Greens Aeration
 

This machine is used on some courses, south of 466a.

Other than the greens that seem to be rotted (actually looks like over watering ) the fairways are way too short. It's almost like hitting off plain curt. The grass will. Never recover if they continually scalp the fairways every day. I'm not an expert by no means but I do have eyes. Half the fairways are no more than dirt and they still mow them. This I just my opinion for what it's worth.

It is not being used by any of the Executive courses. Can you identify which course is currently or has been using?

Condition of the greens on Executive Courses
 

The greens north of 466 are in better condition because they get less play. They get less play because the average age of residents north of 466 is greater than the average age of residents south of 466 and the older residents either don't play as much or maybe no longer play at all. For those of us who live south (almost to SR44), it is too long of a ride in a golf cart to play a nine hole course north of 466. Also, many residents south of SR44 are playing the courses north of SR44 and south of 466. That will get to be a bigger problem once the bridges over SR44 have been completed.

Condition of the Greens on Executive Courses
 

I could not agree more. It has become almost impossible to putt on some of the greens. On some of the courses, there appears to be two different types of grass growing in patches all over the same green. In reality, it may be a disease problem with the grass. On one course we recently played, the grass on the green had been removed in rectangular sections and new grass had been installed in its place; however, the sizes of the rectangles of new grass did not match the sizes of the rectangles that had been removed, resulting in ruts and bumps. Many of the greens have recently been aerated and sanded, making them difficult to putt on. I guess the bottom line is should they close these courses for longer periods of time to allow them to be properly repaired, spend more money to repair them properly or find people who really know how to properly repair the courses? The answers to all of those questions should be "YES"; however, the end result will be less availability and/or potentially higher costs to play golf. I think management has chosen to let more people play at the lowest cost. In the end, you get what you pay for.

None of those problems are caused by the players. I agree that many players don't rake traps, but I also know from experience that there are not enough rakes in many traps. Having one or two rakes in some of the very large traps makes it time consuming to go a long way just to get a rake and it just slows down play. During a recent round, we found that the sand in some traps had just been replaced with new sand of a different type and color than sand that had not been newly replaced in the other traps, making it difficult to play out of the traps due to lack of consistency. That is not a player problem, but strictly a maintenance problem.

Just played Volusia (near the Sarasota Driving Range). Entire course in very good condition - greens, close to excellent. Of course I may be biased - played pretty well today too...

If you check available tee times at the northern courses you will see this is not true.

Agree 100%. Played Sandhill Sunday: like putting in my back yard.

Emerging Alternative to Overseeding

Overseeding a golf course requires time, labor and money, and inconveniences golfers during the grow-in times. Is there a better alternative? There might be one emerging.


Some golf courses have experimented over the years with coloring, or painting, their dormant turfgrass, rather than overseeding it. It sounds kind of silly, but as the quality of the "turf colorants" has improved, and best-practices for doing it have been shared among greenskeepers, coloring (at least of the dormant greens) is catching on with more golf courses. Overseeding is still more common for now.







A case study of the use of turf colorants published by the USGA Green Section concluded:

"The majority of golfers could not tell the difference between fairways treated with turf colorants and the conventional overseeding practices. Low-handicap players at the course especially preferred the colorant-treated playing surfaces. Turf colorants provide excellent visual definition during the winter and eliminate the poor playing conditions during the overseed transition periods. Of course, there were some golfers who were not happy with the change and preferred the overseeded fairways, but for the most part the reaction has been extremely positive."

For me, as long as there is a vestige of grass in the fairways and I'm not hitting off of bare dirt...the condition of the green is the most important.

Even if the greens are not all that fast (which I personally prefer), as long as they're fairly consistent without large bare/sodded sections...I'm reasonably satisfied.

These days, I've actually been hoping to get in the rough instead of the fairway though...because it's usually a better lie.

On the positive side though, even topped shots or smothered hooks (the primary bane of my game :censored:) can run forever, and if the ball is lucky enough to stay in play...can make you feel like a hero after your tee shot. :D

So it's "The Developer's" fault that people buy investment homes (because The Developer would know that when they sell them). Can't you just say "The problem is that people that buy homes to rent don't have a vested interest...". Not that I agree or not. But why is it always the Developer's problem???