Astroturf?

[bobmac]

Or grass?
What does your course do regarding winter tees?
Do they just move the blocks forward onto the fairway, do they have astroturf areas or those horrible rubber mats?
The reason I ask is last year we put down some large astroturf squares about 10ft by 10ft on the wet tees on the course.
This year, they're not bothering because the seniors dont like them. They prefer to play off the mud

 

[Robobum]

We only have one astro mat affair on one short par 3 where practically everyone would take a divot/ gouge. Our other par 3s are between 180 & 210 so only a small % are taking divots so the tees remain in good nick throughout.

There are a couple of clubs near me that have installed "permanent" winter tees. They are built in to the front of the teeing ground and are flat and level with the existing tee. They are made of the "rubber crumb" style stuff that you find on the 3G football pitches.

You can stick a proper tee into them and even take a sort of "divot" in that the club doesn't bounce as on normal astro mats, there is a little bit of give in them.

 

[viscount17]

we have a mixture.
The best is a purpose built tee with I guess Astroturf that is of decent size and in which you can peg a tee.

The worst have a concrete base with an astroturf liner. These have slots cut in which to tee up but are useless as they won't allow a tee to be pushed in sufficiently nor hold it if you do get one in. They are way too small, barely wide enough to take a stance. The bases on several are cracked from being laid on an uneven surface so are not level.

Worst thing with Astroturf? It gets full of grit and there's never a broom!

 

[USER1999]

We go to a winter course, grass tee boxes well forward of the summer ones, no par 5s. No mats though which is good.

 

[Doh]

We also have a winter course with a winter card (measured course)but we tee off Astroturf mats and play off normal fairways and greens.

 

[Dave3498]

We play off regular tees and greens all the year round unless there is some maintenance taking place. With proper management, I can't see why winter tees are needed at all. It's only necessary to open the tee boxes as wide as possible giving players a large choice of where to stand, and make sure that the boxes are moved to another location every day. Failing that, an area of grass can be prepared for use when the regular tees are too wet. The greens are another matter of course.

 

[slugger]

our club has 3 or 4 astro mats that they use throughout the year depending on weather... however, this year they played one matt all the way through summer and i only hit of proper grass from that tee in one medal comp all summer. The tee is in pristine condition - no wonder if no one ever hits from it! It's one of the reasons i'm leaving to go to another club. You pay your money, and don't even get to hit from grass when it's available!

Don't mind hitting from them when the weather turns bad though, and would rather hit from them than mud!

 

[Dave3498]

Don't blame you Slugger.

 

[big_russ]

We have 15 out of 18 tees that have astroturf areas either built into the main tee box or built seperate to one side. The astroturf is built on top of a sand base and tee pegs can easily pushed into them and they are quite forgiving to play off.
They are not the best thing but anything that allows the course to regenerate itself during the bad weather is OK by me.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

My club has no winter mats. It simply relies on good greenkeeping that moves the blocks around every couple of days and makes use of the whole teeing ground. That said they do need to look at the ground on some of them as they seem to have sunk in places and can be hard to get a level stance.

 

[RGDave]

We have astro mats. I LOVE them.

No. 1 it's like being at the range (straighter because the mat lines you up).

No. 2 you can use the "item of the devil" on them.....those 3 rubber tee things tied together with string.

No. 3 they take 180 yards off the last four, which means more pars for me, as I don't need to draw the ball!!!