Club Championships Start Tomorrow
30 JUL 2021
Club Championships start tomorrow and we are preparing the course for a great weekend. As far as playing conditions go, we try not to change too many variables out there. We want you to be able to play the courses exactly how you play them on a day-to-day basis. We want our greens to roll great without increasing or decreasing speed. Mother Nature has her own plans and plays a huge factor in how we prepare each day. Each day that goes by without rain, the greens slowly firm up and speed up. With all of the rain we have had this summer we haven’t had the chance to experience much of the firm fast conditions we typically have at RattleSnake. The more rain we get the softer our playing surfaces become. When our greens soften up they slow down and we see some of the imperfections in ball roll. With the more advanced technology these days our mowers do a very good job with the dual point of adjustment getting a good clean cut and minimizing the imperfections. We check our reels daily to make sure the blades are still sharp and the height adjustment is equal through each line of cut. When we are cutting at 0.110 of an inch every nick in the blades or slight out of adjustment shows on our greens. Our mechanics have set our greens mowers up with drag brushes ahead of the reels to help stand the grass blades up before they are cut which also helps ball roll. And of course, we will be rolling all of our greens ahead of play this weekend (as we do most days) to help combat some of the rain we have gotten.
From a staff standpoint, this weekend is very exciting for our crew. Despite the fact that there are minimal changes to our daily routine, it is a weekend that we look forward to ramping up for. I have had the opportunity to work a few Canadian Open Events with the Glen Abbey Turf Crew and the added pressure of doing your job while knowing what is at stake makes it fun. We definitely put the pressure on and this weekend is a great bonding experience for our team. Starting our morning in the dark and driving to hole number one someone always has some good pump-up music going over the radios. We have to work fast to stay ahead of the split starts. Our team works incredibly well together and no one gets left behind. We move our way forward through the course helping each other out so that everyone finishes ahead of the first group. The one thing we make an effort to do differently during Club Championships is keeping the noise away from the tournament. Small things like raking bunkers and mowing fairways on 1 and 9 CH first before moving forward to 2 etc. This is so that while we are still working, and the first groups are going out, the noise from 9 will not affect play on 1. The same goes for 1/9/10 SW. The only other difference to Club C prep that is different from our daily routine is that Bill goes around setting pin locations and making pin sheets. On a normal day, we give the freedom to our pin changers to get creative in setting up the course. Pin locations and pin sheets are always made up the morning of the tournament so that no one takes a sneak peek into the course setup plans. Although the Monday pin on 1 CH is tradition!
Wishing everyone playing this weekend the best of luck!
Christine Kumagai, Golf Course Associate Superintendent