Mowing backwards is always the best method if you're not using "the gap" method. That way when the condition changes for the better it continues for the rest o the round.
Afternoon v Morning. Greens should always be done first thing OR (and this is a bit out of the box) the second shift of grounds crew could dry mow greens behind the last foursome. Granted you’d still have to whip and flip the dew. As for fairways, and anything mowed with a reel, a dry cut will be more uniform as the water and/ or dew are not present to act as a lubricant for the grass blade in the cut in addition to the upright growth of the day. Also inside wheel rutting and compaction are decreased on firm dry surfaces. Did you ever wonder what that little, 20" arc, yellow spot is in the corner of most square tees? Its tire slip, cut on wet morning mow and some bonus compaction.
As for the noise and inconvenience issue. If its not maintained, its just a big grass field and not much of a golf course so please give the guys on the equipment the benefit of the doubt and THANK them for getting up everyday at 4:30 rain or shine, fixing that sprinkler head that stuck last night because of a pebble the size of a grain of rice (everyday it’s a different one), not going nuts after a month of watching customers/members drive carts onto the collar of the green and being hit into/at, loading bag after bag of fertilizer into the spreader, spraying and spraying and spraying and spraying, fixing ball marks, repairing par three tees (BTW-When did it become acceptable to not replace a divot on Par 3s?), picking up all those cans, emptying and picking up the trash, putting the rakes into and out of the bunkers, moving all those ropes and directional signs, and last but not least, setting through committee meetings.
THANKS to all of you who clip, mow, maintain, and pick up after the public, members and guests! I’ll try not to get in YOUR way as I visit YOUR course that you graciously honor me by allowing me to play it! I know you don’t do it for the hours or the money, usually you just like to be outside in the quiet and you’ve been listening to that mower for the last three hours. Oh, and if you see your wife and your children, thank them for me for letting you miss early weekend morning pancakes, that two week summer trip you never took, missing dinner all those nights you stayed to aerify, and top dress and do special projects! You are the heart and soul of golf and the credit is yours!!!
As operators we’d all love to have a crew of 40 people so we could throw them all on the course at 5:00 am and have everything done by 7:30, but its hard to find forty guys that are willing to get up at 4:30 everyday for 17 hrs a week.
Cheers!
JT