"Tom, Tell us more about what you learned.
Steve:
SteveC:
I'd be glad to.
The first thing I learned is if one asks Ron Prichard to be extremely honest about one's golf course before taking him out to see it, one can be damn sure he will get some very honest opinions.
We wanted to do the up and back cut, or I did a while ago, but with all the other things going on that got sort of lost in the mix. Ron certainly put that idea back on the table and that's why I started this thread.
I learned a few things from this thread but for some details and mechanics of how to do this I learned all I think we need to know from John Goesslin of Aronimink the other night.
I just went over there the other evening when they were mowing and prepping the course for a tournament.
My super was primarily concerned about damage to the turf turning around bunkers and such.
John explained that he's doing the up and back for agronomic reasons and surely one of those is the fact that he doesn't need to turn app 200 times in the rough with the diagaonal cut pattern.
I guess my super thought with the up and back he'd have to mow around the bunkers a few times but John just goes right at his bunkers straight, picks up the mowers and travels around the first cut and drops them back down in a straight line on the other side.
Then apparently a no tread (smooth tire) mower makes the clean up pass on the outsides.
John also has a series of dots on the edge of the fairways into the fairway/approach transition that can vary the point of turn back by maybe 10-15 yards.
He also varies the up and back sides frequently, as well as using the "samboni" method of wide turning at the approach end.
I'm not sure there is anything more to know. I know my club will accept this as soon as I mention this will be a time, manpower and cost savings but the added good news is it more agronomically more friendly and of course on old courses it just looks so much more traditional.
On another note, John Goesslin has Aronimink looking about as good (firm and fast) as any golf course needs to be for any reason or event. Hopefully that club knows how lucky they are to have him. I saw one of their bigwigs somewhere in the last few weeks and I asked him if he realized that and he just said. "Oh yeah, I sure do."
He's become one of my top "go to" guys for any maintenance question or advice at all.
To me collaboration is the name of the game. My super and John will be speaking about this.
That's what I learned.
And I also learned, once again, how little I know about maintenance and agronomy. But I have the tel #s of about fifty great supers in my cell phone.---and I use them
I think my respect for really good golf course superintendency has frankly just about matched or probably passed my respect for some of the best architects I know.
You guys who are really great supers are just amazing to me, and the ones who truly understand the nuances and particularly the histories and evolution of golf architecture and "playability" too are definitely the most valuable asset any club can have, by about a country mile.