Another summer traffic spree

We’re a season removed from an extremely tough year for turfgrass health in the Pacific Northwest, especially at the course where I work, Avalon Golf Club in Burlington, Washington.

Three major factors made 2023 more challenging for producing healthy turf than previous years:

1. 1. It was an extremely dry year. It wasn’t that hot, but it was very dry. Eleven of 12 months recorded below-average rainfall. In the peak-play months of May through August, we had a grand total of 3½ inches of rain.
2. 2. Ecology has put some major water restrictions on how much we can now draw and, more specifically, when we can draw from our well.
3. 3. For the fourth year in a row, golf rounds were off the chart.

Concerning this last factor, one theory of mine regarding the golf boom of the last four years is that golfers new to the game are responsible for the spike in rounds. These new players have quickly become avid golfers and they are joining golf clubs around the country. Some of them are perhaps not as up to speed on golf etiquette as longtime players.

A big thing encompassed in golf etiquette is how one drives a golf cart. Or, to be more specific, where one drives a golf cart. Cart etiquette is not only simply adhering to signage, but being aware of the rules at each particular golf course you play because rules vary greatly among courses.

Some courses are cart-path only year-round. Some have a very strict 90-degree rule in-season. Some like you to get to the fairway and stay on the fairway, basically the opposite of the 90-degree rule. Some have a mishmash of the above rules.

Getting newer players to follow signs and rules seems to be a bit more of a challenge than one would think. This goes far beyond just driving golf carts around. Ball marks, bunker raking, replacing divots and speed of play are all bigger issues than they used to be. Teeing area recovery has also become a huge issue. But the ignoring of cart-traffic rules, because of the huge number of players on our golf courses these days, can truly drive superintendents batty.

Our course, for instance, has either a daily policy of cart-path only or 90 degrees. Many people who play our course and rent our carts truly believe that 90 degrees for carts simply means you can drive off path and pretty much go wherever the heck you want to. Ninety degrees has lost its actual intent and now simply means off the path.

This has led to some interesting conversations lately between myself and our director of golf, Eric Ferrier. We’re trying to determine the best way to get golfers on board with what Eric and I are now calling a “True 90-Degree Rule.” For us, this means staying on the path from the tee to the point the fairway begins, then heading 90 degrees out to your ball, then back to the path. Enforcing this is proving to be challenging. It’s hard for golfers to see or even care about protecting healthy looking fairways today for what they might become later in the year. But following the rule is crucial for the health of the fairways by the end of the summer.

Just changing the name of it alone, from 90 degrees to the “True 90-Degree Rule,” might seem silly, but I feel it can be helpful. Getting members to think twice about what we are asking is perhaps the first step in getting the 90-degree mindset changed from, “I can drive wherever I want,” to actually adhering to our rule of straight out to your ball, straight back to the path.

Perspective from elsewhere

I checked with a few other superintendents to get their thoughts on this expanding issue of too much play and how it’s affecting turf recovery.

Marc Szablewski is superintendent at St. Andrews Golf Course in suburban Kansas City. St. Andrews is part of the very busy — and very successful — City of Overland Park municipal golf system.

Marc also thinks golf dynamics have definitely changed in the last four years, and he mentioned a longer golf season becoming the norm. “The golfing season here in Kansas City feels like it has gone from eight solid months to 10 months now,” he says. “The issue with this is that dormant turf and still being busy don’t exactly make for a good match. We have bentgrass tees that see little to no recovery for four months and still get a lot of play.”

Marc agrees with me that rules and signage are great, in theory, but hard to actually police. “Overall, there is just too much play. It’s impossible to control where carts go if you don’t have the technology to provide restrictions.”

Casey Cunningham, the superintendent at The Club at Old Hawthorne in Columbia, Missouri, believes technology can help direct carts to where you want them to go. “We have GPS in our carts now and can limit areas that carts are allowed,” Casey says. “But even with that option, we still see areas that get worn out.”

Casey drives around every day and can adjust the GPS accordingly, depending on where he wants carts to travel. But not even that tactic is foolproof. “The biggest issue I have is we allow members to bring their own carts. I cannot control their carts and they pretty much drive where they want.”

Casey added something else relatable to our situation here in western Washington. “I personally think every course should set a standard that is carts on path all winter long,” he says. For Casey, in Missouri, the issue is carts driving on dormant zoysiagrass and damaging fairways. For us, in the Pacific Northwest, it’s driving on saturated ryegrass and Poa annua fairways needing a break to recover from the stress of summer, and instead we’re just beating them up all year now. And then people are wondering why the fairways are so thin and stressed in July and August.

Having a rule in place during the winter that no matter how nice it may get (or, for us, how dry) carts simply staying on the paths is a huge help. Before this golf boom, the pro shop rarely asked me about a 90-degree option during the winter. But that has all changed. It is now a daily question I must field. And if not 90 for everyone, how about 90 for handicapped players? If your course isn’t well-marshalled in the afternoon and you don’t have GPS technology, how do you even police this?

I also contacted Damon Hitti, the superintendent at Weissinger Hills Golf Course in Shelbyville, Kentucky, to learn how he’s handing the cart traffic. Weissinger Hills also has experienced a significant increase in rounds played. “When I started here 10 years ago, we were at 27,000 rounds,” Damon says. “This past year we hit 38,000, and in 2024, so far, we are on pace to surpass that number.”

Damon agrees with my theory about the new wave of golfers perhaps being a bit different than those who played the game for many years. He differentiates these two groups as “golfers” vs. “players.”

“I often say we now have more players than golfers,” Damon says. “A golfer being someone who follows course etiquette and rules.” He didn’t define “player,” but I think we can assume it means somebody who does the opposite.

Closing thoughts

The daily abuse courses are taking is not sustainable. Changes must be made. What exactly those changes are will differ from course to course, but sitting back and doing the same thing you did five or 10 years ago is simply not proving to be successful for many of us.

We are all using signage, ropes and paint to direct traffic and keep carts away from worn areas and green surrounds. At Avalon, I paint a white line on every hole where the approach meets the fairway. This marks the line of demarcation.

I’ve found this line, if kept fresh, is actually fairly effective. The downside is I spend a significant chunk of time each week repainting the lines and a significant amount of money purchasing marking paint. In fact, with a 27-hole golf course, I spend so much now on marking paint I just made it a line item in our budget for the first time.

I don’t think the takeaway should be that superintendents are simply commiserating and complaining about too many golfers on our courses (although we are a little bit). That revenue drives the bus. But we do need to acknowledge that all this traffic is having a detrimental effect on many golf courses.

We’re acknowledging it, talking about it and trying to find some realistic solutions to a problem that doesn’t seem to be going away soon.

Ron Furlong is the superintendent at Avalon Golf Club in Burlington, Washington, and a frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.