Travels with Terry (Equipment ideas)

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The Lakewood Country Club in Rockville, Md., was completely renovated about two years ago under the watchful eyes of Christopher Ayers, CGCS, and Mark McGreevy, assistant superintendent.

An extensive subsurface drainage piping system was installed throughout the course, and the outfall drains became clogged and were hard to find. McGreevy found that the as-built drainage blueprints weren’t always correct about which specific area drained into a particular outfall pipe.

To make it easier to find the outfall pipes in the native-grass areas, wooden hazard stakes were made and used as markers. A drimmel tool engraved the stakes to signify the specific areas with abbreviations of what area was being drained. For example 17G + LB + RB + BSN stands for the 17th green, left bunker, right bunker and catch basin. Then the stakes were painted blue.

Some of the outfall pipes drain only one area. Other larger pipes drain as many as 10 different areas. The pipes also can be triangulated off of the closest sprinkler heads on the as-built irrigation blueprints. There were about 40 outfall pipes that were marked in the nonmaintained native grass areas.
McGreevy has since moved on and is the golf course superintendent at Wyncote Country Club in Oxford, Pa.

“Browns” not greens

The Mesaieed Golf Club in Doha, Qatar, is one of the few all-sand golf courses left on the planet. The first nine holes were built in 1952, and the second nine were built in 1979. The club, which is owned and operated by Qatar Petroleum, measures 6,645 yards and plays to a par 71 with two sets of tee markers.

The “browns,” which are more than two feet deep, are built using straight, fine-grade dune sand from the Arabian Gulf. They’re oiled once a year in mid-summer during the off season using 270 to 400 gallons of raw, crude oil per green. The greens take six to nine weeks to dry. The maintenance staff rakes the greens each morning prior to play and a “greenkeeper” is positioned next to three or four greens that are close to each other so he can rake the greens after each group putts out. The hole locations are changed once a week.

The sand bunker surrounds also are oiled at the same time as the “browns.” The club doesn’t allow members or guests to hit shots from the bunker surrounds, so a rope is placed on the top of each slope. If a ball lands on the sand side of the slope, the golfer gently nudges the ball, forcing it to roll down the hill, and then it’s played as it lies. The same procedure is used on the other side of the rope. The mason bunker sand is raked daily.

The fairways used to be oiled once annually, but it hasn’t been done since 1990 because of environmental reasons. The edges of the fairways are defined by 12-ounce, aluminum soft drink cans filled with concrete. A large nail is positioned in the concrete, then it’s placed in the turf to keep the can upright.

If golfers’ shots land in the fairway, they hit off of an 18-inch-by-18-inch artificial turf mat. If they land in the rough, they play it as it lies. Most members and guests walk and carry their clubs or use “trolleys.” There are two “buggies” for those players who can’t walk.

The trees have drip irrigation bubblers that are programmed to water each tree two times per day in the summer and once during the winter.

Viswanathan, who is a native of India, has been the golf course superintendent for the past 27 years. GCI