Tournament Preparation

I had intended to write this post a few days ago but things on the course have been rather hectic recently. Yesterday the final of the Jersey Amateur Championships was played on the course with La Moye member Stephen Purdie emerging victorious, congratulations to him.
Work on the course for the event was focused on course presentation and putting green conditioning. To present the course in the best possible way we increase the frequency of cutting key areas such as greens, surrounds, tees and fairways. Greens would be cut once each day under normal circumstances but for tournaments this is increased to at least two cuts per day. Likewise fairways, tees and surrounds are cut either every day or every other day during a tournament instead of twice each week normally. Other areas such as bunker faces, tee banks, rough and semi-rough are cut just before a tournament begins to ensure they look in the best possible shape.
Greens obviously receive the most attention though. Not only do we increase mowing frequency but we also roll the putting surfaces straight after mowing. In a normal week we will miss out mowing on the days we roll to give the turf a rest and help reduce stress but for short periods we increase turf stress to produce a superior playing surfaces. Whilst daily double cutting and rolling of greens is great way to improve surfaces in the short term it would be very damaging if carried out for an extended period. Turf density and ultimately putting green performance would decrease rapidly if this practice was carried out for too long a period. In fact, even short periods of increased activity on the greens require specific aftercare once a tournament is over. It is common to see solid tine aeration take place on greens straight after or within a few days of a tournament ending. This helps reduce stress in the green by fast tracking air and water into the rootzone. I can see the despair on some members faces when they arrive at the course finally able to tee it up following a tournament to find that the greenstaff have punched a load of holes in the greens. Please understand that this is only done to ensure the on-going health of the green in the long term.