Mowing patterns at Oakland Hills

[Anthony_Nysse]

TLavi:
   "This strikes me as a somewhat silly post, but there is a definite difference in mowing between the PGA and the USGA.  The PGA likes the diagonal stripe look, because it is more visually dramatic on camera.  The USGA likes the half-and-half look in which the mowers cut in two different directions longitudinally along the entire hole.  That is an old-time look.  Essentially, you have half of the fairway that looks dark and half that looks bright, depending on the direction of the mower.  It has absolutely no difference on play. "

  Whistling Straits was mowed in the traditional pattern just last month and Oak Hill was mowed just one way, tee to green....In 2000, Open at Pebble was striped just as Oakland Hills was...varies on the type of course imho

[Brad Klein]

Steve, I've seen reference to some (informal) studies that show that mowing direction on fairways makes no difference on the length, impact or roll of a drive. The ball comes in too high for that and the differences in surface impact, deflection and spin are minimal at most.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Brad,

From years of putting the ball from off the green, the direction of the grass has a pronounced effect on the roll of the ball both in distance and direction.

Why wouldn't it have the same impact on the roll of a drive after the initial impact with the ground, when the ball begins to roll ?

[Marc Haring]

If you watched those balls running down the fairway from a low angle, they were zig zagging all over the place, no question. That would have been a result of the grain of the grass being influenced by the mowing. It may have resulted in one or two lucky or unlucky breaks but franky speaking, a stuffing is a stuffing.

[Dan_Lucas]

The approaches were indeed mowed with walking greens mowers (26" I believe) and fairways were mowed with triplex greens mowers.

When I was on the crew there in '82-'83 we stripped the sod off the back right of #13 green and leveled it slightly to provide a pin position back there. On #12 green the front greenside bunkers were enlarged, but I can't remember whether we got into the green with the sod work or not. The work was done by John Poncho, who was with RTJ at the time. Many other bunkers were enlarged, some were added though the actual number (106 at that time) stayed the same because in some places there were a couple of small ones became one larger bunker.

One other turfie on the crew and I did the sod work on #13 after the super cut the sod. The only time I ever saw Ted Woehrle work during the work day (union be damned!). When we were working on the bunkers around the green, we got into the Devil's Asshole and started digging sand out. There was about 18" of sand in the bottom. We took it down to the point that you could just get a club back and through without catching a lip. Ted came out and made us put a couple cushman loads back in, but it would have been great to see it played as it's namesake.

[Peter Galea]

As long as it's mowed, I don't care if the stripes point to Indio.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Dan,

Based on your work at Oakland Hills-South, it's only a matter of time until you start stripping sod and flattening areas to make for more hole locations at Kingsley, isn't it?!

Mike's going to kill me for this post  

[Dan_Lucas]

Jeff,

Money has been offered if I would do that on #9, but the ante isn't right yet.

[igrowgrass]

The mowing patterns were not uncommon for a golf course/country club of Oakland Hills.  The fairways were mowed with a triplex which is normal for a large upscale country club and the approachs were mowed with a walk-behind greens mower.(The mower was designed for mowing a green, but you just alter the HOC to a higher setting and you walk mow the approaches and the tees.)  The half-half look or block cutting as it is usually referred to is common in golf course like Shinnecock were the links style is emphasized.  Were burning in lines like they did at Oakland Hills is more common.  Also the time of year and the state of the grass growing conditions present during the week leading up to and during the Ryder Cup made the grass look healthier.  Mr. Cook has had five years to experiment with different fertility rates and mowing patterns and timing, many articles have said that they had it down to exact minutes as to when they would have things completed.  I believe his crew should not be critizied for there setup of the golf course in anyway.  And thinking that the PGA likes to mow in a stripe method that is wrong, look back not more than a month ago to what Whistling Straits looked like for this years Championship.

[TEPaul]

I sure do hesitate to say this particularly because I've never been anywhere near Oakland Hills but from watching hours of the Ryder Cup what I think I'd like to say as an analysis from afar of Oakland Hills is it's just amazing to me what really really good greens can do for a golf course.

[LenBum]

This strikes me as a somewhat silly post, but there is a definite difference in mowing between the PGA and the USGA.  The PGA likes the diagonal stripe look, because it is more visually dramatic on camera.  The USGA likes the half-and-half look in which the mowers cut in two different directions longitudinally along the entire hole.  That is an old-time look.  Essentially, you have half of the fairway that looks dark and half that looks bright, depending on the direction of the mower.  It has absolutely no difference on play.


For as long as I've been at Shinnecock Hills the fairways have always been cut in the "half and half" pattern. There is a term used to describe this mowing pattern but I just can't remember it. I believe it is the most cost effective way of mowing fairways.
And there is no doubt that it has a psychological effect on some players. The dark side tends to blend in with the primary rough. It can intimidate some looking out and seeing just the light side.
And Ray Floyd will argue that it does effects play. If you don't alternate the pattern you definitely "burn" a grain pattern in. Whether a ball landing on the dark side is slowed down I guess depends on the mowing height of the fairways and how firm they are. It didn't hold up many tee balls during the US Open..........
of course mowing the fairways at.250-.275 and not watering them might have had something to do with that too...............

[TEPaul]

"There is a term used to describe this mowing pattern but I just can't remember it."

Lenbum:

It's just called the old up and back mowing method. It's a re-creation of the old tractor pulled massive gang mower method of mowing. It's basically the way they mowed in the old days. You see that pattern on all the old pre-WW2 aerials.

[Marc Haring]

I do like that old style mowing pattern myself. Don’t know if it would have originally been created by a tractor and gangs though. Horse and gangs I’d have thought.

I remember listening to an excellent presentation by the Oakland Hills superintendent a couple of years ago. He said they actually got lengths of drainage pipe and lined them up on to the exact centre of the greens. They were then able to ensure that the mowing angles of the two cuts would both be at 45 degrees to that line so that the diamonds created would point exactly to the green centres. It didn’t matter if it was a big snaking dogleg, what you saw from the tee were diamonds that were pointing at the green centre!  

[Anthony_Nysse]

Like I stated earlier, it depends on the type of course and also the magagement. (Superintendent) US AM at Winged Foot-Striped/diagionals.(Eric Greytok) Last year at Oakmont- Mowed side to side with Triplexes. (John Zimmers) 2002-Oaklnad Hills...mowed same as the Ryder Cup....It depends on the course and it's management style, not PGA vs USGA..actually, VALHALLA is owned by the PGA and it's mowing patterns are diagionals with triplexes....

[TEPaul]

Marc:

By the time those old up and back (dark and light) mowing patterns on fairways started showing up in the old aerials was in most all cases past the horse drawn mower era. I just saw a photo of a horse drawn mower in a photo around 1915-16 and the mower was no more than about 48" wide, if that. The old tractor pulled gang mowers were up to maybe 25-30 feet wide and the reels were motion driven--eg it was impossible for them to back up. On 50-60 yard wide fairways those old tractor pulled gang mowers probably did just 2-3 passes each way and sometimes they created some interesting fairway patterns if they swung out to turn.

One should also remember that golf course aerials really don't exist much before the early to mid 1920s anyway. The aerials are the only way you can really notice that old up and back fairway mowing style.

Matt Shaeffer, the super at Merion, is very interested in all these old maintenance practices and many of the things they produced. It's also great to hear that Matt is really starting to pick Richie Valentine's brain about all the things that were done--maintenance-wise and otherwise in the old days.

[rgkeller]

>>cooler weather that helped the Poa annua take a back seat to the bentgrass<<

It most parts of this country, cool weather promotes the growth of poa.

[Marc Haring]

Tom Paul

Yeah, I reckon you’re right. It would have been a tractor and gang thing.

Do you think that is why you still get that narrow line linking up the tees and the start of the fairway? Of course with gang mowers, it was a pain in the derriere to turn off all the cutting units so basically they would cut a strip from one green to the next tee, then straight up to the fairway. You still see courses where this look is recreated for authenticity even though half the staff wouldn’t know what a set of gang mowers looked like.  

[Steve Curry]

I prepare my fairways in the traditional pattern for events, am doing so as we speak for a Mass State event coming next week.  I was recently riding around in preparation of our Invitational Championship and commented to a member that going from cross-cut (stripes) to traditional was like taking off the Hawaiian print shirt and putting on the Tuxedo.  When I am mowing fairways traditional I use multiple techniques to eliminate or at least reduce lay over, grain.  We will do one or more of the following; cut in the opposite direction, brush or verticut.

I am not adverse to cross cut, aesthetically, but much prefer a crisper, quieter and clean look.  I cannot stand striped rough though, ultimate in tacky!

Steve

[Anthony_Nysse]

Poa is promoted by cool, WET weather...needs to be a combination

[TEPaul]

Marc:

I'm going to check with Matt Shaeffer again about your last few questions as he really does seem to be interested in some of the things the old tractor pulled massive gang mowers produced. No I don't think it's very logical to assume those old massive gang mowers cut those narrow strips from tees to the start of fairways. That was probably some other piece of equipment. That general subject came up the other day with Matt and he said he believed those old massive gangs were simply motion driven and shutting off the reels (probably with a lock lever) wasn't much done. I guess its possible that those narrow lines may've been cut with a tractor and something like a single gang behind it after the operator detached and parked the other outside gangs somewhere else.

But Matt was telling me he noticed on some of the old aerials how large swathes existed between holes and such and he figured those were the old large gang mowers moving between holes in what might to considered "maintenance lanes".

Again, he said those old gang mower reels were motion driven just like the old-fashioned push lawn mower. That was oviously before the time of PTO driven reels with things like motor driven drive shafts and differentials and such.

[Marc Haring]

I started my greenkeeping with the old gang mowers and everything had to be linked by cut grass. Of course in the UK we never had more than five units on a set of gangs so they were not that wide.
I've been looking at Geoff's book the golden age and it looks to me that alot of courses used something similar, just five units wide or so. Couldn't see too many wide sections of cut grass between the fairways, mainly just narrow ones. That's not to say they didn't do as you suggested and turned the outside ones off, but in my experience that was something to be avoided.  

[LenBum]

Lenbum:

It's just called the old up and back mowing method. It's a re-creation of the old tractor pulled massive gang mower method of mowing. It's basically the way they mowed in the old days. You see that pattern on all the old pre-WW2 aerials.



"Shadow Cut"..................

[TEPaul]

Lenbum:

I guess there'll be a new name for everything and I'm probably the worst offender. I can pretty much guarantee, though, William Flynn and Donald Ross never heard of the "shadow cut"---it sounds like some new punk haircut!    

[Anthony_Nysse]

It's always been called the "Traditional Cut" in my neck of the woods...I'm sure you can figure out how the name was derived....

[TEPaul]

Anthony:

I guess we call it the "traditional cut" today because we look at the old aerials and see that type of cut. But back in the old days when they started doing it (probably the early 1920s) they probably just called it "mowing the fairway" and not the "traditional cut" because they weren't remotely aware back then of all the wild-ass diamonds and blocks and whatever other fussy fairway moving patterns superintendents would be able to come up with some day.

Back then all they could conceive of is just taking a tractor and dragging about 20-30 feet of hooked up motion driven gang mowers down one side of the fairway and back up the other side a few times.  

If they could've seen the way we do it today they'd probably react like that old wood-cutter out in the boondocks who was given a chain saw and couldn't understand the point of it until someone took it from him and started it up causing that old wood-cutter to yell;

"WHAT'S THAT?!?!

What do you think one of those old gang-mower tractor operators mowing the up and back pattern on the fairways of GMGC back in 1921 would do if he looked up and saw a Lear jet banking in for a landing at the Philadelphia International airport. He'd probably think the Martians were landing!