We're currently snow-birding in SW Florida and took a 2 month golf membership in a private gated community that shall remain nameless. When we joined we were told the members had recently bought the course out and that there were some maintenance issues that needed to be addressed because of a lack of budget from the previous management company. They mentioned some Bermuda encroachment in the fairways. Not really much of a problem to me. The previous super apparently left because of lack of budget. I have no interest in the club other than as a one time seasonal user.
The course is wall to wall Paspalum. The fairways are fine and as you'd expect from Paspalum - dense and rich green. They also grab a lot as Paspalum does - but no real problem. They are reasonably firm for Florida - no mud balls.
The greens on the other hand are amongst the worst I've ever seen. All the greens are pitted with tufts of grass and bare spots mixed in. There are areas where there is no grass at all. They have been heavily top dressing for 6 weeks now. The ball will hop and bounce all over the place because of the pitting.
More out of curiosity than anything I'm left wondering what could cause this pitting and what could be done to rectify it. There are a couple of pictures below. The large areas are obvious, the pitting occurs everywhere to some extent on all the greens. When you try to fix a ball mark (which are hard to identify) the ground just crumbles. The edges of the cups also crumble to some degree.
Could the cause be sod webworms? Or some other insect? Or some disease? One person suggested that they didn't treat the water properly and that the water PH was wrong.
It's been in the mid 80's*F for a couple of weeks. I thought the Paspalum would be out of dormancy by now. The top dressing does not seem to have encouraged any fill in growth. Do they need to start over?
I wonder what the chances are that they'll figure this out and have it remedied by next season? Several people have told they are committed and ready to spend the money.