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GREENSBORO -- The annual assault on Sedgefield's summertime greens continued Thursday in the opening round of the Wyndham Championship.

The shots flew in from the Donald Ross fairways and slammed onto his crested putting surfaces, where they stuck. The results were predictable. They were the same results we saw last year and the year before that and the year before that.

How much longer we see the pros attack our defenseless pins will depend on a key decision by new owner John McConnell and the members, who are about 50-50 on the prospects of a major change at the 85-year-old club.

What were once whispers are now open discussions on the greens, in the clubhouse and in the corporate tents. Sedgefield is considering going to Bermudagrass greens.

This isn't a bombshell. People have been talking about it for two years at least, and with the recent changeover at Atlanta Athletic Club and Memphis and other clubs throughout the sweltering South.

"They have to do it," said pro Lee Janzen. "I suggested it the first year we came here, but the members didn't want to hear it then."

That was before Starmount, less than 10 miles across town, lost every one of its greens in a mysterious bacterial attack in early June. That was before clubs throughout North Carolina began discussing going to the modern strain of Bermudagrass that is nothing like the bumpy old strains found across Florida through the years.

Champion Dwarf Bermudagrass is all the rage at golf courses and municipals and goat tracks everywhere around us now. It's only a matter of time before folks at Sedgefield make the decision.

The pros arrived here talking about it, having just played the PGA Championship last week on the new surface, having played the once-defenseless TPC Southwind in Memphis this year. The course record there is 61. Harrison Frazar won the event in June with a four-day total of 13-under.

The old bentgrass greens here are almost perfect. Make no mistake about that. Course superintendent Keith Wood said last month that the Starmount situation sent shockwaves through the tight-knit community of greenskeepers in the Piedmont.

"It kept me up at night," he said. "I didn't sleep for a week."

The story of Starmount swept over the state and then the South. Experts never figured out what happened. The nightmare scenario hit especially hard here and at Quail Hollow in Charlotte.

Kym Hougham, the tournament director of the Wells Fargo Championship each May in Charlotte, said this week that the club there is looking at the possibility of changing from bentgrass to the modern Bermuda. Bentgrass, a traditional Southern strain, is more like something you'd see in your yard. Bermudagrass is more like something you'd see in your living room.

"It brings firmness to the greens, which is something every PGA Tour event likes to see," Wyndham tournament director Mark Brazil said. "The bentgrass greens here are the best we've seen in four years, which is a credit to Keith and his staff. Ultimately, any decision to change would come from Mr. McConnell."

McConnell, who wasn't available for comment, bought the course over the winter and has made a lot of cosmetic changes. He's told no one about any plans to change from bentgrass to Bermuda, several people close to the club said. He owns seven courses in North Carolina and South Carolina, and one -- The Reserve on Pawleys Island -- has changed to the new strain.

"The best greens I've ever putted on," said a Sedgefield member who didn't want his name used.

Such a change would alter the course during key months of summer, the growing months for Bermudagrass. That might not go over well with the membership. But there might not be a choice.

The trend is going away from the traditional old grasses that still cover venerable courses like Pinehurst No. 2 and Sedgefield.

"Things change," said Janzen.

And most of the pros think the change would be great for the tournament and the club.

"The people can get the greens a little firmer," Greg Chalmers said after shooting a first-round 66 that left him three strokes behind. "They're not exactly mush like they normally are here. There's been some whispers about Bermuda for next year. That would make the golf course extremely difficult. You can make it firmer."

"It'll change the way the golf course plays overnight," Janzen said.

There are three more days on the traditional bentgrass greens at traditional old Sedgefield. Are they the last three days of Wyndham greens as we know them?

Only time will tell. Time and John McConnell.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin @news-record.com