Golf Course Maintenance Resources & Tips


 

Every golf course is designed to offer a challenging round to the players passing through the course for a single round or playing on a regular basis. But to keep those players coming back comes down to three things - golf course management, maintenance, and marketing. In this article, we will be focusing on the unsung hero of any golf course, it’s maintenance. The maintenance of a golf course can be a difficult aspect of keeping your course up to “par” and should be a partnership between players and your ground crew. Players need to take some responsibility for their actions and keeping the course up to par while ground crews need to ensure their work does not hold up play.

1. Create pathways for ground crews

One of the most annoying aspects of maintenance for players is the inability to play because a ground crew is conducting required maintenance. Holding up and disrupting play should be as minimal as possible with the sounds of mowers and movement of ground crews often seen as problems for players. Creating dedicated pathways for ground crews to move along that limit the disruption of play and scheduling maintenance at low-traffic times should be considerations for the managers of each course to explore.

2. Avoid waterlogged areas

We have all arrived at a course to play and found sprinkler systems working hard watering the course right as the heavens open and rain begins to pour. During these times, it is easy for a ground crew to struggle to avoid waterlogging certain areas of the course and causing problems with playing. It is key for a golf course to employ a ground crew capable of monitoring the weather to avoid issues with both waterlogged and dry areas stressing the precious turf of your course.

3. Remind players about repairing green marks

The quality of any golf course is usually measured by the standard of the greens it possesses. This is one area where the partnership between players and ground crew needs to be established with players reminded on a regular basis of the need for running repairs to be made to ball marks. Every time a ball lands on a green from a great height it creates a crater which needs to be repaired with a specialized tool designed to push the ground towards the center of the mark.

4. Bunker care should be a priority

There is little more annoying for players and ground crew members than a bunker marked with the shots of earlier players. Each day, bunkers should be checked for marks in the sand which should be raked by ground crew members with rakes available for all bunkers. Players should be reminded regularly of their responsibility to enter the bunker as close to their ball as possible and to rake the sand when exiting each bunker. This can limit the problems and complaints regarding the state of the course from players.

5. Sustainability should be a priority

A sustainable approach to golf course management should be explored by all maintenance crews and owners. One of the most important issues facing the majority of golf courses in the 21st-century is the high level of water and other materials required to keep the course in excellent condition. The use of irrigation systems designed to allow rainwater to be captured and reused when needed to lower the reliance on finite resources.

6. Rough should be easy to manage

The ease of management of the rough on your course can be a great way of saving money and challenging players at the same time. It is a good choice to look for plants and grasses which require little maintenance and cutting to set players a challenge and allow your ground crew to concentrate on other areas of your course.

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