The answer?

 If you haven't been on the course yet this year, you might be surprised to see rubber matting installed on some cart path ends and tee walk-ups.  These high traffic "pinch points" take a beating from both carts and feet.  Increased levels of play over the past few years have exacerbated this issue.

In an effort to improve these areas, we have placed "TraqMatz" and "TraqRollz"  in several locations throughout the golf course.  Prior to installing the mats, these aeras were rototilled to de-compact them, had an amendment incorporated into the soil profile, and new sod added.  

The Traqmatz products have been on the market for several years, and are being used used at many clubs, with positive results.  While they are quite visible at the moment, once the turf grows through them, their appearance doesn't really jump out at you.

In the past, we have tried other products which claim to be the answer for high traffic situations. However, to date, most of these have not lived up to their claims.  While only time will tell, we are cautiously optimistic that Traqmatz will work well.

Rolling around on top of the covers...

 As we mentioned last week, uncovering and recovering the greens is an extremely labor-intensive activity.  Obviously if we are mowing or spraying the greens, this is required.  But what about when we want to just roll the greens?  

Well, you never know until you try, so we ran a triplex with vibratory rollers across a green, then peeled back the cover on just that one green to see the results.  We were happy to find out that this provided the same smoothing to the green, with no damage to the cover.    

The team's backs are going to appreciate not removing and replacing several thousand staples again this week!

Sorry Ron...

 With the greens being covered for the winter, many might believe that this was a Ron Popeil special, where we could put them to bed, and not think about them again until the spring.  

However, the moist environment under the turf covers can act like a petri dish for certain fungi, meaning the covers need to be removed for additional plant protectant applications.  Additionally, while the greens aren't growing quickly, we still want to mow them periodically over the winter.  

The team has become quite proficient at pulling and replacing the tarps, but it is still a very labor-intensive process, taking a full two days to complete each time it has to be done.