Lindeblad’S Secret Recipe

Gary Lindeblad found himself answering the same question over and over during Friday’s opening round of the 12th annual Rosauers Open golf tournament.

Competitors and spectators, alike, were wondering how the grounds crew at Indian Canyon Golf Course had managed to grow the rough so thick and high.

“They used a mixture of fertilizer and Viagra,” was Lindeblad’s stock answer, which was - like most of Lindeblad’s answers - barely fit to print, but funny. Unless you happened to be one of the many unfortunate souls who strayed repeatedly off the fairways on the picturesque, but uncharacteristically difficult, 6,255-yard Canyon layout that is playing to a par of 71 for this richest of Pacific Northwest PGA events.

Lindeblad had warned of the severe conditions earlier in the week when he said anyone trying to play a shot from off the short grass might have trouble getting even an 8-iron on their ball. What he left unsaid was that the 4-inch rough, some of which hasn’t been cut in almost two weeks, might push titanium drivers onto the endangered species list at least until late Sunday afternoon when the $110,000 event wraps up.

First-round leader Dan Hixson, one of the few to escape the bite of the Canyon’s freshly filed fangs, fashioned a spiffy round of 7-under-par 64. And he did so by ignoring his driver most of the day.

The 39-year-old pro from Portland hit driver only twice - on No. 2 and No. 12 - and hit all but two fairways.

“That rough changes a lot of shots out there,” Hixson said. “I hit more irons and 3-woods (off the tee) than most of the guys I played with, but on this course, you have to play out of the fairway.

“You never could hit it out of the trees here, and now you can’t hit it out of the rough, either. You might escape for a while, but eventually it’s going to get you.”

Lindeblad, who shot an opening-round 69, said the course is playing as tough as it has ever played.

“It might be the longest short course in the country,” he said. “And that rough is making it play longer than ever - which means that 64 makes (Hixson) King of the Hill. That is one impressive round.”

Two-time Rosauers champion Chris Mitchell, who also opened with a 69, was in complete agreement.

“That’s just great golf,” he said of Hixson’s low number. “That rough is thick, especially around the greens. You can catch a decent lie or you can catch one where your ball disappears.

“It definitely makes the golf course play different.”

Mitchell said he first noticed the rough on the difficult par-4 14th, which doglegs left and features a narrow fairway lined by steep banks on each side.

“I hit driver up the right side and had it hooking,” said Mitchell, a former assistant at the Canyon, who is now the head professional at Portland Golf Club. “It lands abound 10 feet up on the bank, and I’m thinking it’s perfect, but it hangs up there.”

On Friday, however, most players were unable to find the green from the rough, even some of those who were trying to get home with a short iron. Low-left seemed to be the prevailing shot from the long grass, which was wrapping around club heads like a flytrap around insects.

Course superintendent Don Nelson said Mother Nature had as much to do with the thickness of the rough as anyone.

“It’s amazing what a cool, wet June will do,” he said. “Right after we fertilized, the rains came and everything has been growing like crazy.”

And driving some of the best golfers in the region in that same direction.