Question for the green keepers on winter mats on tees

[Jigger]

I play on a course where winter tees resemble astroturf on top of a box Filled with concrete and have experienced places using what can only be described as a dodgy metal framed coffee table styled trampolines.

Flip side of that is when I played Siloth a few years back and they had great mats on the normal tee box which they appeared to move daily. they we slightly wider and had lots of slits to plant a tee peg and looked well maintained in that they weren’t bunged up with broken tees.

what’s the green keepers view on this? Too expensive for most clubs? Too time consuming when clearing leaves is a better option? Or just does not work on some times of courses?

thanks

 

[jim8flog]

I play on a course where winter tees resemble astroturf on top of a box Filled with concrete and have experienced places using what can only be described as a dodgy metal framed coffee table styled trampolines.

Flip side of that is when I played Siloth a few years back and they had great mats on the normal tee box which they appeared to move daily. they we slightly wider and had lots of slits to plant a tee peg and looked well maintained in that they weren’t bunged up with broken tees.

what’s the green keepers view on this? Too expensive for most clubs? Too time consuming when clearing leaves is a better option? Or just does not work on some times of courses?

thanks

we have a mix

We have mats which get moved on a lot of the tees they cost £2000 each.

We also have some tees which are mats on concrete. Trouble is they have lacked maintenance (simply taking them in in spring and hitting with a power washer) some have just been abandoned they have got so bad.

We have some grass winter tees.

 

[Golfnut1957]

we have a mix

We have mats which get moved on a lot of the tees they cost £2000 each.

We also have some tees which are mats on concrete. Trouble is they have lacked maintenance (simply taking them in in spring and hitting with a power washer) some have just been abandoned they have got so bad.

We have some grass winter tees.

We have the exact same mix as you. One problem with the expensive really nice mats on the grass tee is people teeing up on the left of them and then standing on the grass to address the ball. Normally on a grass tee players stand in different locations addressing the ball but in the first instance they are all standing in the exact same spot chewing that area up and thus negating the point of the mats.
I had a couple of PP doing this and berated them, their response was that the club had not imposed a restriction on the practise, so it was ok. When the club did place a restriction, insisting all players stand on the mat they complied, but too many didn't, so they moved the nice expensive mats onto existing tatty old mats.

 

[Imurg]

3 of our par 3s have winter mats...1 doesn't seem to get used now they've built an additional grass tee box
The other 2 have just been replaced by Huxley
The 16th tee mat is about the size of 6 range mats laid in a rectangle - perfect.
The 10th is the size of 1 range mat. With the vast majority of players being right handed this mat is going to last 2 winters before it need replacing because everyone will hit from the same place...there's room to make it the size of 4 range mats but they settled on 1.....beats me.......
I don't know why the other mat isn't used or why the other 2 par 3s don't have mats at all....

 

[Jigger]

We have the exact same mix as you. One problem with the expensive really nice mats on the grass tee is people teeing up on the left of them and then standing on the grass to address the ball. Normally on a grass tee players stand in different locations addressing the ball but in the first instance they are all standing in the exact same spot chewing that area up and thus negating the point of the mats.
I had a couple of PP doing this and berated them, their response was that the club had not imposed a restriction on the practise, so it was ok. When the club did place a restriction, insisting all players stand on the mat they complied, but too many didn't, so they moved the nice expensive mats onto existing tatty old mats.

As with anything in life, it’s the morons who spoil it.

 

[Jigger]

3 of our par 3s have winter mats...1 doesn't seem to get used now they've built an additional grass tee box
The other 2 have just been replaced by Huxley
The 16th tee mat is about the size of 6 range mats laid in a rectangle - perfect.
The 10th is the size of 1 range mat. With the vast majority of players being right handed this mat is going to last 2 winters before it need replacing because everyone will hit from the same place...there's room to make it the size of 4 range mats but they settled on 1.....beats me.......
I don't know why the other mat isn't used or why the other 2 par 3s don't have mats at all....

I saw a similar hub piece of astroturf used at a club once which is also perfect for pegging up on. Not sure how long it lasted.

 

[jim8flog]

We have the exact same mix as you. One problem with the expensive really nice mats on the grass tee is people teeing up on the left of them and then standing on the grass to address the ball. Normally on a grass tee players stand in different locations addressing the ball but in the first instance they are all standing in the exact same spot chewing that area up and thus negating the point of the mats.
I had a couple of PP doing this and berated them, their response was that the club had not imposed a restriction on the practise, so it was ok. When the club did place a restriction, insisting all players stand on the mat they complied, but too many didn't, so they moved the nice expensive mats onto existing tatty old mats.

We have that local rule, when mats are in use players must stand on the mat to play their shot. I have had to tick of a couple of players for taking their practice swing on the grass before teeing of from the mat.