For the past two years, I’ve been our men’s golf association grounds chair. My primary responsibility to the membership has been to understand what’s going on with our course’s turf and communicate that to our membership. Grounds also means knowing what’s wet, what’s overly dry, and what needs attention as well as monitor cutting heights for greens, fairways, and rough. In order to do that, a good working relationship with our course superintendent was paramount. I think that was accomplished and with that, here’s my ‘State of the Course’ as I pass the baton to my successor.
The greens here at the ranch are in great shape. We’ve had our challenges but the turf is very healthy and the ball rolls true. We still have some work to do addressing the tiff eagle thatch and that’s going to be addressed with more verticutting in ’09. With that, also look for more frequent light topdressing.
In ’09 as in years past, green aeration will continue as it’s necessary for healthy turf. Our superintendent has met with the golf shop personnel, the WGA, and the MGA and has mapped our major events for ’09. Those events will determine our greens aeration schedule.
In ’08, our major benefactor and the developer of the ‘ranch’ here in Denton, funded renovation of our front 9 bunkers. They didn’t drain very well and after any kind of rain event, our maintenance crew hit the course with 3 or 4 pumps to drain water from our bunkers. While it might not seem like much, this diverted resources from normal maintenance activities. I am happy to report that the front 9 renovation was a huge success. Just last night, we had 1.5 inches of rain and this is one of the renovated bunkers. It didn’t need pumping and as you can see, there’s no standing water and the sand has just about dried out. Just a few days ago, the renovation of the back 9 started.
Not only was this a huge surprise, it will be completed sometime in early December. I wish I could take credit for that but it was through the hard work of one of the members of our green committee. You know who you are, and thanks!
Looking back, we also diverted some budgeted dollars for trees and instead got the entire course aerated. This will only improve turf conditions and if the ’09 budget is approved as we discussed it with our course superintendent, we’ll see both a spring and late summer aeration take place. We’ve got terrible dirt (compacted clay) here at the ranch and aeration is a major step in improving some of the rock hard fairway conditions.
Cart traffic has been something of a challenge and we’ve dramatically improved turf wear in many areas with strategic placement of rope.
The prognosis is good but we’re still challenged – fixing ball marks on greens can be improved. Filling divots is not an option; we really need to make sure we police ourselves when playing.
And finally, my swan song hot button in the form of a question…..
What’s the shortest distance between two points when playing golf here at the ranch? (hint: it’s not a straight line unless you are walking)
It is drive down the cart path until you are at a point that’s 90 degrees (right or left) on a line to your ball. Now, since you aren’t walking, after you take your shot, it’s that same 90 degrees in the opposite direction that you take to get back to the cart path so that you can proceed to your ball in the same manner as before.
I bring this up because over the past 4 to 6 weeks, I’ve noticed some unusual cart traffic wear patterns. This one is a short cut to the left side of our 9th fairway. On this example,
I made sure that some of the stakes were far enough to allow a cart to drive through and, unfortunately, I wasn’t disappointed.
Also, rock work continues along some of the edges of the cart path to prevent wear and rutting. If we could keep carts on the path, the additional expense of time and materials wouldn’t be necessary and the maintenance crew could be working on other activities like installing a drain system in the front of the ever wet 3rd green.
I understand that we are not a private club and we share our course and golf facilities with daily players. I don’t know who’s responsible but I do know that if each of us is diligent with our daily play and that of the others in our groups, these turf challenges will be greatly minimized.
What you won’t see because of this wear is grass where the cart tracks are. The grass blades will be broken, the turf will be compacted, and when the weather warms again next spring, these areas and others like them will be the last to green up – perhaps by the 4th of July if we’re lucky.
Finally, I think our course is in pretty good shape. Over the past 4 or 5 weeks, I’ve met several times with our course superintendent to talk about what happens during the winter season and what to expect for ’09. He has a handle on what needs to be done to get his entire crew familiar with all facets of course maintenance like mowing, (greens, tees, fairways, and rough), set-up, (adjusting tee markers, cleaning up tee boxes), pin placements (cutting new cups and filling the old ones), and a keen eye for identifying what’s not working and the initiative to correct problems.
We’ve come a long way in the past two years and with our MGA membership’s continued cooperation and help, we’ll continue to enjoy playing as we watch the course improve year after year.
My thanks to everyone – remember, keep it in the short grass.
