We talked about eliminating this cut at our last green committee meeting to save $. I prefer to have it. Interested to hear the comments.
Mike-
There most likely will not be any substantial savings in eliminating it. If it becomes fairway or rough, it stilll has to be maintained. (I suppose if it became rough, it would get mowed less often than the fairways, so maybe a bit of savings.) You could get rid of a piece of equipment, which would eliminate repair costs over time.
We eliminated our intermediate cut and converted it (along with a lot of additional rough area) to fairway. We used to have approximately 25 acres of fairways/intermediate, now we have 29 acres of fairways with no intermediate.
To me, the intermediate cut on older courses is a knee-jerk reaction to shrinking fairway widths. Instead of making an effort to reclaim lost fairway acreage, the intermediate cut is put in to satisfy those that complain about the rough, not realizing the fairways are not what they used to be.
Most of our fairway acreage has been reclaimed, leaving no room for an intermediate cut.
Just my opinion- obviously I'm not a fan...
Scott