Winter = Snow +Sledges = Damage to Course

[DCB]

I'm just back from the golf club, course closed sign was up which was not surprising after several inches of snow last Thursday. It's all gone now, but what I saw this afternoon made me look twice.
We have a course which is hilly in places and is used, when the infrequent winter snows cover the course, by lots of folks (familys) sledging. The greenstaff usually protect the vulnerable areas with wire fencing to stop direct access to greens & tees etc and this usually works well. Today I saw sledge tracks in the grass from right in front of the cluhouse onto the 18th greenand across the green. It's the first time I've seen that type of damage right in front of the clubhouse windows. What are people ( maybe I should say parents as it's a family activity usually !) thinking of when they let their kids sledge down onto and across a green like that. 50yds further along and there would have been a clear run all the way down to the carpark !

Some folks just have no consideration for others.

 

[madandra]

Tazer the wee 5h1tes !!!!!! And run a few volts through the fence while you are at it. Get the local rag onto it and let the guilty parties see what damage they have done.

 

[USER1999]

We get the same on our 16th green. The parents usual responce is 'there is no sign saying you shouldn't'. Idiots, as if they can read anyway.

 

[Parmo]

Hanging is too good for people like that, the kids should be made to sow every last piece of grass they have destroyed and shall only receive water and bread.

If your club has let people do this and tried in no way to stop people, then I would have a word about future protection of the course in bad weather.

 

[viscount17]

It's ignorance pure and simple (with the emphasis on the latter).
To 90% of the population grass is that green stuff that cows eat or that Dad complains about cutting once a month. If they follow football (Chelsea in particular) they know that it's just a substitute for mud.
No, the persons at fault here are a) the greenkeeper and b) the committee.

 

[DCB]

You know most of the year the parents will be more than happy for wee Johnny to sit in front of a screen playing his Nintendo/Wii/XBox or whatever because it's too dangerous to play outside. So why let wee Johnny out on a shiny piece of plastic and allow him to hurtle down a slope covered in snow!

Maybe it's the "Ah... when I was a lad we had snow 16' deep every winter" mentality of the parents.

Anyway, saw a nice brochure at work today about security fences for high security establishments, maybe thats whats needed, but the leccy bill may be a bit high!

 

[birdieman]

I agree it's the clubs fault, they need to fence off the greens.
The sledgers dont know where the fairway stops and the green starts if it's covered in snow as they're generally not golfers and never go there unless there is snow.
Kids need to get off the sofa and go and have some proper fun that involves hiking back up a hill and building jumps etc.
If we can't golf for snow then let the sledgers have some fun, they do on my old course and it never did any harm.

 

[DCB]

Birdieman,

the greenstaff do protect all the vulnerable greens and tees by placing posts and wire fencing above them from late Nov - end of winter. This means that the vulnerable areas out on the course do get protected. What took me by surprise is that the 18th green was damaged by someone sliding down a very short slope onto a wet green right in front of the main lounge window. A sledge ride of less than 5 seconds! We've never had that before on that green.