Winter tees and greens

[NWJocko]

What does your club do?

We (not a links course) stay on full greens and tees all the way through. Apart from the 2nd at the moment which is having the green altered.

I don't pretend to know anything about it but, even in our clubhouse, some people think we should be on temps and some (one of the greenkeepers has also said) it makes absolutely no difference.

So, do you go to temporary tees and/or greens in winter? Does it seem to help?

Also, if anyone knows any of the theory behind why it does or doesn't make a difference I would be interested to know more about it.

 

[DaveM]

We stay on the normal greens and tees. Unless one needs work on it. But its put back into when they finish.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We don't have mats so on proper tees all year. THey do try and keep us on full greens unless we get hard frosts.

 

[bluetoon]

Winter tees & fairway mats and if hard frost temp greens

Feel a bit cheated, but its the same on all courses round here.

 

[wull]

if its a hard frost then the course should either be temp greens or closed,walking on the greens can damage the grass roots.

killin at the moment is full greens but thay are using all the forward tee's which makes no sense to me.it means all the players are playing from the very same tee's and you can see the damage this has caused already.fair enough there isn't that many players at this time of the year but it's still not good.i'm not sure when they are going to change over.

callander are on winter greens and tee's and you play from mats or kick it to the rough.they are however playing the occaisonal full green depending on conditions.

 

[Hendo007]

Not really sure what my course is doing, av not seen it in a couple of months !!!

 

[BTatHome]

we don't have any winter tees anywhere on the course. And although we have a couple of greens marked out I've only ever seen them played once in the 3 years that I've been there.

 

[Crow]

Our course can get a bit heavy in the wnter so we have winter greens and tees, the winter greens are pretty well cared for all year round and so aren't too bad to play on.

For me the biggest damage caused by playing in winter is caused by pitch marks, a) they're much bigger and more frequent and b) they don't seem to heal so quiclky even if they're properly repaired, especially when not, as the grass isn't growing very much. This might not be a problem on a course with firm greens, it might even be a load of rubbish imagined by me, but come spring the greens can show a lot of pitch mark sized bald spots.

Another advantage of having winter greens is that it helps the greenstaff prepare the main greens ready for the new season without having to worry about upsetting the players.

 

[Scouser]

Jocko do u plat at Beacon? was up there for a lesson and noticed that any ball on the fairway had to be moved to the first cut!

Thats not golf...dont see why u cant play form the fairway at some places?!?!?

 

[NWJocko]

Jocko do u plat at Beacon? was up there for a lesson and noticed that any ball on the fairway had to be moved to the first cut!

Thats not golf...dont see why u cant play form the fairway at some places?!?!?

Not there, don't even know where Beacon is to be honest!!

We don't have to kick off the fairways although I've played somewhere before (Preston GC I think) where that was the case. Seemed a bit odd to me.

 

[Scouser]

Not there, don't even know where Beacon is to be honest!!

We don't have to kick off the fairways although I've played somewhere before (Preston GC I think) where that was the case. Seemed a bit odd to me.

Sorry thought it was you that recommended the coach thats there to me! my mistake

 

[richart]

We play off yellow tees in the winter, no mats, and only go onto temps when there is a frost. Quite happy to play on temps, as I would rather the greens were at their best in the spring and summer.