A quiet, snowy day in the office is a good time to consider
how you are going to provide the same level of course
conditioning in 2009 when maintenance costs have increased, but
the operating budget has been slashed by 10% to 20%. If you
happen to nod off at your desk for a few minutes after a long
afternoon of considering a variety of difficult options, only
in your dreams does a bail out check arrive in the mail to
supplement the budget.
One option to consider is to trim the fat off excessive
fairway acreage this season. Most golf courses I visit have at
least of few acres of unnecessary fairway turf that could be
converted to rough with relatively little impact on
playability. For example, par three holes are notorious for
having far too much fairway turf between the tee and green. A
modest area of short grass at the approach to the green is
appropriate, but 100 yards of fairway on a 140 yard hole will
sap limited resources all season.
Some golf courses have had good success widening the fairway
landing zones a bit on a par 4 or 5 hole as compensation (or
consolation) for converting some fairway turf to rough with the
intent of necessitating at least a 50 to 75 yard carry off the
tee to the short grass. Now some will argue that a straight 35
yard dribbler off the tee deserves to land on fairway, but most
would (or should) argue that those complaining are hitting from
the wrong set of tees anyway. The bottom line is that roughs
require less water, fertilizer, plant protectants, and mowing
versus fairways.
However, converting fairway to rough or vice-versa is not as
simple as it seems. To those without turf degrees or
experience, the process of converting fairway to rough appears
to require no more than raising the height of cut from ½ inch
to 2 ½ inches and simply letting nature take its course.
Assuming the course is fortunate enough to have predominantly
bentgrass fairways, golfers don't realize what a gnarly,
unplayable condition they would encounter from a 2 ½ inch
bentgrass rough.
The more likely scenario at older courses across the north
central states is
Poa annua
fairways. Old
Poa
on old fairways is just plain strange when it comes to changing
heights of cut. Some patches of
Poa
that have been maintained for many years at a ½ inch height of
cut will not grow much higher than ½ inch regardless of where
you set the mower. Raise the height of cut of an old
bentgrass/Kentucky bluegrass/
Poa annua
/perennial ryegrass fairway and you usually get a patchwork
quilt of turf that looks bad and plays even worse.
You could use commercial sod to expand roughs or widen
fairways, but sod is expensive and not very compatible with the
cost-cutting theme of this article. In addition, bentgrass or
bluegrass sod will stick out like a sore thumb on an old course
for years.
Consider robbing Peter to pay Paul, and utilize the turf
already present on the course for fairway/rough conversions.
There will always be some areas of good to excellent quality
rough that are relatively out of play and available to use as a
home grown sod. In many ways, this turf will be better than
commercial sod. The turf composition and soil type will match
the surrounding grass better than any material from distant sod
farms and you won't have to pay for shipping. Strip the sod
from an irrigated area, if possible, and the process of
re-establishing turf from seed in this site will be much
easier. This way the turf most likely to come into play will be
able to accommodate golfers first.
Don't waste the short grass you harvest from fairways
either. The fairway grass closest to tees is usually dense and
healthy since it accommodates little traffic throughout the
season; and fairway turf is usually the same or similar height
of cut as turf found on tees. Dense fairway sod can be ideal
for regrassing some of the heavily divotted par 3 tees on the
course.
Deep budget cuts will require sacrifices, and sacrificing a
few acres of unnecessary fairways will, unlike our 401 k
programs, pay dividends for many years.
Source: Bob Vavrek,
rvavrek@usga.org
or 262-797-8743