Golfers on Monday raved about the conditions at the Atlanta Athletic Club's Highlands Course, site of this week's PGA Championship.
Tommy Gainey described the greens as perfect.
Justin Rose said it will be a great taste of golf.
Charles Howell III said you can putt on the fairways and that it's the best-conditioned course the players have been on this year.
The compliments are exactly what Ken Mangum, director of grounds and golf courses, hoped to hear when he and Rees Jones began renovating the course in 2006.
As part of that redesign, they chose a unique combination of grasses that they knew would stand up to the 90-plus degree summer temperatures. The greens are “Champion Ultradwarf” Bermuda. The fairways are "Diamond Zoysia." The rough is made of “Tifton 10″ Bermuda.
The AAC is the only course in the world that uses the combination.
"We're happy that they are enjoying the golf course," Mangum said. "We knew we had a special place. Changing the greens to a warm-season grass takes all the worry out of the Championship. You know what the weather's been. If we had bentgrass this year it would have been a terrible situation."
Gainey said the greens were already tournament fast when he played a practice round two days ago. He guessed they were rolling 10.5-11 on the Stimpmeter, a device used to measure the speed of greens. Mangum said Gainey was way off, but declined to say how fast theywere, other than they were faster than Gainey's estimate. He then pulled out a white T-shirt with green letters: Stimpmeter Readings $100. He had the shirts printed up last week after Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods commented on the speed of the greens, which Mangum said were coincidentally very fast, after they played practice rounds.
"I knew that would be the No. 1 question everyone would ask," Mangum said, explaining the T-shirt.
Mangum said they likely won't make the greens any faster than they were on Monday, at least until Saturday's third round. He repeatedly said they want to ensure the course and the greens are firm and fair. There are a few greens that are exposed to the sun and wind that they may not mow on Tuesday morning.
Mangum said he began thinking about switching the greens after the AAC hosted the 2001 PGA Championship during a mild summer in which temperatures rarely surpassed 90 degrees, which kept the bentgrass greens alive. After the bentgrass greens started to die in the weeks before the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in 2007 Mangum decided to make the change to Ultradwarf.
So, it almost can't get too hot this week. The greens and the rest of the course will absorb the heat as they were designed to do.
"We don't have a contract every year for this event," Mangum said. "We're only as good as the last event. It's really important that we put our best foot forward. The Ultradwarf gave us a chance to do that."
Bell back on bag
Woods said that long-time friend Bryon Bell will caddie for him at this week's PGA Championship. Bell caddied for Woods at last week's WGC Bridgestone Invitational, and Woods said in a TV interview after his final round Sunday that Bell would be on his bag for another week.
Woods ended his 12-year relationship with Steve Williams last month. Williams has worked for Adam Scott while Woods has been out with knee and Achilles' tendon injuries. Scott won the Bridgestone. Woods, in his first tournament since playing just nine holes at the Players Championship in May, finished tied for 37th.
Ford has parking spot
In the parking lot at Atlanta Athletic Club are spots for current players, complete with personalized signs. Past winners of the championship are duly noted. Defending champion Martin Kaymer has the closest spot to the clubhouse.
Not far away is a spot for Doug Ford, the 1955 PGA champion. Ford, 89, is scheduled to be at AAC on Tuesday.
Staff writer Chris Vivlamore contributed to this article.
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