thursday afternoon, but they looked to roll pretty true over the weekend, so I think they made a good adjustment.

Tiger played his best round of the week Thursday and was 3 ahead of Phil going into the final round- what cost him the tourny was how he played Sunday when he was playing virtually the same course as Phil (and lost 8 shots to him).  You said the greens were consistent the last two days, so you shouldn't point to this as the reason Tiger lost his 3 shot lead over Phil on Sunday.

These are the best players in the world & you're saying they cannot adjust their putting speed for watered greens?

Uh, no. They can. If you want uniform-speed greens every day, play mini-golf. Carpet doesn't grow.

I say no to the watering.  Everyone had to play the same course, so people like Phil who whined about it after day 1 should have just dealt with it.

Well, it seemed like he did... I mean, he won after all... Maybe if they didn't cut the greens so short they could've gotten away with not watering...

Don't the players or caddies ask before the round if watering was done and where, and what time?

If Tiger or LaCava did not ... they need to  ask more questions.

Tiger seemed more bothered by the greens Sunday than others.  With all the great golf he's played in his life I'm having a tough time believing he couldn't get the speed figured out when others guys could.

Tiger should have known by the first couple of holes on Sunday that he was going to have to throw his approaches in close instead of letting them run up onto the green.  this is mainly Joe Lacava fault.  sounds like a caddy's responsibility to me.  half of his putts must have been freaking over 50 ft.  over course he is going to 3 jack some of them.

Geeze... give it a rest.  I'm as big a Tiger fan as anyone, but I'm not stupid about it.  Other players figured it out, so it's Tiger's own fault if he couldn't adjust.  He's supposed to be a professional golfer, and adjustment is a big part of the game.  The blame rests solely on his shoulders.

im still trying to figure out why Tiger thought he played pretty good on Sunday.  the putting seemed the least of his problems from what i saw.  hacking out of the tall weeds on several occasions.

But not every green was receptive to this. Some greens still needed a shot that landed 20 yards short and rolled to the pin. And didn't Woods have one shot that landed short and rolled through the green? I think 17 on Saturday when he put his second into a cross bunker was where he lost the tournament. If he birdies that hole, everything changes.