Tee Leveling

Most of the tees on the golf course have become uneven and lumpy overtime for several reasons.

The tees were constructed with a 6” sand cap that did not contain a barrier around the perimeter of the tee surface/native tie in. This has caused a sloughing off to occur over time and explains why a lot of the tees are unlevel around the outer edges.

Pop Up Heads Watering Tee


The other more significant problem is the location of the irrigation system heads that water the tees. The sprinklers that water the tees are “pop ups” they are similar to the ones that you would find in your home lawn. They are great from a precipitation standpoint, but are a nightmare from an overall tee maintenance standpoint. These heads have small openings at the nozzles that are constantly being clogged with debris that is floating around in the irrigation system. Additionally when it comes time to aerify the tee surface great care has to be taken, so that these heads are not hit with the aerifier tines. This is difficult at best due to the number of heads (10-20) located per tee. Avoiding these heads is done by raising the machine over these areas causing these areas to be un-aerified and remain slightly higher than the surrounding area. Over years of these practices the areas directly around the heads have created small mounds creating an unlevel surface.

Irrigation Heads Outside The Tee Surface


We have started to address these issues on a couple of tees on holes #11 and #18. The two pines on these holes have been stripped of sod and have had the irrigation removed from the tee surface. These areas have been leveled and re-sodded and are now truly level and provide a nice tee surface to play from. I believe this needs to occur on all of the tees over time so that we are consistent from the first hole to the last.

Newly Leveled Tee Surface