How's the rough where you play this spring?

[bigoak]

I play in Upstate New York and the rough this year is brutal. The ball sinks to the ground and nests in very thick grass. I have played for 40 years and cannot remember rough this thick and yet the golf ball nests to the bottom. You can lose a ball two feet off the fairway if you don't mark it well. If you can find it the grass wants to take the club right out of your hand.

[mattttt25]

Thought it was just here. Absolutely agree, absolutely brutal. 6" rough, but the ball is at the very bottom and almost completely covered.

[Bullitt5339]

It's not too bad here yet in the 1st or 2nd cut, but closer to the trees, it's pine needles, and pine needles are my nemesis to hit off of.

[Chilli Dipper]

It's bermuda rough: short and sticky. We're finally getting some rain after a dry early spring, so it's going to get thicker pretty soon.

[Fourputt]

I play in Upstate New York and the rough this year is brutal. The ball sinks to the ground and nests in very thick grass. I have played for 40 years and cannot remember rough this thick and yet the golf ball nests to the bottom. You can lose a ball two feet off the fairway if you don't mark it well. If you can find it the grass wants to take the club right out of your hand.

That is just normal grass here. The ball tends to nestle down, even though the turf grows pretty thick. Last year the superintendent decided to start cutting the rough at about 2" or a bit more, about ½" longer than it had been in past years. Play slowed to a crawl because suddenly players were losing balls... having to search for balls which were only a few feet off the fairway, and then if found had few options other than to just wedge the ball back onto the fairway. It was nearly impossible to get a club longer than a 9I on the ball. It was weird when you could watch a ball roll to a stop, then when you got there you couldn't see it. You had to almost be standing right on top of the ball or it was invisible. Add that to the native rough which is more than 2 feet tall in places and you have a real problem with pace of play. On a course that is typically booked up from dawn until around 5 PM daily, that became too much of a problem to allow to go on.

Finally the head pro ordered them to start cutting the rough back to 1 3/4" again. Even at the normal length, it's not always easy to gauge a shot from that rough, so it's still sufficiently penal to serve the purpose of punishing a stray tee shot.

[sean_miller]

Soft and whispy - like a breeze through a new baby's hair.

That's why I'm keeping fairway stats - our rough isn't very penal right now and bad habits are hard to break.

[Tomassi]

Every course in my area is in great shape yet we're still bumping the ball everywhere! Makes me so angry because people who hit it in the rough off the tee and around the greens think they deserve a great lie.

[allin]

Don't know haven't been in it yet. LOL.

[CarlSpackler]

I play in Upstate New York and the rough this year is brutal. The ball sinks to the ground and nests in very thick grass. I have played for 40 years and cannot remember rough this thick and yet the golf ball nests to the bottom. You can lose a ball two feet off the fairway if you don't mark it well. If you can find it the grass wants to take the club right out of your hand.

That sounds very familiar.

[Gioguy21]

I'd have to agree that our rough in eastern pennsy, and northern NJ is downright mean. my home course, picatinny arsenal golf course, has a first cut that's a club up, and a second (longest) is very easy to get a ball lost, let alone trying to make a great shot...