Tournament Conditions vs Everyday Conditions

This is a topic blogged about by many turf professionals throughout the world, but I feel the need to reiterate the message that is so very important to get through to golfers for them to fully understand the difference between tournament conditions and everyday conditions.  I could write a novel about this topic to also include the cost involved in providing tournament conditions, but I chose to focus on the agronomic impact alone.  I'm also including this information in my report to our golf committee to be presented and discussed when we meet this evening.  So here's my crack at it...

We are always asked following both the Member-Guest tournament and the Club Championship if “the course can remain in this condition all the time?”  Unfortunately, the answer is NO.  There is a big difference between tournament conditions and everyday conditions.  This is even true with all the professional tournaments you watch on TV.  Once the PGA trucks roll out of a tournament venue, things quickly return to “normal."  Did you know that Augusta National closes shortly after The Masters tournament and doesn't reopen until usually sometime in October?  Here is a photo of Augusta National during the summer months:

The "not-so-perfect" Augusta National in the summer

When a golf course is prepped for a competitive tournament it is essentially kept on “life support”.  The turf is being aggressively groomed as heights of cut are lowered, mowing frequencies are increased and other measures are taken to provide the pristinely manicured fast and firm turf conditions.  All of this extra maintenance while the turf is receiving just barely enough water to keep it alive.   

It’s a fine line though and to even attempt to maintain these tournament conditions on a daily basis is a recipe for disaster.  Overly stressed turf is very susceptible to disease and other pests, even with preventative measures.  Rest assured that if we tried to provide Member-Guest or Club C conditions on a daily basis, there would be an astronomical amount of turf loss throughout the property by mid-summer.  

Here is a link great video put together by the USGA that reiterates what I’ve said: http://www.usga.org/turf/articles/video/tvgolf.html