When the world was brown before turning green

CHENNAI: On Thursday, an afternoon golfer at TNGF missed five pars. On all five holes, the ball lipped out after he putted, earning commiserations from fellow golfers.

The conversation immediately turned to putting greens and the old-timers turned nostalgic over the ‘browns’ as the greens were referred to in those days. Both the city’s golf courses, the one in Guindy and the other in Nandanam, had browns.

And how, putting skills were honed fine on the browns. The drive and the putt, the first and last events in a hole, hold a lot of significance. Putting is the business end of the game, no matter at what level one is playing.

An average golfer can sink a long putt and overcome a lot of negativity encountered on the way to the putting surface. Or, she can have one single putt lipping out or running down the slope and depriving her of all the advantages gained over 400 yards. Reading the green, judging which way the ball will turn and by how much, is what most golfers and their caddies agonise over all the time.

Brown Greens: A casual follower of the game may be excused for thinking that the putting surface is always green, with perfectly manicured grass resembling a billiard table. In fact, there are courses where the putting is done of “browns” – though they are rapidly upgrading themselves into all-green by collaborating with the local municipalities.

The browns are not uncared for surfaces. They are created with as much care and ingenuity as the greens – with slopes and speed differences. Sand is sieved and the brown is carefully constructed. Oil is mixed in it, in order to keep the ‘brown’ compacted for players to putt from.

The browns have an added protocol of “sweeping” the path from the ball to the hole. Jayashree Bharath recalls her experience of playing on ‘browns’ in the early 1980s in Chennai. “I started playing golf in 1983. On the browns, you learnt to putt accurately and also straight. You had to be absolutely accurate in judging the distance to the pin. On a green, the cut grass would sometimes turn the ball, so it calls for a different set of aspects to consider.”

Malini Srinivasan, another senior player who has played on both browns and greens, points out that on a brown one could chip accurately – the ball would stay where you aim for it to land and helped in course management. “It helped in judging the distance and the required force,” she says. Malini also recalls the presence of a ‘brown supervisor’, whose job was to sweep and smooth out the sand after a player putted.

“Putting is all about getting the correct line to the pin. On sand, the line would stand crystal clear after the first player putted. This was an unfair advantage to others following behind. Therefore, the supervisors were mandatory,” she adds. On one occasion, the players could not find the sweeper. “It was a lesson for us golfers. Some of us began to pack a brushing broom in our golf bags,” Malini says.

Things were different on browns in the Gulf, says A Subbaraman. “I used to play in Ghala Wentworth golf course, Muscat, in the late 90s and we used to carry a broad mat. Players used to take turns to sweep – each one sweeping for the player he marked. Of course, for the last 10 years or so, there are only greens here as well,” he says.

Designing greens has highly evolved. “True greens are cut to between 2.5mm and 3mm, but on many golf courses here (Chennai), it is cut to 6mm. The first cut is done to 12mm and the second to 24mm and so on,” says Ishwar Achanta, an international golf administrator. These are the differences which make a green fast or slow. “Given that most golf courses are designed for scratch players (low handicappers), putting skills become very important for the casual golfer, be it in a green or a brown,” he advises.

By: BHAMA DEVI RAVI (The writer is the Lady Captain at TNGF)

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