Shrinkage

[Mike_Trenham]

A question for all of the Historians out there?

It is well documented that the greens at many classic courses have shrunk over the years.  I had always believed that the shrinkage was a result of a combination of poor decisions by the green committees and the effect of the crew members always avoiding scalping the aprons.  

This week one of our long time members was speaking with one of our green committee members and he said that during World War II many courses reduced the size of their greens by 25% in the spirit of saving gasoline.  He believes this was part of a multi-faceted effort lead by the Golf Association of Philadephia towards reducing fuel consumption.  I reread this section of the GAP History but nothing was mentioned about mowing reduction only the cancelation of the tournament schedule.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Mike,

That's true - re: fuel consumption.

But, in many cases, green surface shrinkage resulted from the intro. of riding triplex mowers, beginning during the 1960s. The turning radius of those machines could not accommodate the intricate shapes of the most complex Golden Age putting greens, and thus those greens gradually became smaller, and rounded.

It was an ease of maintenance-thing in many, many cases I've studied.  

Thankfully, many greenkeepers at Golden Age era layouts, and elsewhere, have returned to walk-mowing in recent years. This will help to maintain the original parameters of greens into the future.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

When I first began working in Garden City there was a really interesting member who was a classic New York rennaissance man--played many sports well, grew up belonging to Lawrence Beach, Rockaway Hunt, Piping Rock, etc., was a WW2 ace, successful businessman.  He once brought a divot from Piping Rock to the club's annual meeting to demonstrate what healthy turf looked like.  Anyway, he talked alot about how various courses changed.  For Cherry Valley, Garden City CC, Rockaway Hunt Club it was the depression and not enough money to pay for a large green crew. I bet later on the gas issue further shrunk there greens.  And finally, the triplexes.  When began working in NY in 1989, Garden City CC, Cherry Valley, Rockaway Hunt, Huntington, Huntington Crescent, and Seawane all had circular greens!

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

The Great Depression, WWII and then big riding mowers all caused change to golf courses. Club opeerations had to save fuel and manpower. Not only did greens get smaller but bunkers were allowed to grow over. This is why it is so important to use old aerial pictures to find out what really happened to a course.

[Brad Klein]

Jeff, I think the triplex mower has been a very serious factor in limiting restoration, as supers and club officials have been reluctant to go to hand mowing. Most of the better clubs are well beyond this however; the prolem lies witha lot of mid-range and older, poorer clubs.

My general impression from aerials is that the shrinkage was well under way before the introduction of the triplex mowers. In any case, as the above posts all make clear, it was a number of factors that contributed to rounding off of greens, not all of them planned or well-thought out.

[Jeff_Mingay]

That's true, Brad, re: mid-range and poorer clubs. I was thinking more about wealthy private clubs that have returned to walk-mowing.

I'm actually dealing with this issue at a club I'm consulting at right now. Some interesting green expansions just aren't possible at present because they ride mow.

[Steve Sayers]

As part of the restoration process at LuLu, we have expanded several of our greens (5 to date and more to come) to their original size and shape.  Pictured below is the #13.  The evolution of this green is unclear but based on a series of aerial photographs, there was a conscious effort in the early 30’s to eliminate many features and reduce the size of several greens.  We have attributed this to cost containment efforts.

In conjunction with the restoration effort, we have gone to “hand mowing” all greens.  Even with hand mowing, we are finding it difficult to maintain the squared off edges on the restored greens.

Pre restoration:



Post restoration:

[Patrick_Mucci]

Brad Klein,

I think you're right, that the triplex situation only exacerbated and existing problem.

As courses distanced themselves from their architectural beginings, as a succession of new superintendents took over, as clubs became more democratic and as legal issues reared their heads and all combined with human nature, minimum wage labor, and fuel costs, greens have shrunk.

But, at a course that I'm familiar with, redone in 1991, in less then 10 years the greens had shrunk considerably, especially in tight or configured areas, and that club uses nothing but walking mowers.

I submit that the superintendent must be aware of the issue, and each year instruct his crew, a crew that tends to have high turnover, to properly mow the greens.  And then, he must be the quality control agent, assuring that they are being properly mowed.

It's a form of erosion, and without intervention, it will continue to occur.

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

Jeff - It may be possible to get the green size and shape you desire without the expense of walkmowing. Maybe the club in question could triplex the large area of the green and do the cleanup pass with a walker. The walker may have to make two or three passes around the green but it will be able to follow the shape much better than the triplex. It's a middle of the road approach that I have used in the past.

Pat - It is true that you need to fight for those shapes and keep the lines where they should be. A green built in the 90's has things that make it easier for the Supt. to find and mark the original edge of a green. The sand mix alone is detectable with a probe. There should be a plastic moisture barrier and some greens have a tracer wire installed that can be used with a line locator.

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

Steve - Great work your doing at LuLu. That is a definate WOW result. The new green has so much more interest. I need to get a tour some day.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Interesting suggestion, Sean. I'll keep that one in mind.

The problem in this case is, low budget, limited equipment, and a small maintenance crew! Ah, the realities of it all!

[gookin]

At Fox Chapel Golf Club we have taken most of our greens back to their original size with a little bit more left to do. I think reduced maintenance had been the clear motivation for shrinkage.  Currently, we are more focused on preserving the architectural integrity of our Raynor course. This absolute difference in the size of our putting surfaces is significant. While making this change we have dramatically changed the turning ability for triplex mowers on our putting surfaces. However, we continue to successfully use triplex mowers and handle the clean up pass with walkers (as discussed earlier).  Our estimate of the labor differential is 3 to 4 crew members for 2 1/2 hours vs 6 crew members for 3 1/2 hours.  Plus this allows us to more easily offer 7:00 am tee times which are in high demand at our club(particularly on weekends).  Another significant issue is that a crew of 3-4 is easier to manage than a crew of 6.  The quality of cut and the impact on compaction continues to be an open debate.

I would be interested in anyone thoughts on this issue.  I would appreciate it if your answer could address both quality and cost, particularly if you have quantified the hard dollar cost difference between walkers and riders.

[Mike_Trenham]

Sorry about the delayed response but my golf season just ended early as I broke my toe :oand have not had time to tend to this thread.

Steve and David:

What process did your club's green crews use to restore the green sizes?

[Mike_Trenham]

I remember the year my club purchased triplex mowers for the fairways.  Concern about labor cost and the ability to get the job done with two triplex's led us to significantly shrink the fairways, I am told chemical and water costs also contributed.  I was caddying at this time and I remember well my father (who was our head professional) spending two days with the President, Green Chairman and Superintendent debating and painting lines for the new first cut.  They not only narrowed the fairways but moved the starting points further from the tees.  Expanding the fairways is also part of our master plan prepared by Ron Prichard.  

As a side note mowing our fairways with triplexs may have lead us to narrow the fairways but the quality of the turf is 100% better in our sweltering summers here in Philadelphia.

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

Mike,

The process you descibed happened at many golf courses in the mid late 80's and early 90's. Everyone had the best of intentions at the time. You describe a very thoughtful process that involved all the key people. However, most courses ended up with fairway bunkers 15 - 25 yards off the fairway. It also made it harder for the Ladies and Seniors to reach the fairway cut.

Do you remember who was pushing for the triplex mowers use? My guess it the Superintendent but it's possible a committee member was as well. The big benefits of going to a triplex mower in the 80's was you could pick up the clippings and you had a small lightweight mower. These two factors alone make it possible to provide better playing conditions throughout the season. The economic slow down at the beginning of the Regan years also had clubs interested in reducing expenses for pesticides and water so a reduction in total acerage made good sence.

Once you got your fairways narrowed I'll bet there was a tree planting campaign to fill in all that open rough.

[gookin]

The process for expanding our greens has been pretty simple with all the work done inhouse.  The toughest job was restoring the punchbowl green on our par 5 #2..  This is an interesting story.  During a local amateur event during the 50's, a young Arnold Palmer made two eagles by bouncing the ball of the left bank of punchbowl.  This so disturbed our green chairman that we put bunkers into the punchbowl to catch similar shots in the future. Seth must have been rolling in his grave. Those bunkers stayed there for over forty years. This fall will installed TDI's drainage on this green with remarkable results so far.  Much of the other green expansion has occured in the front of greens where we have just converted fairways back to greens.  It has taken several years for these surfaces to be right. Finally we have recaptured many corners of our push up greens.  This has been done by cutting out the blue grass rough and replacing it with bent sod.  If you need a more technical answer, I am certain our super Dave Carson would be happy to discuss it with you.

[Jeff_Mingay]

It still amazes me the way some golfers react to low scoring at their home course - becoming upset that Arnold Palmer made two eagles, for example, and installing bunkers to thwart good play. How ridiculous. Yet it continues to happen.

A very good junior player in my area shot 68 at our home course, Essex, this summer. Some members expressed displeasure, and talked about the course being too easy. What did they expect this kid, a plus handicap, to shoot? In reality, if he shot 78 or 80, that would indicate something was wrong with Essex.

His 68 indicates the opposite. The course is about just right.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Sean,

The plastic liner/seperator remains in tact, but below the surface.  Hot wiring is great, but quality control on a monthly basis can probably save everyone time and produce the desired results.

[Anthony_Nysse]

If any of you have access to the USGA REcord for Nov/Dec of 2004, there is a big article regarding triplexing and walking greens...very good.

[Mike_Trenham]

Sean:

The superintendent spoke with my father about the potential benefits of triplex mowers.  They elected to perform an experiment and for an entire season the crew mowed the approaches to a few greens with triplexes or walking mowers that collected the clippings (can't remember but I don't think we had a triplex as I belive we have always used walking mowers on the greens).  At the end of another hot humid summer these approaches were in great shape while the rest of the fairways were being reseeded.  At the annual meeting the next winter the experiment was discussed and there was a referendum for the purchase of a single triplex.  During the discussion one of our renegade members made a motion to double the capital expediture to fund the purchase of two mowers.  This motion passed easily.  Our turf has never been the same.

Yes we planted lots of trees and they grow alot in 20 years.  The other thing is we installed an automatic irrigation system based on these fairway widths.  

[Mike_Trenham]

David:

No more techical answer needed.  This is generally the same approach we plan to use to fix our greens.