A Golf Blog

Posting Winter Scores and Handicap Computation

Unlike many parts of this great country, we can pretty much play golf year round – it does get cold here but not cold enough for snow to accumulate or for the ground to freeze for an extended period of time. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember any of the greens needing to be covered because of frost or ice in the past 5 years. But that’s not what this is about…..

I play in an area that’s ‘active season’ is year round. An “active season” is the period during which scores made in an area will be accepted for handicap purposes determined by the authorized golf association having jurisdiction in a given area. (USGA Handicap System 2008 – 2011, Definitions, Active Season) For us here at the ranch, our governing body is the Texas Golf Association. They’re responsible for overall governance, like applying the handicap rules for an active season. Now the rub…..

As the weather cools down, our warm weather grasses become dormant. With dormancy, the grass blades break and as that happens, there is less and less friction to slow the roll of a golf ball. As well, with cooler weather come steady winds. Here at the ranch that means usually from the north. The ranch’s course architect designed this track to be played with predominately southerly winds; as is the case in our warmer weather months. Finally, once December rolls around, our local rule permitting ‘preferred lies’ (winter rules for some) kicks in.

Now, what all this means is that our general membership is already gaining advantage on distance because of the dormant turf. And once winter rules kick in, they’ll be able to improve their lie within their own fairway. I can understand that one, but I don’t necessarily like it. Imagine hitting off a perfect lie all the time and getting as much as two additional clubs of distance due to exaggerated rollout of approach and pitch shots. I’m going to take a wild guess here and state that the improved distance from dormant turf could means as much as two or three strokes when scores are posted for handicap purposes. That’s the plus side – lower handicaps and bragging rights on how much you’re improving. The down side? How about those first few club events after the weather warms up and you loose the distance you gained during what I like to call the ‘non-growing’ season. You really have to ask yourself if the handicap improvement is really worth not being competitive when spring time rolls around.

Then there’s the issue of faster speeds on the greens. Our course’s original design was a links course. With that came native grasses instead of rough and tough, undulating greens. The native grasses have long since disappeared – I’m told they were beautiful but the membership complained that it made it to hard and was so vocal about it; the superintendent cut it all down and has been gradually replacing it with Bermuda. Too bad (my $0.02)

Greens here are a challenge to both the course superintendent’s staff as well as the golfers that try to tame the course. Most pins are cut on some sort of slope as there are few greens with relatively flat areas. I found that out yesterday when I sampled 9 greens for stimpmeter readings. I believe that as greens continue toward dormancy, the stimpmeter ratings will increase. And with that increase, scores will be artificially inflated. The average reading yesterday was 11.0 – that’s pretty slick for a track who’s primary demographic is retirees. For fun, I ‘measured’ our 16^th green from a ridge on the left side of the green toward a front middle pin and I got 49.5 on the stimpmeter. The roll back was only 9 which means for that putt only, the reading would have been 29.25. I did manage to find a relatively flat spot for a measurement and to my surprise, the 10.14 reading was the lowest of the 9 that I measured.

What we have here is the added benefit of extra distance due to preferred lies and dormant turf. We also have the challenge of putting on surfaces that average 11.0 on the stimpmeter. I suspect that as the days pass, the fairways and greens here will continue to get faster and posted scores are not going to even come close to a golfer’s true ability.

Unless something comes up, I will continue to measure the greens speeds each week. I’m also going to touch base with the Texas Golf Association to see what’s involved in getting an inactive season. There is an alternative – our handicap committee can declare conditions to sever and prohibit scores from being posted.

I wonder what Wendy will have to say about that?

Going Green

Another hat tip to our benefactor in Arizona is in order.

During one of my many trips as our MGA Grounds Chair to the maintenance area, I noticed that their refuse dumpster was not only full of just about one of everything; it also contained a good amount of recyclable material. That’d be golfer garbage – aluminum beer cans and plastic bottles, the kind Gatorade and other sports drinks come in.

In the past, this golfer garbage was combined with everything else – tree cuttings, grass clippings, fertilizer bags, wood, and assorted construction debris. It was easy to dump it all into a convenient ‘hole in the ground’ and forget about it.

I approached our course superintendent and asked if he’d support the start of a recycle effort here at the ranch. The residents here already participate in the Denton program but he’d be the first (that I’m aware of) to jump in as a member of the team that’s developing the property here.

There were some small hoops I had to negotiate – no big deal. This past Wednesday, the city dropped off this beauty. Now, all we need is to fill it and get it on the curb by 7am on Tuesdays. Seeing that their hours start at 5:30am or so, 7am should be cake.

Now, if someone could only get the restaurant here to participate………..

Pseudo Winter Golf

No, it’s not winter time yet but it sure felt like mom nature was punishing us this morning. When we tee’d off this morning at 8am or so, the temperature was 40 and the wind was from the NNW at 25mph. Using this calculator for wind chill, I found it felt like it was a balmy 29.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cold weather gloves came in handy as did my newest Under Armor heat gear long sleeve shirt. Riding around the course in this with this humming along made it feel like being in a sun drenched toasty warm cocoon.

Of course, that all went away each time I had to unzip the curtain and play a shot.

Know what, a cold windy day on the course sure beats going to the job jar looking for something to do around the house.

Grounds Chair Swan Song

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 9^th 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 3^rd 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 4^th 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.