New Tee Markers and Cart Path Stakes

The weather hasn’t exactly cooperated much with us over the last month, but that isn’t slowing us down from getting ready for spring.  There are a number of projects that we have been working on and cleaning up some of the course accessories is big on our list.  One of my first impressions when I started a month ago was that a lot of the course accessories (tee markers, stakes, rope, flags, ball washers, flags, etc.) didn’t match or have any theme to them.  Sometimes the accessories on a golf course can make or break you, and leave the member or guest with a bad impression of the place.  I’ve always tried for a simplistic, classic look with course accessories – you don’t want the accessory to overpower the course, let the architecture do the job. 

Tee markers were in need of a change, as it had been a little while since the last ones were done.  We decided the best thing to do for now was recreate what had been used, but give it an upgrade so it would last longer.  All landscape timbers were angle cut, sanded, stained, and painted for completion.  The stain waterproofs the wood to prevent moisture damage, and also has a protective coating to prevent mildew buildup which was an issue with the old ones.  It should also give it a new, fresh look that lasts much longer.  We will redo tee markers every winter.  We put the new ones out this past weekend.

 



Sanding down the tee markers for smoothness

 

Staining them for water and mildew prevention

 

Painting the edges for each tee box location

 

Blue tee markers in place

One other thing that I saw as an opportunity to spruce up the place and improve grass conditions was to make new wear area stakes.  With any golf course that uses golf carts for the players you are always going to have areas where the grass gets worn down.  I’m sure you saw a bunch of the little green and white stakes all over the place that prevented you from driving in certain areas.  I have used those at my previous courses, but I thought this place might be better suited to stay with the wood theme.  We took the same material we use for tee markers and cut them straight at 8” and added a 3/8” galvanized stake to keep them in the ground.  These stakes were also sanded and stained with the same material used for tee markers.  We will use these around tees, greens, and high traffic spots around cart paths.  I would prefer to never use any type of stake, but I feel it is necessary if you want to have grass in all areas.  We need the help of the membership to obey the areas where there are stakes and not drive through them.  We will straighten these daily and move them around to areas of need as we see fit.  We started putting these out last week. 

Staining wear area stakes

Placement of wear area stakes along cart path near a green where carts park

Once these are complete we will move on to a few other things, including painting all hole signs and ball washers. We will also create a boundary system around tees and greens to try and minimize unnecessary traffic around these important areas to improve the aesthetics and playability of some of our most important grass areas.  I’ll talk about this more in depth next week once the stakes are ready to go.  They are in addition to the little stakes used around cart paths. I’ll talk about their importance and what we will do agronomically to get grass back in a lot of these areas.