Let the wheel debate begin

[2blue]

I can sort of understand them on electric trollies to prevent the wheels spinning, but not on push trollies - that just baffles me🤔

Will depend how heavy your bag is but you'll get the same advantages as I've described earlier but not to the same degree. Still worth it IMO.

 

[Deleted member 18588]

I genuinely fail to see how trolleys can cause damage other than in the most extreme weather conditions.

After all we don't all follow in each other's wheel tracks.

In constricted areas, such as around some tees, we have at our course paths that feed into the fairways.

 

[mikevet]

Hedgehog wheels are banned at our course, which is on Wealden clay and so quite heavy and wet in winter. The reasoning is that hedgehog wheels are meant to reduce the area of wheel in contact with the ground, as they are supposed to rest on the tips and not dig in; once the ground is soft and wet they dig in and damage the top layer of the ground.

 

[Leftie]

Don't get me started on this subject

 

[Norrin Radd]

Don't get me started on this subject

Please let's lol

 

[Imurg]

Don't get me started on this subject

Go on Rog....hedgeumacate us....

 

[clubchamp98]

Will depend how heavy your bag is but you'll get the same advantages as I've described earlier but not to the same degree. Still worth it IMO.

Not disputing your explanation.
But wouldn’t they just leave thousands of pitch mark like indentations in the turf .
I would think that’s not good for it.
But open to be educated.

 

[HampshireHog]

I think for the most part it is just a ploy to increase trolly hires.

I once rocked up at a course with my own hedgehog wheels on a pull trolley and they refused to let me use it, as they only allowed there trolleys on the course in winter.

I played at course at the time where Hedgehogs were mandatory between November and March, I was pretty much the only member who bought there own, most people just hired them.

 

[Leftie]

Go on Rog....hedgeumacate us....

Let's just say that last time this subject raised it's ugly head, I asked if anyone could provide actual documented evidence that their use was/was not beneficial to the course (not anecdotal hearsay!). Rulefan and LP reckoned they had seen such evidence but I'm still waiting (and fortunately not holding my breath) for links.

https://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk/threads/hedgehog-wheels.99213/page-2#post-1971786

I think that it's now a case that Hedgehog did a great selling job and clubs that were fooled and insisted that members (and guests) must buy/rent them don't want the embarrassment of admitting their mistake. I know that at my club, several hundred members bought them and would now be very miffed if the club changed their policy.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

No hedgehog wheels at my club on the advice of the head greenkeeper. I simply keep a set of hedgehog wheels on my Go-Kart in case I play an away course that does implement them

 

[rulefan]

Let's just say that last time this subject raised it's ugly head, I asked if anyone could provide actual documented evidence that their use was/was not beneficial to the course (not anecdotal hearsay!). Rulefan and LP reckoned they had seen such evidence but I'm still waiting (and fortunately not holding my breath) for links.

I am conscious of that. I attended a presentation that the STRI made to my EGU sub-committee a few years ago. I had a conversation in the 'field' with a technician about the topic and was told that the STRI were doing trials but the report wasn't ready to publish as it takes a few years to test the longer term effects effect on turf. I had made some notes of the gist of their information so far but it seems I have disposed of all my records when the sub committee closed down.
I contacted the STRI but have had no response to date.

 

[Leftie]

Thanks RF. Appreciate your position and that these studies can take a long time to come to a conclusion.

All the more concerning then that a "University study" sponsored by an interested party could come to a conclusion fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, I also do not now have the details of the info I found and, so far, have been unable to find it on the web.

 

[Imurg]

Hogs were mandatory at my last club and the indentations were plainly visible during wet times.
The Zoo doesn't require hogs.
They both get as soft as each other, they're both relatively flat so similar in ground condition.
The Zoo deteriorates less than AP used to.
The only thing I can see that hogs achieve is to add grip for going uphill. Sheepskin can damage fairways and the more grip the better but I'm not, and never have been, convinced that they make a real difference.

 

[rulefan]

Thanks RF. Appreciate your position and that these studies can take a long time to come to a conclusion.

All the more concerning then that a "University study" sponsored by an interested party could come to a conclusion fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, I also do not now have the details of the info I found and, so far, have been unable to find it on the web.

I would be very wary of a 'quick study' of an agricultural subject, particularly one that was concerned with long term effects of soil structure and root penetration.