It seems more courses than not have tall grass rough somewhere, often running parallel to the primary rough and fairways. These tall grass areas are usually called native, naturalized or “fine fescue” areas and offer some opportunities for less-frequent mowing and reduced inputs, on top of adding habitat, interesting contrast to irrigated turf, and strategic value. But what happens when you hit your ball into one of these areas and don’t have a good way to gauge where it entered because it’s a large area of long grass with no trees or shrubs? Not having a good marker to go from is frustrating and can hurt pace of play.
An idea I came across recently to help address this was bird boxes affixed to small posts made from tree trunks or large branches. The posts come from trees on-site, so there is no added cost to purchase them. They look natural, because they are, and the bird boxes are basic builds that most anyone could do in-house with limited materials. These markers do not detract from the natural setting of the course or the value of tall grass areas; in fact, they add natural beauty by attracting birds.
The course where I saw this being done had the posts placed strategically inside the tall grass areas so that players can mark their entry point based off one of the several posts along the way. While it might not mean you recover every ball hit into these areas, having a marker to at least get you started is helpful.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Darin Bevard, senior director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott L. Dowling, regional director, East Region – edowling@usga.org
Brian Gietka, agronomist – bgietka@usga.org