winter greens..

[NWJocko]

Following on from the post re closing courses a question in the same vein.

Course i play on is still on full greens albeit the temps are all ready to go, but one of the guys i was playing with last weekend said that moving off the full greens makes no difference?

I confess to know nothing about the subject, anyone on here more qualified to comment on the advantages of "resting" the ful greens?

Its not a links course by the way...

 

[HawkeyeMS]

I can't claim to know much about grass but my course hasn't had a temp green for 5 years. Being a public course it gets a lot of traffic and is open in all weather except snow.

By April, the greens are perfect, some of the best in the area, so it doesn't do ours any harm.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

It is only in the last two years since we had a new greenkeeper that we've ever used temps and only then if it is a heavy frost. Our greens in the last two years have been excellent to putt on and are improving every season (despite what Smiffy says).

I would imagine heavy traffic on frozen greens would cause significant damage anyway and again if they were excessively wet then surely regular traffic would cause some degree of impact damage especially round the hole. It must help any course to rest the greens. I know some courses routinely take two greens per week out of action during the week to rest the, but having said that they either have very small real greens to the side or have pretty well kept temps that are nothing like the holes plopped in the middle of a fairway that pass as temps at many places.

 

[Tommo21]

How come the winter greens dont suffer.

 

[Aztecs27]

How come the winter greens dont suffer.

Well, if they're anything like the winter greens I've played on in the past, they're more like fairways than greens!

 

[USER1999]

How come the winter greens dont suffer.

You'd never know.

 

[toonarmy]

I had a thought this weekend after playing well from tee to green again and then entering the lottery of getting the ball in the regulation hole on what is essentially bumpy fairway short of the actual green.

Having played a brown course in the Middle East and marvelled at their 'browns', I wondered what people would think of courses creating a 'brown' short and/or to the side (if possible) of every green and using those in winter instead?

During the season, you could either class them as GUR or even cover them with astro-turf type sheets for them to be discrete.

I assume (perhaps wrongly) that as they are a mixture of sand and oil they won't be prone to any of the winter issues we have, although I'm not sure to what extent rain effects them (they don't get much in Bahrain...)

But they are smooth as silk and would enable scoring to remain relevant.

Thoughts?

 

[USER1999]

Winter golf isn't meant to be serious, so why spend money on it?

 

[toonarmy]

Winter golf isn't meant to be serious, so why spend money on it?

Because it might mean you get more business on the course, in the clubhouse etc. and you can protect your greens more and for longer resulting in a better course, better reputation and more business etc...

...is economics that hard to grasp?

 

[Robobum]

The (awful) golf course on Ascension Island has "browns".

When the rain comes down in buckets they wash away like the sides of bunkers.

But then @ 20p for a can of Castle in the honesty bar, I was normally too leathered to care.

 

[USER1999]

Winter golf isn't meant to be serious, so why spend money on it?

Because it might mean you get more business on the course, in the clubhouse etc. and you can protect your greens more and for longer resulting in a better course, better reputation and more business etc...

...is economics that hard to grasp?

No, but I am sure most members would rather spend money on the summer course.

If it's pay and play, why not, except I would have thought astro would be a better bet. Still cost silly money, that could other wise be spent in the high season, when more golfers want to play anyway.

Personally, if a course was charging a tenner to play on temps, of 15 to play on browns, I'd spend my money down the pub, not playing golf.

Added to which, my major gripe with temporary greens is they shorten the course by about 1000 yards, and they are only 8 foot across, generally surrounded by 6" deep rough. Would the quality of the putting make any difference to me? No.