November 20, 2019
Respect the COURSE RULES during winter play
As the season comes to an end and the maintenance staff is getting the course ready for a long cold winter, we need to be careful on what we do as we continue to play golf course.
Please obey the following rules:
- As golf courses continue to allow you to ride golf carts we need to follow a couple of rules.
Please don’t drive the carts around the tees and greens because they will cause damage to the grass. Driving the carts over and over in a particular area can also cause serious turf damage and result in reseeding the areas. This can hurt your golf course financially and in return they will have to allocate funds for reseeding that they intended to use to make up grades on other course conditions that needed repaired from previous season.
- Take care of the greens and repair ball marks.
As the maintenance staff continues to apply sand on the greens to help protect them from potential harsh winter conditions, remember to continue to repair ball marks. This always gets overlooked by the golfers and continues to get ignored. A lot of winter golfers feel like since the greens are covered in sand that they don’t need to repair ball marks. This can result in greens that that take longer in the spring to recover from the ball marks. - Watch the weather and obey the 40 degree temperature rule.
Most golf courses follow the 40 degree temperature rule before they will allow any players on the golf course. This rule is in place to protect the grass during cold temperatures. Usually during the winter months we will get temperatures that fall below freezing during the overnight hours. This will cause frost on the grass and we have to make sure you don’t drive or walk on areas that have frost on the grass. If you do drive on the frosted areas it can break the grass off at ground level causing turf damage that will have to be reseeded in the spring. - Don’t treat the course like a practice facility.
Remember the one ball rule. A lot to players like to play multiple balls when they are playing a round alone. This is very hard on the course when you are taking multiple divots in the turf and making multiple ball marks on the greens. The turf will not repair in the winter months because the grass is not growing. This will result in the course coming out of winter with turf damage.
June 20, 2019
When practicing your putting take your phone and set it directly behind you like the link below. This will let you see if your stroke is on plane. In the video you will notice that there is a slight break to the right so start with a straight putts and then move to side hills. Hope this helps.
March 7, 2017
March 6, 2017
September 15, 2016
This is so true and you can apply this to the Golf Course as well to help with keeping our par 3 tees in good shape. Also, Please sand fill the divots on the course. NOTE-Always leave the course knowing you had good adequate.
June 10, 2016
Golf is a game that we can play every day and we are challenged with different shot making skills. This past spring our rough was thick, sticky and long due to wet conditions. Below is a course management tip on what to do when your golf ball ventures out in the rough.
Imagine playing the sixth hole and you just hit your golf ball in the deep rough on the right side. The green is 250 yards away. Try to select a short iron and advance the ball down the fairway to about 125 yards from the green. That is only a 125 yard club. Some players will try a 3-wood and duff it, others would try a long iron and chunk it and your worse off. Hopefully this course management tip will help you select the right club to help you lower your scores.
Dave James, PGA
September 3, 2015
Golfers tend to come up with their own version of the USGA Rules. Please click on the link below to view 18 misunderstood rules in my opinion.
Scott Bruha, PGA