Be Cart Smart: 5 - 6 & 10 - 11

This is the first post in a series where we'll be looking at where you should be driving when you take a power cart at Tacoma.  Golf courses built during the "golden era" of golf architecture, like the course at Tacoma, were built without the consideration of power cart traffic or cart path construction since during that time period in the early 1920's,  no one thought about driving while playing golf, and golf carts had yet to be invented.  As a result, many of the designs from that period have an unmistakable charm, but they simply aren't very cart-friendly.  This often creates issues with turf quality where carts converge around greens and tees. 

 Tacoma C&GC is fortunate to have a course which was built upon free draining soil where the need for continuous cart paths has never been deemed necessary.  However, throughout the years, cart paths were built around greens and tees where cart traffic was concentrated.  Today we have come full circle and are trying to eliminate those cart paths.  In order for this to work, you need a method of dealing with the compaction that results from traffic, and good growing conditions so that some acceptable level of turf quality exists in the traffic areas.  We deal with the compaction by using aerification machines and punching holes in these areas several times a year.  In addition, we follow up the punching with sand topdressing.  Sand topdressing modifies the soil in these areas so that further compaction is minimized. Next we do a lot of overseeding in these areas to introduce new plants which increases density of the turf stand. Lastly, we improve growing conditions by thinning trees to increase sunlight and air flow.  All of this effort is working and to date, each area where we have removed a path, the turf quality has remained satisfactory. Now we have the problem that folks are unsure where to drive their carts.  Hence the need for this series of tutorials where I'll be teaching you how to "be cart smart".  Over the next few months, I will try and communicate the best places to drive your power cart in each situation that you might find at Tacoma.  

HOW TO "BE CART SMART"

First, there's a couple general rules that apply to almost every situation you'll find on the course.

First rule.......stay at least 30 yards from the greens.

Okay that guideline is pretty much a universal rule on all golf courses.  At Tacoma it is almost always possible to keep a good distance from the greens.  Next rule............

Don't be a trailblazer.  

Don't follow in the same tracks as everyone else.  Take a slightly different path whenever possible.  In one word......SCATTER.

This helps distribute the wear patterns over a larger area.

Next, and final general rule...............keep your eyes open.

Okay that seems obvious as driving with your eyes closed would be very dangerous, but what I really mean is look for anything and everything.  Be attentive to soft looking areas and stay clear of them.  Observe signage or ropes that are there with the intent to guide you.  I know, you've heard all this before, and right now you're probably about ready to stop reading this blog, but please don't. Now we're going to get down to specifics.  Now we're going to talk about individual areas on the course where you might not know where you're supposed to drive because it's not so obvious. 

 As discussed in the last post, once 9 tee is completely renovated, you should be taking your power cart to the left of the 9th tee in order to minimize traffic through the area  left of the 8th green which is the shortest route to the 9th tee, and the logical route that should be reserved  for those that are walking.  Keep in mind when I'm talking about being "cart smart", I'm talking only about those folks driving power carts.  So what about going from 5 green to 6 tee through this new area?

To put it simply, just take the shortest route since it will help distribute traffic over a larger area.  As you can see in the diagram above, you have several options.  The white colored path is how you might go if your headed to the restroom, the white tee, or the green tee on #6.  The blue colored path shows a direct route to the blue tees on #6.  If your playing the black tees you might take the direct route depicted by the black colored path.  Now obviously if someone is teeing off on #9 you should not cut in front of them but drive around so you would probably take a route similar to the white colored path.  Okay that's pretty logical but with the recent renovation of the tee on #11, it may not seem obvious where to drive your cart so check out the following images below.  The first image here shows how the new 10th green and 11th tee complex is configured.

The next image below shows where you should drive if you're playing the black tees.

Now the next image below has a blue colored path so yes this is the route you would take if playing the blue tees.

Logically the next image depicts the route for those playing the white tees. 

Lastly, here is the route you should take if you're playing the green tees.

Notice all the routes are slightly different which means wear and compaction is distributed over a larger area.  By the way, the red "P" is where you would park to play your ball on  the 10th green and  then where you'd park to tee off on the 11th.  

Okay that's enough for now.  I hope this has been helpful.  More "be cart smart" tutorials will be coming shortly.  Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns about this issue.

9 Tee Renovation

Above you see an aerial diagram of the complex at 5 and 8 green including the 9th tee.  It's one of those areas that wasn't completely finished during the renovation of the course last year.  This week we will begin the process of completing the work to this area per the Master Plan.

The pinkish reddish area in this diagram shows the area of the teeing ground  that will be lifted and regraded. The end result will be an area that is flatter throughout, providing more tee-able areas, and making the cross over from 5 green to 6 tee more gradual.  In addition, the cart path will be removed similar to what we've done on several of the other teeing grounds and green complexes.   We also will be changing the mowing patterns here to increase the amount of short turf. 

When finished, the area will look like the above diagram.  This area is challenging to manage since traffic from two holes converge and cross each-other.  Because of the concentrated traffic, I think this area will really benefit from being changed over to short fairway turf.  Ever since we began removing cart paths and aggressively managing traffic areas, we find that the areas that are roughs don't hold up as well as those areas that are short turf.  

With that being said, from this time forward we would like to see all POWER CARTS  follow the path depicted above when leaving the 8th green.  This will reduce the total amount of traffic converging between the 5th and 8th green and help that area stay healthy and thus more enjoyable to play from.  The roughs on the left of 9 tee will now see more traffic than ever before, but again we only want to see POWER CARTS take that route since it's an area that's not in play,so if it gets matted down, it will only be a cosmetic issue and not compromising playability.

The Island

This picture was taken in 1989 before the "new holes" were completed and you can see that the original island planting was rather unimpressive yet composed of plant species endemic to the area.

 Then at some point the planting was redone and in this picture it's hard to tell what exactly was planted but it looks pretty much like a mixture of several ornamental, non native type plants.

Most recently the planting on the island was again non native plants and this is one of the reasons that we just recently started to revamp the island again.  Another reason was the weeping willows, which are native to China, had gotten so large that they were interfering with golf.  They were blocking the views of both the 13th and 15th tees which created a safety concern and from the 15th tee, the view of the left side of the target green was being obstructed.  Rather than just cutting down the willows, it was decided to completely replant the island and attempt to make it look more natural by using plant material which is native looking.

 First we just wiped out everything which was rather challenging considering you can't just take a backhoe over there and dig the stuff out.  The crew dug out everything by hand and shuttled the stuff over piece by piece using the row boat.

 Then we rented a large construction fork lift and moved all the new plant material over.  This picture makes it look like it was an easy job but trust me, the fork lift could barely reach the island  so we had to push the limits of the machine.

 We also took over a pallet of soil amendment to aid in establishment of the new plants.  Jeremy and Gabe worked really hard on this project, and I mean really hard physically.  It was a tough job and took a lot of teamwork.

 So here we are today.  Almost finished and I think it is looking great all things considered.  It really is hard to make the island look natural.......mainly because of the island itself.  It is rather unnatural to have a perfectly round island in such a small body of water.  We have tried to come up with other schemes to maybe rebuild the island or just simply remove it but right now the Committee would rather focus dollars elsewhere.  So for now at least, the new evergreen island planting is in place and we will see how it looks once completed and grown in.  This picture was taken from the new black tee on 13 so you can see now that there is good visibility of the target fairway, and the 15th tee.

 This week we also finished grading the surrounds of the the 13th green.  We're going to finish this up this week and I can't wait to see grass on this new wrap of fairway turf.

One last picture.  Check out the new sunshine on the 15th green.  You can see my shadow and the stump in the foreground.  A couple weeks ago that green would have been smothered in shade at this time of the day.