Range Tee

I was not pleased with the range tee during the 2010 season and the quality of turf we provided for you to practice on during the summer months. I knew the heat and drought stress contributed to the thinner turf in July and August, but we also made other adjustments over the winter to improve this season's playing surface. We enlarged the tee with hopes of allowing members to use the grass portion from Thursday to Sunday. We also heavily seeded with the fastest germinating turf (ryegrass) and continued to add divot mix and additional seed every Tuesday. We encountered another tough summer with a lack of rainfall and some steady stretches of above average heat and once again the grass did not fare very well on the tee.

Excuses don't go very far in our industry and you just play the hand you are dealt by the often relentless Mother Nature. With that being said, we are making another adjustment to the tee and switching the turf over to bermudagrass. It is a southern turf which aggressively grows laterally and is better suited for drought conditions. This "Patriot" variety was established for athletic fields to handle the wear and tear of football and soccer in the Mid-Atlantic climates. The one challenge we will tackle with overseeding is dormancy. Bermudagrass goes dormant in October and does not green up until May. We will utilize ryegrass to maintain the surface in the shoulder seasons.

I did not want to rip up the tee again this fall to make the transition so we came up with a clever way to switch it over without any disruption to play. We swapped out 600 cup size plugs throughout the tee with the new Patriot bermudagrass. It will establish itself this fall, but we probably will not see much lateral movement with cooler temperatures late in the year. In May we will switch some of our practices to favor the lateral growth of the new turf are hoping by season's end the tee will be almost completely transitioned (it will actually choke out the rye as it pushes to the side). I will keep you updated with progress as we move through next season and hopefully we can utilize the turf portion of the tee on a consistent basis in the future.