Restoration // Green Encroachment

[Drew Maliniak]

Fun article today on dealing with green placement and sunlight issues


https://golf.com/travel/course-deigners-build-greens-sunlight-solar-pathfinder/

I wonder if the National Links Trust and the other municipal re-dos have thought enough about keeping these courses easy to maintain on a budget. 

How are they dealing with greens almost always getting smaller over time?

Any new low-budget, techniques on making sure mowing lines stay the same? Is this an argument for very square or geometric greens?

[Tom_Doak]

Fun article today on dealing with green placement and sunlight issues


https://golf.com/travel/course-deigners-build-greens-sunlight-solar-pathfinder/

I wonder if the National Links Trust and the other municipal re-dos have thought enough about keeping these courses easy to maintain on a budget. 

How are they dealing with greens almost always getting smaller over time?

Any new low-budget, techniques on making sure mowing lines stay the same? Is this an argument for very square or geometric greens?

If you build USGA greens it's very easy to tell where they are supposed to be, because the plastic liner is just below the surface.  Some builders also put in a metal wire at the bottom of the well so you can "find" the edge with a metal detector.  Either way, the maintenance staff still has to pay attention to it at least a couple of times a year before they start losing parts of the green.


This is not an argument for geometric greens, though I guess it could be used as an excuse.

[Pat Burke]

When I moved in 1996 to the golf course community I live in, I was playing full time and I spent most every late afternoon/early evening playing our south course.


Over the years and constantly changing superintendents, I watched the conditions deteriorate, including the slow, inward creep of green shrinkage.


A couple years ago, one of our former supers was talking to me on the putting green about some of the turf issues and traffic on the greens. When I mentioned the significant loss of sq footage, he defensively told me they hadn’t shrunk at all. I had worked in golf courses much of my life, and the loss was honestly very large. We talked about my belief and he disagreed. A very good guy BTW so no problem


Two days later I was putting again and he asked to drive out to the 18th green. He had gone out and found the green liner after we spoke, and discovered the back right quadrant of the green had lost nearly 6 feet! He couldn’t believe it. The Second  hole was worse I told him (I chipped on that green a lot in the past).  It had lost hundreds of square feet


They had literally created a bigger compaction/wear problem while actually losing a lot of great hole locations


Management company didn’t want to fix it back then.


They have a very good and a strong super now and the course has improved tremendously in spite of the company thanks to a talented guy. 
I was always amazed at the amount of green turf  lost By this

[John Emerson]

Fun article today on dealing with green placement and sunlight issues


https://golf.com/travel/course-deigners-build-greens-sunlight-solar-pathfinder/

I wonder if the National Links Trust and the other municipal re-dos have thought enough about keeping these courses easy to maintain on a budget. 

How are they dealing with greens almost always getting smaller over time?

Any new low-budget, techniques on making sure mowing lines stay the same? Is this an argument for very square or geometric greens?

EPP seemed very flat to me with minimal elevation change.  I always have a ball playing there even if it does need to be restored.  Tom, how much have you studied the topos? Do you know what difference is from highest to lowest point?