Masters Week. The best and worst week of the year. The tournament is incredible, the fans knowledgeable, and the course is meticulously perfect. I love the Masters. I have been lucky enough to walk the golf course during a practice round. I have seen the perfection and marveled in it on television. Not a pine needle out of place, azaleas in bloom, greens perfect, and not a single blemish in the fairways. It takes a lot to get the golf course there but there are also a lot of eyes on it this week. Instantly, every golf course in the world is compared to an Augusta National Golf Club that is peaking for this one Easter Weekend. That makes our job a little bit more difficult but pushes us to take our golf course to a new level. We take pride in the golf course but realize that we are not Augusta National. Enjoy the Masters, take in the perfection, but please realize the difference between Augusta National and every other golf course in America.
Today, is the day Bud. I know you are reading this blog post on your new IPhone or IPad 3 after receiving it via your Twitter handle, @GolfGadgetGuy. You have asked me this question for the last 4 months. What about carts? Well today, Bud, we are 90 degrees. Every hole, even # 3. The rain tomorrow night will probably ruin your Thursday but for now, enjoy it. We will be 90 degrees in the fairways as long as they stay dry. With this in mind, there will be no more handicapped flags. Fairways will be accessible to every one or no one.
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| This picture illustrates why cart traffic is limited to the cart paths during the winter. Constant traffic leads to compacted soils and damages the plant during dormancy. This delays green up and good conditions. |
So the golf course looks great. No weeds, greens recovering well from
aeration, the TifSport is green and actively growing. The tree lines
between 10 and 12 and to the left of 9 are shaping up well. The bunker
work this winter is paying off with good bunker conditions. Carts are
allowed off the path about 4 weeks early. But there is that thing that
people are whispering about, starting to worry about, including me. The
TifSport collars around the greens. Foot and equipment traffic beat
these things up every winter while the TifSport is dormant. The process
of putting green aeration is tough on them and the constant topdressing
of the greens covers these areas in sand. The biggest culprit of all
is compaction and design. The areas around the greens are tight and
mowers have no where else to turn. Our staff makes a lot of choices
based on collar health including turning mowers on lattice, carpeting
around greens during growth inhibitor applications, and constant solid
tine aerations to reduce compaction. We know this is a challenging
issue and we are attacking it on multiple levels. I see a lot of grass
out there but some areas will have to be sodded. We may have to change
from walk mowers to triplex mowers in the winter months to prevent
damage. Some design challenges make it very difficult to vary our
traffic patterns, not just from equipment but from foot traffic. I
appreciate the concerns and have had multiple people voice them.
Please, I welcome questions and concerns and I hope the next few
pictures help explain the issues. The bottom line is that most of the
collars will come in fine. They will just take longer than the rest of
the golf course and some of the highest traffic areas will have to be
sodded. We are working diligently to fix this issue and improve these
areas.
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| TifSport Collars or Aprons are carpeted to prevent chemicals used on greens from affecting turf health. The same growth inhibitors that work well on bentgrass putting greens will have a negative affect on the TifSport. |
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| There is a lot of green grass in these areas. It will just take longer to come in due to compaction and traffic. |
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| Our staff turns mowers on lattice to help reduce wear and tear in these areas. We have experimented with where to place the lattice but large tear dropped shaped turns are the best way to reduce traffic and damage directly around greens. |
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| You can see that the design of #9 green only allows foot traffic from behind the green or directly in front of it. |
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| There is really only one place to turn the mowers here. The flat 18 inches directly off the green is worn out from mower traffic. |
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| Once again, there really isn't much room to make a wide tear drop turn, like we would like to. Design affects maintenance and in turn, conditions. Triplex mowers may be utilized in the winter to prevent this damage. In the mean time, extra fertility and solid tine aerations are being utilized to improve these areas. |
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| The picture of these great Willow Oak trees represents environmental conditions and green up. The tree in the middle that is so green is the one in the patio. My best guess would be that the brick in the patio and the surrounding building heat up quickly which raises soil temperatures. This causes an earlier green up. Other stresses such as cart path or competition may lead to a delayed green up in the other two trees. The point is that things green up based on a number of things including stress, soil temperatures, and micro environments. |
