When temperatures start to fall, growth of warm-season grasses slows down and recovery from traffic injury can take a long time. Superintendents are left with tough choices to make on how they should try to minimize the damage. The amount of traffic control they use will impact golfers and employees since golfers must – theoretically – adhere to any restrictions and employees need to maintain the boundaries and move ropes, stakes and signs when necessary.
When I took over as director of agronomy for a 36-hole facility in Florida, the course had stakes and ropes up just about everywhere. The thing that stood out the most was that wear damage was very severe at the end of the stakes where carts were allowed back onto the golf course. Even though ropes were moved repeatedly, you could see where the stakes had ended since ruts and bare spots were always evident.
Instead of chasing my tail by moving stakes on a daily basis, I decided to remove them all. I figured if there was really a pinch point where stakes were needed, I could put some back out. As it turned out, I only had to put stakes back out in one area over the entire 36 holes!
Golfers tend to reach the very end of a cart restriction and turn immediately onto the grass, particularly if large areas are staked off. If the restrictions are removed, traffic will often be less concentrated because shots go all over the course and many different routes will be taken. If you struggle with cart damage at your course, try using less traffic control – maybe on a hole or two for starters – and see how it works. You can save yourself a lot of headaches by not having to move stakes around and you may end up with less damage!
Southeast Region Agronomists:
Chris Hartwiger, director, USGA Course Consulting Service – chartwiger@usga.org
Jordan Booth, Ph.D., agronomist – jbooth@usga.org
John Rowland, Ph.D., agronomist – jrowland@usga.org