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Survey results on Fairways and landing areas


One of the sections of our member survey was regarding the condition of our fairways and landing areas. Overall the comments were very positive. Most of our members have noticed that we have been mowing our fairways shorter than in previous years. This provides a tighter, more dense surface for ball roll and to hit off of.
There was a comment about some areas that are thin and require some attention. On a clay based golf course you often run into issues with heavy compaction and wear areas. Particularly during the height of the season when golf carts are heavily used (including tournaments, etc). Turfgrass has a hard time growing in these areas of heavy compaction because roots cannot navigate through the soil when it is rock hard, etc. We are beginning a new era of fairway maintenance at HCC. We have recently purchased a fairway aerator and a fairway verticutting unit. We are going to be using this aerator (which slices into the root zone) to relieve compaction. I posted some pictures of this machine back in the fall, as you can see there is very little disruption to play.
Another issue that we have at HCC is worm castings on fairways. Although worms are beneficial for soil, the worms create a maintenance nightmare for mowers (and golfer's shoes). The accumulation of castings causes a poor cut and dulls the mowers very quickly. We drag our fairways prior to mowing to help alleviate the issue, but this is a band aid, not a solution. The USGA has done research on the effect of fairway topdressing to help reduce worm castings. This has proven to be true, however it is a process and does take a few years of application to see the benefits. This issue presents some questions for myself and the Green Committee to address in the near future. As I had mentioned, overall the comments on our fairways were very positive. As always, there is always room for improvement.

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