After working at a couple of USGA championships this summer, I noticed different examples of damage due to excessive foot and cart traffic. There is often some debate about whether the traffic damage we see on courses is due to compaction or wear – or both – so we will go over examples of both in this update and consider the implications for a successful recovery.
My recent USGA article “To Stake or Not To Stake…That Is the Question” discussed using ropes and stakes to manage traffic and whether they were beneficial or if they caused more harm than good. My conclusion was that they typically cause more harm than good, particularly since they become a maintenance nightmare when they need to be moved with every mowing and adjusted on an almost daily basis. Each championship I attended reaffirmed this conclusion, as the massive crowds at Pebble Beach during the U.S. Women’s Open wore down the turfgrass outside of the ropes and preventive cart traffic management at another venue created deep ruts where carts were directed to enter the fairways in the weeks prior.
In the case of Pebble Beach, it appeared that most of the damage outside of the ropes was due to wear, as the large crowds stood and walked on the same grass for about a week. This type of damage typically recovers after a few weeks but may require overseeding in certain areas. When an area recovers on its own, the damage should be classified as wear damage because if it was truly caused by compaction some type of cultural practice would be required to help the area fill back in.
At the other venue, the traffic damage was caused by golf carts that repeatedly drove over the same area because traffic control stakes were placed at about the width of a golf cart. This clearly had caused some compaction since there were ruts several inches deep. At minimum, damage like this would require removing the sod and re-leveling the area to the original grade. Cultivation of the soil might also be required to relieve compaction.
Having ropes and stakes around the golf course for everyday play still appears to cause more problems than it solves in my mind. This is reinforced by the number of other golf courses I visited this summer that had minimal physical traffic management in place and damage was almost nowhere to be found. Try to keep stakes and ropes to a minimum. Your turf and maintenance staff will thank you!
Southeast Region Agronomists:
Chris Hartwiger, director, Agronomy – chartwiger@usga.org
Jordan Booth, Ph.D., director, USGA Course Consulting Service – jbooth@usga.org
John Rowland, Ph.D., agronomist – jrowland@usga.org
Chris Neff, agronomist – cneff@usga.org