Tournament prep

The opening rounds of the Match Play Championship were this past weekend, with the final rounds this upcoming weekend. What does the Grounds department do differently to prepare for some of the more prestigious tournaments at Bretton Woods? Luckily, we don’t have a tremendous amount of extra work needed to get the course in shape for the event.

We have a full schedule of tournaments at Bretton Woods. Some of the tournaments are more casual and fun, while a few of them are true competitions to decide the year’s best golfer. We want the course to play well year-round, but we do like the course to shine just a bit more for some events compared to others.

Weather still plays the biggest role, no matter what tournament it is, especially those events during the summer. Pushing too hard for a one- or two-day event can cause damage that lasts for weeks. We are very cognizant not to overdue our maintenance at the expense of the rest of the season’s worth of golf.

Our other mindset is that we don’t ever want the course to get too far away from championship quality. Our championship quality is relative- we are not a tour stop for any events- but we do like to maintain a baseline that is very solid. Then, working from that point allows us to make small changes to peak during the event, rather than needing several weeks to prepare. We also don’t want the course conditions to bounce back and forth drastically. We want the course to play a notch or two different than everyday play, instead of being a completely different track.

To raise the bar for the big tournaments, our biggest change is mowing frequency for the in-play surfaces. Greens will be mowed every day, which is usually the same outside of tournament preparation also, but during the summer we do occasionally mow every other day. But tees, approaches, collars, and fairways will all increase frequency from 2-3 times per week, up to 4-5 times per week. This keeps the surfaces looking and playing their best. This is what we mean by tweaks instead of extreme changes. We don’t suddenly do things that we haven’t done all season. We don’t change the mowing heights by 50% or alter how we mow. The course plays very similar to how it has all year, but just a little better.

Tournaments are an exciting time, and we want the course to play well. But maintaining the course at a high level throughout the season enables us to make small adjustments for the tournament and still improve the conditions.

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not practice on the course. Taking extra shots leads to unnecessary divots and ball marks. Thank you

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Golf Cart tips

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org