We’re not there yet; winter that is. Here in North Texas, we can pretty much play year round but it does get chilly. And the chilly weather brings with it a different course. Except for the over seeded tee boxes, all the turf (> 200 acres of it) is dormant. That means the little white ball rolls like the dickens – a good drive in the summertime could translate to winter time madness because a ball that found the fairway 6 months ago will now roll through the fairway and into the rough, a hazard, or out of bounds.
The cold weather also brings with it a different kind of maintenance. The course mechanic is overhauling equipment and our GCSAA superintendent is doing projects that took a back seat during our peak growing season.
Seems like there are always challenges with drainage; whether it’s puddles in low spots on the cart paths or soft false fronts to some of the greens is always something. Then there’s our ESA (environmentally sensitive areas) that get their once a year cleanout.
One of the initiatives here actually free up some of the hours the staff needs for course set-up. A couple of years ago, we went to rotating cups during the dormant turf season. Each green has 3 hole placements. They are rotated daily (maybe every other day if play is light) and new holes are cut only ever second or third week (again depending on play). The cup plugs aren’t growing so there is zero chance the hole ‘scar’ will heal.
It works pretty well and when the warmer weather returns, the greens bounce back a lot easier.
