Quote:
Originally Posted by waynet
Mikeod,I must beg to differ with your research. Here is the method used. Spray greens with roundup and let them die. What's left is scalped by mowers. Next spread Champions Bermuda using a no-till method. Nothing is dug up. This ultra dwarf Bermuda is changing golf in the south. The entire process takes 8 weeks and they are ready to play. The greens take one summer aeration and saves hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. $350,000 for 18 holes. Verdict Ridge,Peninsula club,river run,River Hills,Rock River,Sedgefield,Quail Hollow, Pinehurst and Atlanta Athletic Club are just some that have entered the 21st century of agronomy. I just don't understand what the golf administrators are thinking and I do believe they don't care.
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I appreciate the update. Still, you're talking millions of dollars to re-do the championship courses and take each one out of play for up to eight weeks. That also assumes the green base is satisfactory. if so, great. if not, there is much more work to to. Then there is the matter of maintenance. I believe from the website link below that the statement of one summer aeration reflects only part of the story. And, if you search for ultra dwarf bermuda diseases, you will see that there are significant concerns that may be exacerbated by the amount of play these get. And, if the maintenance issues you decry are there, will they be able to maintain the new greens any better than the present ones despite the reduced water demand?
Managing Ultra-dwarf Greens - LSU AgCenter
Truthfully, I would love to play on greens with champion or mini-verde or another ultra dwarf bermuda. The reduced grain and increased speed are desirable. TPC Sawgrass has champion, I believe, and putting there is wonderful. But, IMO, the greens here, once the transition from overseed is complete, are not the big problem with course conditions.
To me, most complaints are with the fairways and the amount of turf cushion from which to play. I attribute this to a few factors. One, IMO, the newer courses, Bonifay and Evans, were opened too soon. They really needed to sit for another growing season to let the grasses mature. I understand that there would be an outcry from the new residents south of 466A who see a golf course they cannot use. But putting all those carts and players on immature grass results in what you see now. Havana also was opened ahead of schedule, primarily because of the damage done to Mallory by the tornado. It took some time before Havana fairways got better.
A second factor is the use of carts itself. Watch any hole on any course, and you will see cart after cart driving right down the middle of the fairway. Multiply this by the number of tee times and you have a recipe for compaction of the turf and delayed recovery of the turf grass . Add to that the number of RA sleeves that allow carts to drive up to 15 feet of the green and you add even more to turf damage. I would not want to see carts restricted to paths only since it would prevent many residents from playing simply because of the walking required from path to ball and back. But perhaps if more used the rough to travel, the fairways would be in better shape. This factor affects all the courses.
Another factor is the availability of water. Again, my information is that TV has a set water allocation from the regional water authority for everything below 466. Homes, landscaping, and golf courses draw from that same allocation. The more homes drawing water, the less is available elsewhere. The local water authority has the ability to reclaim water for irrigation, which reduces the draw on the allocation but is insufficient on its own to meet all irrigation requirements. The courses have tonrely on rainfall to provide immediate water and to fill retention ponds to provide water when it's not raining. When rainfall is insufficient, the fairways suffer as the choice should be to protect the greens first.
I volunteer with a group that monitors all the executive courses for maintenance issues and meets with golf administration quarterly to exchange information. In between meetings, if we see something that needs to be addressed, we can, and do, contact the proper people to let them know. In my years with this group, I have never been given the impression they don't care. Quite the opposite, they have worked with us to improve the quality of the courses. Our suggestions are noted and, when possible, acted upon, which happens more often than not. Perhaps what is needed is a similar group for the championship courses, if one doesn't already exist.