Golf Course Maintenance Tips

It’s no wonder that people in charge of golf course maintenance can sometimes get a little grumpy when they see players not being nice to “their” course. After all, their job is to ensure that every blade of grass always looks immaculate before the first tee time, and then continue their golf course lawn care efforts to make certain that it looks just as lovely the next morning. Repeat all day long, all season long. Sure, the days can be long and you probably don’t get to play the course as much as you thought you would. But this type of profession is more of a labor of love, knowing that your efforts help people enjoy the experience even more and have people keep coming back – definitely important when there are so many courses around.

Quality Golf Course Maintenance Equipment

It never hurts to find ways to do your job better, whether it’s better techniques to save time or better golf course maintenance equipment to make things look beautiful and consistent, such as materials by TurfTime Equipment. The industry-leading agricultural provider that specializes in the golf course industry offers a variety of premium tools and products for any size or quality of course, from a local 9-hole to a championship links. These are all designed to help improve your efficiency and quality.

Golf Course Lawn Care Tips & Tricks

Along with the ability to access useful equipment like top dressers and groomers, people interested in better ways how to maintain a golf course can try some of these other strategies.

• Learn what the pros are doing. You might not have the resources or the scale of full-fledged PGA course, but you may have some of the same challenges, including short- and long-term upkeep, labor, budgets, and even challenges with water. So it’s always interesting to compare notes on what challenges others courses experience, what solutions they try and then guessing what could work for you.
• Look for ways to conserve. Although golfers do expect great looking greens, there are still ways to reduce your water usage. This can include investing in quality aerators, which can help the grass’ roots grow solidly and strongly. Using mulch selectively and planting turf grass can also help water from evaporating or disappearing into the soil. Plus there are some other benefits of finding ways to introduce more sustainable practices, including lower water bills and community or industry recognition.
• Schedule out further. Perhaps you have already created a golf course lawn care outline of necessary and recommended tasks for each week that goes over different types of landscaping, fertilizing and other turf treatments. This can all be considered basic upkeep especially since you can’t do a lot of major noisy or disruptive work when the course is open for play. But you can also put together a list of longer-term goals for the next few years, including more in-depth maintenance, changing or adding trees or other foliage, even budgeting for new equipment like a new ThatchMaster verticutter. While this list doesn’t have to be permanently binding, it can at least be a guideline for what’s ahead rather than focusing on one week at a time.
• Identify areas that see the greatest wear and tear. While following a planned route through all nine or 18 holes is a good way to survey the course from the same vantage point of players, you also can spend more time at areas that receive the most frequent damage and visit them more often. This could include tee boxes where players are likely to tear up divots on a bad slice. It can also include areas at the end of a fairway where balls often land. While individual ball impacts are minimal, hundreds of them throughout a season in the same spot can cause depressions or uneven areas.
• Educate players. Some diplomacy can be required, since most players are there to have fun and eager to improve their game. But conscientious players who take ownership in a home course and are happy to respect tradition and course etiquette will never say no to picking up a few pointers and learning easy ways they can do their part, such as good ways to fix minor scuffs, rake the sand trap after they’ve walked around or being sure to keep the cart on the path. Who knows? This info might lead to someone new to golf becoming interested in the maintenance side.

Golf Course Maintenance Equipment from TurfTime Equipment

Overall, good golf course maintenance never seems to slow down, and there’s always fixes to be made. But it can be satisfying knowing you’ve been able to provide optimal conditions for players to have a great experience. TurfTime is always eager to help course personnel improve what they do, whether it’s state-of-the-art equipment or useful advice from assisting courses around the country. Contact us today to get started!