An Adelaide Intern's Experience at Oakmont

[James Bennett]

A young Adelaide lad Luke Partridge has just returned to Australia after a long period of internship at Oakmont and atSea Island Resorts.  His experience in Adelaide has been at a course with poor and heavy soil, severe slopes and great (unbelievable) views).  So the experience would have been extreme.  There is a well written article in the Australian Turf Magazine that gives an insight into what makes Oakmont's greens.  I think you'll enjoy the read.

http://www.agcsa.com.au/guests/atm_articles/8_4_1b.html

James B

[James Bennett]

Bump.

I thought someone would comment on the combination of effort, old and new technology that apparently goes into maintaining the legendary Oakmont Greens.  I have copied the Oakmont component form the article.  There are some great photos of greens maintenance that show another method of deeep, close aeration.

James B

Copied from the above linked article from the Australian Turf Magazine....


Upon my arrival at Oakmont in March 2005 I was thrown straight into the thick of it. We started out with drill-n-fill, a renovation practice that was entirely new to me. The concept is simple; it is a machine that drills holes 12 inches (30cm) down and fills them with sand promoting deeper root growth and superior drainage. I say superior drainage because the drill bits drill down to within inches of the subsurface.

To add to the pressure, the crew was also responsible for keeping cool the truckloads of cool-season bluegrass and fine fescue sod being laid daily in hot (26oC) and humid (83 per cent) conditions. The state of the art irrigation system was only used during the day in extreme circumstances so there would be times where syringing entire fairways by hand was the only option.

MEAN GREENS

Oakmont is all about green speeds. The members expect the greens to stimp no less than 12 on a normal day, weather permitting. They are not disappointed.

Daily mowing routines at the peak of the season usually started with a double cut by triplexes, double or triple cut with hand units and then double rolled. The mowers were set at .086 of an inch (2.18mm). During a tournament we would double cut and double roll each evening after play before repeating the routine the next morning.

Putting five cuts on a green in the morning was quite an experience. The first green to be cut would be number nine up by the clubhouse which was lit up by spotlights. It was an awesome sight to see six walk mowers and two triplexes bustling across the green trying to avoid each other and at the same time try to concentrate on their line of cut, which was virtually impossible to see.

A lot of the time the greens would be so dry that there would be no lubrication for the mowers and they would start to bounce. A
hand waterer was then called and he would give the green a very light spray.

Because of the low mowing heights, Zimmers and his two assistants would carefully inspect all the mowers on the first cut every morning to make sure they were cutting properly. If anything looked even slightly out, the mower would be called in and a mechanic sent out with a gauge to double check the
heights. This happened quite often. The highest stimp reading to be taken at Oakmont was 15 and some days the greens were
unstimpable.

The regular low mowing, rolling and weekly applications of Primo meant that the Poa-bent canopy grew in extra tight, not to
mention the fact that the surfaces have evolved over 102 years, being the same turf that was planted in 1903. To say that the greens at Oakmont were especially unique would be an
understatement.

However, with this amount of stress on the turf, disease management was essential. Automatic irrigation was never run on the greens or approaches. They were monitored carefully by hand waterers who would apply very light syringes during the day and only if the greens were footprinting. Syringing kept
the greens ultra fast and alive!

The preparation of the greens at Oakmont was a unique practice that is not performed anywhere else in the world on a daily basis. I learned so much being exposed to this pressure. On top of that, chemical applications were also obviously of high importance with each application being worth around the five
figure mark. The pressure was always on the applicator to perform on a weekly basis.

[Bill Shamleffer]

Amazing that there are over a 1000 views of a discussion about one ball drop and just 148 views of this quite interesting article giving a glimpse behind the scenes of high-end golf course maintenance.  Do yourself a favor and wait the minute or two it will take for this article to download and print.  The read is worth the wait.

[Peter_Herreid]

Had an opportunity to spend some time with members of the OCC grounds staff recently, and their pride in the conditioning of the club is evident.  This article only serves to highlight many of the fastidious and incredibly detailed methods used to achieve their lofty standards.  Well done, and this article is a fascinating inside-look.

[David Lott]

The young fellow can write well!

[Steve Burrows]

I want to preface this post by saying that I am an assistant superintendent, I have been to Oakmont, I know people who work at Oakmont, I greatly admire the work ethic of the staff and have the utmost respect for the high level of quality they produce.  Having said that, however…

I feel like playing the part of the cynic.  

Aren’t many of their methods extraneous and, at times, a gross misallocation of resources?  Quintuple cut, double roll, weekly growth regulator applications, a top-of-the-line irrigation system that goes largely unused in favor of hand watering.  And why do they do this?  Because of the legacy of a steel magnate who wanted to build a supremely difficult golf course and a century old stigma attached to the relative speed to the greens.  Oakmont is, of course, not alone in this.  Many of our golden age courses, and many of our newer courses, simply throw money around to temporarily solve a problem, and, once they have thrown it, they must continue doing so, or jobs will be on the line.

And more than this, it’s interesting that many on this website long for a day when course conditioning doesn’t play such a role in playability, yet we are often astounded and impressed when we here about the lengths that superintendents go to live up to some arbitrary standard set over 100 years ago.  Indeed, there are those who celebrate it.    

[Ryan Farrow]

I have refrained from talking about the daily maintenance practices at Oakmont due to the upcoming Open in 2007. He must have had permission from the club to write this article and talk about his experiences. I still don't feel comfortable spilling my guts on what the maintenance crew does and what the Aussie covered in the article should be more than enough. One thing I would like to say is that John Zimmers really understands how his course should play. The fairways, approaches, and greens are unbelievably firm and fast and he is not afraid to let the greens turn brown in order to achieve those results.


"Oakmont is, of course, not alone in this.  Many of our golden age courses, and many of our newer courses, simply throw money around to temporarily solve a problem"

Steve, they also spend money on permanent solutions such as the subsurface drainage system in their greens.