Definitely pleasing, definitely costly.

Focusing in on Golf Course Maintenance -1986 by LARRY W. GILHULY Director, Western Region, USGA Green Section

" When against one's will, one is highly pressured into making a hurried deci­sion, the best answer is always say no, because no is more easily changed to yes than yes is changed to no."

Charles E. Nielson

LKE HIBERNATING bears in their TV dens, the nation's golfers

• watched, since early January, magnificent shots hit from nearly per­fectly conditioned golf courses from Waikiki to Augusta. Now it is late spring, and summer is half a step away. They have seen the best (in living color), and they look for the same conditions on

their home courses as they have seen on TV. It's easy to overlook that those tournament courses have been groomed and pampered for a year or more and brought to their peak for this one week.

The condition of any golf course is de­termined as much by the money the club is willing to invest as by the talent that goes into managing the expenditures. Obviously, clubs with higher budgets can afford walking mowers for putting greens, tees, and walking aerifiers and triplex mowers for fairways — equip­ment that will certainly help the current and long-range course conditions. But what happens to the golf course superin­tendent who cannot afford these ma­chines and yet is pressured by the mem­

bership to produce equivalent results? Is there any way to convey this dilemma more effectively to a broad portion of the membership? Yes, he can.

Successful golf course superinten­dents of the past have effectively used photographs and 35mm slides to tell their story to the green committee and club officials. Now the time has come when the use of a portable VCR can be even more valuable to the superin­tendent in communicating with club officials, the membership, and the members of his own maintenance crew. Let's explore how this new electronic tool can be used to accommodate cur­rent and fast-changing trends in golf course maintenance.

MAY/JUNE 1986 1

Greens

The main area of concern and emphasisin any maintenance operation must bethe greens. The ultimate goal is to pro-vide the best putting surfaces possiblegiven the soil, turf type, manpower, andirrigation system, but what does theword "best" mean? To some it may meangreens as fast as possible. To others,consistency and smoothness may beequally as important as speed. Still othersare completely satisfied with slowergreens that are smooth and covered withdense grass. It is in the area of puttinggreen speed that pressure has been andcontinues to be felt.

The Stimpmeter, a new and accuratetool, was introduced by the Green Sec-tion in 1976.Its purpose was to establisha standard for judging green speeds forchampionship and regular play. In 1976,the average speed of putting greens wassix feet six inches. The slowest greenswere found to be approximately fourfeet eleven inches while the fastest werein the eight feet six inch range in thewestern United States.

When one looks at these readings andcompares them to green speeds today, itis easy to see the effect the Stimpmeterhas had on putting green maintenancerequirements. There is general agree-

Hand mowing is not cheap.

2 USGA GREEN SECTION RECORD

ment that regular putting green speedsof eight feet (plus or minus six inches)are desired by most players and consist-ently producible through good man-agement by most superintendents. Fewgolfers would now accept the six foot sixinch average speed of ten years ago. Atthe same time, the Speed Wars betweenneighboring clubs for the fastest greensin town, common a few years ago, haveproven to be detrimental to quality putt-ing surfaces. They cannot be sustainedweek after summer week with any as-surance of success in holding the turf.Championship speeds are possible (10feet six inches, plus or minus six inches)for short periods of time, but nature'sgrass plant can only take so much.

Tees

Close-cropped, firm teeing surfaces arecommon today. For years, high-budgetclubs have treated their tees as much aspossible as they treat greens: aeration,topdressing, weed control, and over-seeding. Divot repairs have been tradi-tional; it has become increasingly so onfairways as well. If there is a manpowershortage on the course maintenancecrew, however, the membership mightbe encouraged to fill divots with a soil/seed mix from individual buckets placed

on golf carts or at each tee. A short video-tape, displayed repeatedly on a screen inthe golf shop, could instruct players howto do this job and how to repair ballmarks on greens properly.

Fairways

In a perfect par round of golf, one-quarter of all shots are hit from theteeing surfaces, one-quarter from thefairways, and half are made on the putt-ing greens. Since fairways are so muchlarger than tees, they have not in the pastreceived the intensive care as have tees.However, this is now changing. Today,many clubs are mowing fairways withtriplex mowers set at Y2-inchto %-inchand removing the clippings. Bentgrasspopulations have benefitted. Even putt-ing green aerifiers are being used on fair-ways to relieve compaction and achievetopdressing at the same time. Resultshave been very good, but these practicesare labor and equipment intensive. Notevery club can afford them. Those thatchoose to do so must either increasetheir budgets or permit other high-main-tenance areas (bunkers and approachesto tees and greens) to suffer.

As an alternative to cutting fairwayswith triplex mowers, an increasing

(Top) The VCR and the irrigationsystem - complexity simplified.

(Left) A "roller "for greens to increasespeed. Aeration will be next - and the costof maintenance climbs.

(Above) Recording equipment inventory.

MAY/ JUNE 1986 3

number of clubs are going to the fasterfive-gang mower concept with nearlyequally good results. Many believe thefive-gang unit is the answer to thesmaller triplex and heavier seven-gangunits of the past. With reduced fairwaysize and contour mowing, the five-gangunit can effectively produce the same re-sults as triplex mowers in half the time.

Mowing Frequency and Height of Cut

Itwasn't too long ago (perhaps a quartercentury) that most courses mowed greensthree times a week. A quarter centuryfrom now we may look back in wonderat mowing so seldom. When fairwaysare cut at %-inch or higher, they must bemowed three times a week in order toprevent flyer lies. As the trend continuestoward even closer fairway mowing, !h-to %-inch, increased frequency will benecessary to maintain the playing stan-dard. The closer the cut, the greater theintensity of management. Irrigation,fertilization, aeration, disease and pesti-cide controls - every part of the man-agement program moves up a notch ortwo.

The golf courses most affected by thenew, intensive trends in golf coursemanagement will not be the high-budgetclubs. Indeed, they are setting the trends.Instead, it is those courses, green com-mittees, and superintendents havingmoderate to modest budgets who aremost likely to be affected adversely.When their members play one of thehigh-budget courses and then return tothe home course, disappointment andeven unrest may set in. They don't realizethey are comparing kiwi fruit to zuc-chini. It is up to the superintendent,using whatever means he has, to put thestory into perspective. Golf coursescannot be compared and no golf courseis in perfect condition every day of theyear.

The Use of a VCR in the MaintenanceOperation

Although these are only brief thoughts,each must be explained to the golfmembership. Communication with themembership has taken the form of arti-cles in the club newsletter, bulletinboards, or other means. A portableVCR, however, can take communicationone step further. The use of a VCR ingolf course maintenance operations islimited only by the imagination of theuser.

For management operations, the fol-lowing areas offer intriguing possibili-ties:

4 USGA GREEN SECTION RECORD

1. Green Committee - Any operationthat is done on the golf course can easilybe captured on videotape for displaylater. This is particularly importantwhere green committee memberschange often. As an educational tool forthe entire committee, the use of a VCRrecorder could prove invaluable. Con-tinuing maintenance programs are thelifeblood of the superintendent's opera-tions, and they must be explained, sold,and updated constantly.

How often do members not rakebunkers, fix ball marks, drive carts tooclose to greens? These and other verycostly practices could be captured onfilm (while not implicating individuals)to show the green committee some of theproblems of course management. Or,how can you (the superintendent) ex-plain why the fairways are so wet in thewinter and so hard in the summer? Atape of a putting green aerifier bouncingacross a fairway would certainly behelpful in this regard.

2. Crew Training and Safety - Whilethe VCR can be useful for membershipeducation, its greatest use may be withcrew training and safety. Rather thanspending all of his first day on the golfcourse, a new employee might spendpart of the day reviewing safety filmsabout equipment operation and the in-herent dangers of working on a golfcourse. Another portion of the daymight be spent learning basic golf courseetiquette and proper skills for particularoperations he will be asked to do. Thiscould also be done as a regular refreshercourse in golf course maintenance oper-ations for existing employees. By dem-onstrating the right and wrong way tooperate equipment, rake bunkers, fixball marks, change cups, the golf courseworker's thoughts can be channeled inproper directions. From a safety stand-point, employees need constant remind-ers about the safe operation of mainte-nance equipment.

3. Equipment and Building for Insur-ance Purposes - In case of a disaster ortheft, it would be useful to have a visualrecording of the maintenance buildingand equipment owned by the club. Thiscould provide a complete account of theclubhouse and golf shop inventory andbuildings ..

Relating to equipment, how manytimes has a green committee or board ofdirectors denied needed equipment re-placement on your golf course? Perhapsthey need more information about theequipment or to actually see the prob-lems and condition of present equip-ment. Presenting a visual display (with

close-up views) could be a most usefultool in improving the equipment inven-tory in a prudent manner.

4. Mechanical Instruction Aid - Theimportant operations of grinding, back-lapping, proper mower adjustment, andother programs accomplished by themechanic should be on film for traininga new mechanic, assistant mechanic, orregular crew members. Finding a goodgolf course mechanic can be difficult.The superintendent and club shouldpass on as much information aboutproper equipment maintenance and re-pair as possible for future golf courseoperations.

5. The Irrigation System - Becauseevery irrigation system is different, itwould be invaluable to have on film howthe irrigation system on your courseoperates so that in cases of emergency oremployee turnover you can explain thebasics of your particular system to thegreen committee. For example, whatbetter way to explain the need for a newirrigation system than a video showing10to 15 heads, at different elevations, allconnected to one station with wet anddry areas immediately adjacent to oneanother? A picture may be worth morethan a thousand words in that case!

6. Before and After Shots - "I remem-ber when" has long been uttered by themembership or maintenance staff con-cerning the way the golf course was inthe old days. A complete video of everyhole, including all of the architecturalfeatures, trees, putting green contoursand fairway contours, could be a usefultool in providing a reference map.

If the club wishes to rebuild and retainexact contours, what better aid than avideo of the area before reconstruction?For a green committee meeting, whatbetter way than a video tape of showinga particular problem or portion of thegolf course needing work and what isbeing proposed? What better way toshow the facts?

Summary

In every endeavor it is important toremember the past as one plans andmoves into the future. Extraordinaryprogress has been made in the care andmanagement of golfing turf in the pasthalf a century. It is safe to predict thateven greater progress will be made withthe grass plant of the future, but we mustall recognize and remind ourselves thatsome limitations always exist in nature,and nature is an essential part of golf. AsHanna More once said, "The world doesnot require so much to be informed - asto be reminded."