Course setup

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

We have a course maintenance plan in our handbook. If any body wants to know they can read it there. However like anything golf wise it depends on the weather and the number of staff we have.

We get prior notice of anything out of the ordinary planned such a course renovation and alteration.

We start tomorrow on our Autumn greens tinning and seeding/dressing programme - email notification received today.

I expect our Winter works programme to be published shortly. Much of what will be in it will depend upon how well our flooding mitigation works of the last 18 months, and those of the neighbouring farmer with whom we are working, succeed in managing such as the torrential downpours of the last week…continued with a 2hr deluge earlier today.

We got a works update coms email today - the work our neighbouring farmer has done over the summer to manage and contain water falling on his land, to hopefully prevent run off rainfall flowing onto the course, is very substantial and way beyond what the club was probably expecting. Plus we will continue to observe and monitor how successful what the council has done has been to free up the flow of water off the course other end from the farmer.

Major stuff. Speed of greens etc are way down my thinking as far as course management, setup and maintenance.

 

[VVega]

Picking the points from the Course Rating thread, do you know how your course is set up/maintained? How often do you get updates on this?

In particular:

- greens speed
- greens cut height
- greens cut frequency
- greens other applications: rolling, ironing, brushing, scarifying

- fairways cut height
- fw semi rough height
- fw rough height
- fw cut frequency

- greenside / fw bunkers raking frequency

TLDR of responses: no updates/info, no one cares anyway. I’ll go back to reading my golf architecture forum

 

[Neilds]

Height of green cut, overnight watering done, etc.
Recent cut of fairway and/or rough.
I need to look, because if I'm informed that cut of fairway was "xx" mm done yesterday, I'm left wondering what that means.
I look, I see, then I know.

So, when you see the fairway is cut to a nice medium height(not using mm as you won’t be measuring it) how does this affect how you play?

Or are you just trying to increase your post count?

 

[Voyager EMH]

So, when you see the fairway is cut to a nice medium height(not using mm as you won’t be measuring it) how does this affect how you play?

Or are you just trying to increase your post count?

You are increasing my post count by asking me a question which I must reply to politely rather than ignore.

A medium cut fairway height does not cause me to make any adjustment to my approach to the play of the course.

It is when the fairways seem a bit slower running that I need to consider this when running long shots towards the green on our longer par-4s, of which the first hole is one.
If you are not satisfied with this answer, please feel free to press me for more.
Thank you for taking an interest in my post.

 

[Neilds]

You are increasing my post count by asking me a question which I must reply to politely rather than ignore.

A medium cut fairway height does not cause me to make any adjustment to my approach to the play of the course.

It is when the fairways seem a bit slower running that I need to consider this when running long shots towards the green on our longer par-4s, of which the first hole is one.
If you are not satisfied with this answer, please feel free to press me for more.
Thank you for taking an interest in my post.

Voyager on the 8th - 150 yards left to the pin:
“Nice easy shot, land it at 135 yards and let it funnel in to the centre of the green”



“Oh, hang on, they haven’t cut the fairways since Tuesday, better club up and land it at 145”

Utter tosh!

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Competition days, I walk to the edge of the 18th green and have a look.
First hole, I walk on to the fairway after hitting my drive and take a look before playing my ball from the rough.
After putting out on the first hole, I have all the information I need.
Any more information would clog my head.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Voyager on the 8th - 150 yards left to the pin:
“Nice easy shot, land it at 135 yards and let it funnel in to the centre of the green”



“Oh, hang on, they haven’t cut the fairways since Tuesday, better club up and land it at 145”

Utter tosh!

I'm afraid I do not understand how fairway cut affects choice of spot to land a shot on the green. I am unable to make a coherent response to that scenario.
Neither do I understand why you would write something, but then describe it as tosh, apparently disagreeing with yourself.

However, when I am 195 to the pin on a par-4 into the wind, I will most likely have to run the ball to the green.
I will attempt to take many things into account when deciding what shot to play.
How much the fairways are "running" due to length and condition of the grass is one of those things.
Then just whack it and hope for the best.

Anyway, to sum up, I don't need to be given the technical information of day, time and height fairways and greens were cut, I just play the course as I see it.

 

[Imurg]

We get a monthly update on course condition, works etc
It includes cutting heights for Greens, surrounds, approaches, fairways, 1st and sometimes 2nd cut of rough.
Not particularly useful but nice to have the communication...if something is in the pipeline you get to know about it.
For example...our rough mower died a few weeks back. There was much grumbling as it seemed they were growing the rough until the update explained it
It also announced when the new mower was coming....
As for green speed...I'm not convinced we have enough flat spots on ours to roll a stimpmeter and get a reading.....

 

[Slab]

Club newsletters have bits of info but most info on what the course is like at any given time comes from just looking at the practice greens and the fairways I can see near the clubhouse
Way more impactful than cut length/roll etc is, wind/weather and where tee markers are located that day and amount of overnight rain (so I get up around 3am on comp days to listen out for passing showers)

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Get regular updates on the course conditions but never anything on green speed aside from club championship days when they get cut and ironed

 

[patricks148]

Nairn Dunbar did get most of this info up until recently they used to get a detailed weekly update on a friday from the Head Green keeper.. that was until Royal Aberdeen poached him.

 

[Doh]

We get detailed updates on a monthly basis we also have a Greens committee who members can access with any queries.

 

[jim8flog]

We start tomorrow on our Autumn greens tinning and seeding/dressing programme - email notification received today.

I expect our Winter works programme to be published shortly. Much of what will be in it will depend upon how well our flooding mitigation works of the last 18 months, and those of the neighbouring farmer with whom we are working, succeed in managing such as the torrential downpours of the last week…continued with a 2hr deluge earlier today.

We got a works update coms email today - the work our neighbouring farmer has done over the summer to manage and contain water falling on his land, to hopefully prevent run off rainfall flowing onto the course, is very substantial and way beyond what the club was probably expecting. Plus we will continue to observe and monitor how successful what the council has done has been to free up the flow of water off the course other end from the farmer.

Major stuff. Speed of greens etc are way down my thinking as far as course management, setup and maintenance.

In the area I live a lot of the clubs have gone to an August renovation rather an Autumn renovation. It has been shown to greatly improve the greens over winter as there is enough warmth still for good regrowth. Previously we had some winters where the greens never recovered from an Autumn renovation until the following spring.

It does have the downside of being rain dependent to get a full recovery and there a few complaints about the greens just after it has been done.

 

[jim8flog]

One thing I would add is that the course manager does a monthly update at the Captain's committee meeting which can be read online (but some time later)

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Verti draining fairways today and coring the greens. Necessary work at this time of year so happy to put up with the greens being a little below their normal quality for a bit

 

[Crow]

To buck the (expected, unfortunately) trend of replies. Here is a positive example:

Greens
Cut early every day, currently 4mm (can be 3.5mm – 6mm).

Tees and aprons
Cut twice-weekly to a height of 12mm.

Fairways
Cut weekly to a height of 15mm.

First cut / semi rough
Cut weekly to a height of 25mm.

Rough
Cut weekly to a height of 50mm.

Raking green-side bunkers twice weekly

Raking fairway bunkers weekly

I’m not saying this is essential information to win completions, more of appreciating the quality of the course presentation and managing expectations.

While many might be delighted with this information and course set-up, it's a level of fussiness that doesn't inspire me at all.

I much prefer a course that's a bit rough round the edges, that looks natural. The precision manicuring described is more what I'd expect to find in a town's formal gardens, it just needs a few flower beds on each tee, shaped to represent the club's crest etc, and a clock set into a tightly mown bank and you're sorted.

I imagine I'm in the minority with this view.

 

[wull]

Next you’ll tell me you want to know that they are verti draining with 20mm solid tines to a depth of 8” with a 2” spacing and that the bunkers have been filled with 6” of sand compressed down to 4”.

As for the FOC that made me chuckle. You do realise how FOC is calculated? Literally 99% of Greenkeepers don’t care about FOC, I could control and change FOC on some of the newer higher tech machines but unless you have that you can’t really calculate it without being a total arse, absolutely pointless.

See this for me is the problem with golfers, there is absolutely no reason for them to know any of this, you go out and enjoy the course, enjoy the game, you see the course is looking and playing well so why would you need to know what the heights are and how frequently they are being cut?

Oh and once per week for cutting rough and fairways is not enough, especially fairways at 15mm using cylinder cutting units, the cut one week later with a weeks worth of growth would be terrible, people would think there was something wrong with the units when in fact it’s just a case of cylinder units not being able to cope with cutting grass that’s got one weeks worth of growth, doesn’t matter how sharp they are or whether the bedknife to reel adjustment has been set perfectly, in fact once per week is a sure way to wear them out quickly and cause issues with the units.

Unless they are spraying a PGR but I doubt it.

 

[sunshine]

However, when I am 195 to the pin on a par-4 into the wind, I will most likely have to run the ball to the green.
I will attempt to take many things into account when deciding what shot to play.
How much the fairways are "running" due to length and condition of the grass is one of those things.
Then just whack it and hope for the best.

Surely you also need to know the stripe pattern on the fairways and the direction of cut, as this impacts roll.

Diamond pattern or half and half, that is the question.

 

[Ye Olde Boomer]

Our course was designed by Scottish born Donald Ross and opened in 1906.
About a decade or so ago, it was closed for two years, I believe it was, for a complete repair and restoration.
Better drainage was engineered.
Every blade of grass was replanted.
Bunkers were totally rebuilt.
Even the clubhouse was renovated for a more retro, original appearance.

The 1906 format was duplicated as closely as possible except for the Donald Ross greens.
The greens were made easier to hit, easier to hold, and easier to putt,
all for the purpose of getting folks through the little 6000 yard course even faster.

I couldn't be happier playing anyplace else,
although I do wish that I got to play the legendary UK and Irish links courses
when I was still young enough to take them on.

 

[VVega]

While many might be delighted with this information and course set-up, it's a level of fussiness that doesn't inspire me at all.

I much prefer a course that's a bit rough round the edges, that looks natural. The precision manicuring described is more what I'd expect to find in a town's formal gardens, it just needs a few flower beds on each tee, shaped to represent the club's crest etc, and a clock set into a tightly mown bank and you're sorted.

I imagine I'm in the minority with this view.

The course this info is for is as far from a manicured country club type as it gets, but with a great hardworking pragmatic green keeping team.