Unless you have been away visiting another planet recently, you know that we have been promoting the Tee it Forward program that has been around the golf industry for several years now. The basis of this program is to get golfers to play from the correct set of tee markers, shoot a better score and enjoy the wonderful game of golf. Another benefit is a shorter round of golf so that you can spend more time doing whatever you like to do away from the golf course, and in some instances I don't really want to know what that is.
The first step that we took was to create a new set of forward tees, very similar to what Jason Clouston had at Olds Golf Club. In most cases these tees were either in a fairway or a flat spot in the rough, mowed down to tee height (1/2 inch). These silver tees at Woodside immediately shortened the course by over 1,000 yards and were a welcomed addition for the novice golfers, once-a-year tournament players and the higher handicappers. The tees are not gender specific and it warmed my heart to see both males and females playing from the silver tees. By the way, the tee marker color does not refer to the hair color of the people that should be playing these tees, most people color their hair anyways. My personal preference is Just for Men - bleach blonde.
The next step that we have decided to take was to evaluate the layout of each hole and determine an ideal distance for the silver tees. This was done with the help of some input from some of the golfers at Woodside and over the course of the past several weeks we started constructing some new forward tee boxes on the holes that needed them the most. Prior to the bona fide arrival of winter on November 16 and the ground freezing up, we were able to rough-shape new tees on hole 2, 5, 9 and 13.
We have developed an excellent method of tee construction that both minimizes costs and uses up all the material that we accumulate over the course of a season. This includes twigs/ branches, sod, bunker edging debris and even some dead trees. As part of our reduce, reuse, recycle program we have not hauled any material off the golf course for over a decade now. Our landfills really don't need more material and we are quite proud of the fact that it is all buried back into Mother Earth. I guess you could say that it goes full circle. Everything begins in the soil and ends back in the same place.
Step 1 in my tee construction system is to locate a suitable area close to sprinklers but not over any irrigation pipes or wires, clear the snow away and mark the four corners of the finished tee with hazard stakes.
The dimensions of the new tees will be very close to being 30 feet wide by 45 feet long. I would explain why I chose these distances but I can't give away all my secrets.
Step 2 is to strip off the sod with the Bobcat and the bucket that has the big, nasty teeth on it. This portion of the project does take some talent to remove the sod and leave the soil.
The reason that I include this step is that the pieces of sod are difficult to work with later on in the project.
Step 3 involves more Bobcat work and the topsoil is stripped off and piled to the side of the tee box. We generally dig down one foot and leave a bit of a ramp where the dump truck will be coming in and out.
Step 4 is a relatively relaxing one as you get to listen to some tunes as you are hauling debris into the tee. For this tee on #13 I hauled eight loads (32 cubic yards) of material in.
It looks like a lot of material but the Bobcat will compact it considerably.
Once the debris is packed down the sod is set into some of the low areas and then the soil is laid back on over top and then it is leveled and packed some more.
Finally we have the base of a new tee box that will require some more packing in the spring after the ground both thaws out and dries enough to get the equipment back onto it.
We will purchase some screened loam and some sod to finish the project and the tee will be open a couple of weeks after the sod has rooted. We did add a few tree plugs (back, left of the picture) from the fall planting (24 spruce trees) that will be incorporated into the tee box. This will be the new silver tee on the 13 hole at a distance of 315 yards out from the green.
