Looks like I may manage to get appointed to a county board which is charge of the budget and decision-making for the county muni golf course, which as munis go is kind of OK. I don't really like the place much, but that's mostly due to its mid-1980s styling coupled with letting the greens shrink well away from their accompanying bunkers/green pad edges.
The land and routing, however, is not bad -- not bad at all (though of course it's the usual inland clay soil). I have visions of suggesting architectural changes which would ultimately help the maintenance budget, or at least that would be my idea for getting county money people to listen to me.
One change, of course, is reducing the number of bunkers. There are presently 48 of them, many of which serve little strategic (or even visual) purpose. I'd want to do with about half that number. But reducing bunkers is only the most obvious maintenance help. I have so much to learn about practical maintenance issues before I go around making myself look like a fool. One thing I do know is that I see holes/topography out there that might translate well to Raynor-ish features. And there's nothing remotely like that design-wise in the local area, so that "fresh" look might actually help attract customers.
But is a Raynor look appropriate for a muni which has to maintain on the cheap (relatively)? Is it even possible? I don't know the answers. So here's a collection of questions I have (from a maintenance standpoint) on various topics/features types:
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1) Bunkers. What's the simplest way to maintain sloped grass faces? What grass is most appropriate (Mid-Atlantic climate)? How about maintaining flat-bottomed bunkers using motorized equipment? Is it possible to avoid the bunker shapes drifting toward ovals as opposed to something more "rectangular"? What about trench-type long bunkers? Is it possible to make them just wide enough for a piece of equipment to make it thru on a pass (but no more)? The issue I guess is that labor-intensive hand raking/sculpting/flashing/trimming need to be avoided as much as possible -- if not eliminated.
2) Grass hollows (or thinking in the opposite relief, cops and mounds). Similar to above, is there a right way and a wrong way to construct them maintenance-wise? Likewise, is there an appropriate grass? Or, is it possible to let cop-type hazards get covered in rough native grasses that might look interesting and be low-maintenance?
3) Greens. Probably the biggest subject to address -- but I'm not sure I even know enough information to ask the right questions. In any case the greens would have to be enlarged from their present tiny ovals. What's the right process for that? All the greens are presently just surrounded on all sides by thick rough -- i.e. no ground options. What's the maintenance burden for surrounding the greens with short grass (much more playable for muni golfers)? If we are thinking Raynor style here with its "geometric" green shapes, just how hard is it to get some of those tight corners? Do the green issues alone preclude this style for a low (ish) maintenance golf course?
4) Roughs. This course is situated on a pretty large parcel of land. Some of the non-play areas have decent looking native grasses. What's the maintenance burden of developing a grassing program which would emphasize and enlarge these native areas? I seem to remember the Honors Course having a nice program like this -- and in a similar climate too. But was that program cost-prohibitive -- or would it be a help? Closer to the fairways where normal rough grass is, I presume low to no irrigation policies would be a good idea. There must be a good way to handle that, but I'm not sure how you execute it.
5) Fairways. This course does seem to present its fairways in pretty decent shape for a muni, so I think they've already successfully invented that wheel. But the course could use more width, especially for muni players and with lots of land room. Would increasing fairway acreage by, say, 20 percent totally break the bank mowing and irrigation-wise? Or, should the thought be to increase width by eliminating length (i.e. more rough between tees and start of fairways)?
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There's a million more questions I'm sure. I'm just hoping to get a few tips from maintenance types so that I sound more convincing, or to help me not look stupid if I ever have to go speak to the management folks at this muni. Maybe my questions don't need to be answered directly at all -- maybe you all have some good examples of courses that have figured out these issues and I can investigate from there.