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A good rule of thumb: If a golf course is challenging to the player it’s typically challenging to the superintendent. Since the Rawls Course is one of the most exacting courses in West Texas, it makes sense that it would also be one of the most difficult to maintain. Windburn, bad water … course superintendent Eric Johnson dishes on the difficulty in keeping one of the nation’s top courses putter friendly.
Our number one priority: the greens — always the greens. During the summer, that means keeping an eye out for hotspots.
The problem’s the wind. Everyone knows about the wind in Lubbock. During the summer, if we get a good wind blowing, we could lose a green in 24 hours if a sprinkler head goes down. Could be something as simple as a fuse blowing or a sprinkler head failing to rotate – gone. Windburn sets in.
The way these greens are designed, they’ve got so many more undulations than the other golf courses around here. The entire course: undulations. A course with flat greens? The wind won’t affect it as much – get into it and cause windburn. Our greens sit up and say, “Hit me with the wind.”
Then there’s the size: I’d say they’re, what, maybe 30 percent bigger than the typical green around here. That doesn’t help. The fairways, too: it’s the same story.
Rolling Greens
You won’t have even percolation rates. Something that’s flat, you’ll get the even percolation. With the curves, you’re naturally going to get wet areas and dry areas. That wind, it doesn’t help. Gets so bad we actually have a special program to deal with the south winds, to get water where we need it.On Fertility
Fertility, now that is definitely huge: The soil reports, the mixing of the fertilizer – trying to maximize them as much as we can. We blend our own fertilizers so we can get the ratio we want. We use a lot of organics on the course itself so we have low nitrogen levels. What’s your story? Contact Cory Chandler Photo by Artie Limmer.
