Answer to your last question. NO. ++s and ----s on over seeding. when they are growing in and dying off there are 2 months of BAD greens but pretty and smooth during the cold months(time of most play) This year on the Champ courses they have been in good condition except for Havana and Evans

Have you played any of the courses in The Villages over the last 3 months?

The Greens are atrocious, on most every Championship Golf Course. EP doesn't have a bit of grass on their greens, nor does Havana. All (3) 9's at Palmer have been devoid of grass, until this past week when Laurel started to improve. Riley Grove is horrendous. Cane Garden's greens are atrocious. Mallory's greens are putting ok, but they don't have much grass either.

Savannah is the coolest city I've ever been too and I loved The Landings. I've been there for a couple of Korn-Ferry events. When I first came to FL 15 years ago, I was commuting from Boston every month, so I wanted to be sure to have warm golf weather. If it wasn't for the 15 degree difference in the winter, I'd still be at The Landings.

Greens
 

It is my understanding that the greens in this area have a fungus that is being spread by everyone’s golf shoes. It was recommended to me that I not go home and walk on my lawn with my golf shoes. That being said there are now too many golfers for the number of available holes of golf.

Transitions
 

Thank you. Couldn't remember how long it took for the rye to grow in but do remember being surprised by how large - and abundant - the seeds were. :-)

Trying to now picture whether to expect a transition period when Bermuda greens come out of dormancy. Is it necessary to mow the greens at all during the winter? They're painted, right?

There are a lot of different strains of Bermuda grass and they have varying characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, as well as tolerating temperature changes, differently. The greens in TV utilize at least 2 or 3 different varieties.

Tifton
 

Yeah, I'm sorta familiar with Tifton and their Bermudagrass research, but not so much with other grass types. "Tifdwarf" even comes to mind. Have only experienced bent a few times. No real clue about the overseeding grasses, though.

Would love to know what type is still present on Redfish Run and whether it is different from what was intended to be there. . .

Plant identification? There’s an app for that—actually several! - Landscaping

10 Best Free Plant Identification Apps For iOS & Android (2023)

I think accuracy with "grass" is probably in the 40% - 50% category and I doubt any of the apps can identify different varieties of otherwise similar grass.

Or try this:

Identifying Grass Types | Golf Course Lawn Store

Lawn grasses
 

That last link was great. Identifying Grass Types | Golf Course Lawn Store I now know a lot more than I did before. Doubt I'll ever be able to ID a grass blade cut to an eighth of an inch, though. :-)

Stop hitting in the fairway and hit one in the rough, you'll find longer grass! :a20:

I didn’t see Carl Spackler’s favorite grass - a cross, ah, of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia.

I wake up every morning and look in the mirror and see this old guy, looking back. I ride around TV and see old people, everywhere. Then I think about it and remember, we were the cutting edge of the drug culture. We'll always have that going for us, which is nice. You have the Tee Judge Smails.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X48G7Y0VWW4

As the old saying goes, "If you remember the 60's, you weren't there!"

Hybrid
 

OMG. Almost failed to google that. Had forgotten who Carl was. :-) Thanks.

Really needs attention from a professional golf course maintenance co
 

I think you are correct. These greens are being mis-managed and improperly maintained. They are basically mud with sparse areas of grass. Are they being watered too much?? Are they being re-seeded? It's really terrible

I played Briarwood last Saturday and the greens were perfection, I kid you not. Haven't seen greens like that since I belonged to a private club in Mass. No idea how you can go from conditions like that to scorched earth greens a few miles away at Bonita, Redfish, Bogart, Bacall. And then south of 466A Sweetgum has great greens. It just doesn't make sense

Love Sweetgum. Beautiful course and nice conditions. On the other hand, playing Pimlico is a waste of time. It needs to be closed until they can fix the terrible greens.

I wonder--has any thought been given to artificial greens for the executive courses? Seems as if they'd solve a multitude of problems including very low maintenance needs, no watering necessary, hold up very well under heavy traffic, not as affected by specific seasons as natural grass, etc. etc. Also much less expensive overall than natural grass greens, and when replacement is needed it is a matter of maybe a day's work vs. preparing the ground, seeding, watering, trimming, etc. as is the case for natural grass greens, which can take weeks or even months. Win-win: better looking and playing greens with far less maintenance over the long haul which would free up money for other maintenance needs on the course. Additionally playing characteristics of the greens would be consistent course-to-course; much the better situation than what exists today, where poor upkeep or other variables affecting green conditions on courses adjoining one another can vary considerably, or even significantly varying conditions green-to-green on the same course.

The purists and top-tier golfers might object but what was true years and even decades ago as to playability (good for putting or driving but not both, among others) have pretty much disappeared, and to be honest, according to what I see, the vast majority of players on the executive courses are, to put it bluntly, hackers: folks to whom such objections would make very little difference, while the better players would still have natural grass greens on the championship courses.

Sure it does. Those courses were redone with the new proper turf and construction. Very easy explanation.

According to his interview last week, with one of the Developer's spokesmen, Mitch has upgraded his "Certificate". Now he claims he has a "Degree in Turf Management" from Penn State (as you said, the premier Turf Management school in the country, if not the world).

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1WWDaoUK_s)

Funny how his LinkedIn doesn't say he has a "Degree in Turf Management" from Penn State. Maybe he forgot to include that? Or perhaps "misspoke" in the interview?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell...nger-74a7426a/

Hey Mitch! Give me a call. I'll meet you at Sumter Landing & buy you lunch. You show me a letter from Penn State that you have a Degree in Turf Management, I'll give you $500 for your time.

It looks like it is a 2-year certification program and not a degree. They have a list of graduates on their website.

I can't find his name, did you?

His resume on LinkedIn says he has a "Certificate".

In his interview, he says he has a "Degree in Turf Management from Penn State".

An "online Certificate" is a world apart from a Penn State Degree in Turf Management.

If he worked for Joe Smith's Hacker's Paradise in Oxford, FL ... it's no one's business if he's fudging his resume. In this case, he's a public employee or certainly getting paid with public dollars. Call me crazy, but I like to know what I'm getting for my dollars and based on the conditions of the Executive Golf courses, none of us seem to be getting very much these days.

I could not find his name either. Without seeing his CV, it is hard to say what credentials he has. I would generally assume that those sorts of positions require a BS degree in some area of plant science. Regarding the certification program, it wasn't clear to me that it could be done on-line.

One would think. If it was a job at a typical local golf course, I could see them going for "practical experience". Being responsible for 400+ holes of golf, is a pretty big job.

You could ask for his CV but I doubt it would be forthcoming.

Greens are beautiful on Southern Oaks. Also on Bonifay-at least on 2 of the 3 9's I've played. As well Tierra Del Sol, and Hacienda have solid greens. I've also heard (althought not played recently) that Lopez and Glenview are still in good shape.(and Mallory as you pointed out) I think that's at least half of them that are still in decent shape-Doesn't excuse the one's that aren't-but 'most every' championship is a stretch statement.

Not a problem, but a statement of fact.

Per capita there are fewer courses south of 44, putting more pressure on courses further north.

They claim a survey of new owners told the developers they preferred nature trails and areas to golf courses, so the new areas reflect that. Once people are here for a while many take up the game, and it takes a while to get plans changed to meet demand.

It’s a common complaint, not against the residents, but about the developers.

I'm confused...

For some time, we've heard (mostly from the southern residents) that golf is a dying game and that they prefer the nature trails and the bike paths...

The developer seems to have responded to those preferences. But it's still their fault?

Yes, I think first, many who come here don’t yet know how to play golf so they say they prefer nature trails since they can’t go on the golf courses. Then, they walked the same nature trail and natural areas so often that they get bored but the neighbors keep getting together for golf. They learn to play golf. They can finally enjoy the golf courses and they never get tired of golf because it is game that you can always learn more. And they bought this golf cart which finally makes a lot of sense to have. So their taste changes as they live here.

Hasn’t this been thoroughly discussed on a more CURRENT thread?

Yes, it is a recurrent issue.

I play as a single fitting in as a 4th wheel. There are so many golfers that venture north to play. They/we need more choices to the south.

Threads
 

Interesting question. Caused me some ponderage over why it might have arisen. Guessing that the way that *I* access this forum ain't the "standard" means. I basically only think to look at TOTV because of the daily (usually) reminder in my email "in box", and I guess I don't actually look at all of the forum (fora?), but rather only "Yesterdays Hot Topics" as listed in that daily email update.

OTOH, the reason I saw the recent comments from *this* thread was due to a separate email to me pointing out that there had been a new comment - apparently due to the fact that I am somehow "subscribed" to said thread. Don't really have all that good an understanding of how that works, either.

So, what I now have to wonder is whether my daily access technique (via email reminder) is substandard and drops me to a lower forum status level. And, are less timely posts considered something like "littering"? I try to be a good citizen. What are the (unwritten?) rules over which such a question has been raised?

Or, was it the perceived "thoroughness" of the discussion that is the issue? And how does one keep up with "CURRENT"ness? What are the proper and accepted expiration dates? Guess I'm trying to figure out why bringing up the points under discussion "here and now" don't seem to bother me. Is it a mere lack of sophistication on my part? TIA