Teeways and Efficiency Part 1

After  the Senior Member Guest concluded today, I was able to get some fantastic photos of the teeways on an empty golf course with the sun high in the sky. Here you see the 18th hole.  This week we mowed the teeways down to our fairway height of 340/1000".  Now we were actually able to mow them with the fairway mowers.  Of course this was a learning experience seeing what we could and couldn't do with the large machines.  Thank goodness I have fantastic operators that were able to just figure it out.

Because of the Senior MGI, we mowed teeways and fairways everyday this week.  Each time we mow, we change the direction to come out with the stripeless look which I just love.  I still don't know why some people today mow stripes.  What a waste of time.  On the subject of time, using three fairway mowers, one small fairway mower, and one walker for the tight areas, we mowed all the fairways and teeways (31 acres) using 15 man hours.  Back in the day, when I wasn't very smart and we striped fairways, walk mowed tees and dew strips, and then mowed rough between tees, that same 31 acres took 30 or more man hours to mow.  Saving 15 man hours is like adding two people to my staff every day we mow that 31 acres.   That's huge.  So this weeks 9 am shotgun didn't really hurt us going into the weekend.  All areas got mowed before the gun was fired.

So mowing that 31 acres of fine turf takes about half the time it used to.  Our increase in efficiency doesn't stop there though.  Now that we don't have to mow the rough between the tee decks, we use the large rough machines to mow around the teeing grounds, and so the time it takes to mow that rough has been cut in half.

Here's the 6th hole.  Before teeways, we could never put the blocks this far up on the blue deck, it would have been 6 inches past the rough which would not have been cool.  We have gained countless new teeing areas with the teeways.

Here is the 10th hole from the white teeing ground.  You can see how now there is no difference in the appearance of what once was rough and what once was tee.  It all blends seamlessly.  I need to fix the mowing line on the left this winter.  It's too busy right now.

Here's the 12th tee.  On this one remember we already sod cut out the transition area to fairway so it is really seamless now.  12 teeway is really a finished product.

15 teeway from the green is pretty cool.

Here's 14 as we played it yesterday.  This small teeing area has not been used since the old days when we used to triplex roundish shaped tee decks.  I think that stopped in 1999 when I came on board and thought it would be smart to walk mow square tees.   That wasn't a good idea at all.  Teeways........now that's a good idea.

As part of the master plan, we added this huge fairway height area to the right of the 16th green.  Eventually it will be part of the 17th teeway if all goes as planned.  To establish this area we have been scalping it out just like the teeways. In the center of the photo you can see the unfortunate part of the "scalping out" method.

Here is a close up of what I'm talking about.  On the left of the photo you see scalped out ryegrass which by itself looks pretty good.  On the right you see the original approach which is very old, mature, fine perennial type Poa like you find on our putting greens.

Here is a closer view of the two turf types.  So now here is the question  "how long will it take for the ryegrass to look like pure Poa".  It all depends on how much overseeding we can do and how well we can kill the ryegrass.  How does one kill just the ryegrass and not the other grass??  This afternoon we started a trial with a product called Segment.  Below you see Kevin spraying it on our nursery green.  We sprayed one area at the labeled rate and then a couple different areas at higher rates to see what happens.  Our nursery green is mowed at fairway height and has a mixture of different grasses so it is very representative of our scalped teeway areas.  Hope we see some good results which would be dead ryegrass and living Poa.  Stay Tuned!

Fat Sticks

I was playing golf yesterday (yes, that is unusual) and a member in my group while putting from off the green said, "please pull the pin, those sticks are too fat".  You see, at TC&GC we use a 5/8" diameter flagstick like the one on the right side of this picture.  The flagstick on the left that I'm holding is a standard 1/2" diameter and certainly the most common.  Why do we use the fatter flagstick? It's simple, they are better in windy conditions, more visible, and mostly just because they feel nice and solid when you pick them up.  So I said to the member, "do you realize how much extra we pay so that you can have these nice flagsticks"?  He said, "I don't care how much they cost, because they're fat, they keep the ball from going in".  Of course we all know that a flagstick never helps a ball go in, but now the question is out there that maybe the fatter flagstick  actually keeps the ball from going in.  Ironically, later in the round the member holed out from 170 yards and I had the last laugh.  I have to say that lately, we have had a lot of hole in one's at Tacoma C&GC.  So many in fact that I'm almost thinking the fatter flagstick helps the ball go in contrary to the belief of some of the members.  It definitely got me thinking so today I tried to answer that question.

Here is the very complicated apparatus I created to assist me with the big question.  Yes, it's a stimpmeter on a bucket.  So today I rolled countless balls down the stimpmeter ramp from varying distances trying to simulate a ball striking the pin as it would from a golf shot.  Not surprisingly, every ball that struck the pin squarely, went in.  It went in every time on the 1/2" pin and every time on the 5/8" pin. So I tried to simulate the ball striking the pin NOT squarely.  Now I was able to get some balls to hop out and not go in.  They frequently did not go in on both of the two pins.  Sometimes they dropped in, sometimes they did not.  I finally found just the right angle to where the ball struck the pin NOT squarely but yet went in the cup every time on the 5/8" in pin.  That same angle resulted in some balls not going in on the 1/2" pin.  Following is a video of this trial on the 5/8" pin.

Now here is a video of the exact same angle and distance on the 1/2" pin.  Notice all the balls go in except for one.

  So in the end, although there are many untested variables, I honestly feel that there is no statistical difference between the two pins and the incidence of hitting the pin and holing out.  I still firmly believe that a flagstick never helped a ball go in, so I personally will continue to ask for the pin to be removed.  But as for the question of whether a 5/8" pin keeps the ball form going in, I would have to say that there is no evidence to support that claim and in fact, I personally believe that the fatter stick actually helps the ball go in.