Early this morning we discovered that an unwanted visitor decided to leave their mark by spinning donuts right in the middle of the putting green.
The resulting damage could have been a lot worse and luckily it wasn't a large truck or SUV. Most of the tire tracks rolled out pretty well, but in isolated areas the tires left a 2" deep rut and peeled up some tufts of bentgrass. Obviously we weren't very pleased with their decision, but we really didn't have time to be upset as our first tee time was in less than an hour (6am).
We promptly rolled with the tire marks to help smooth some of the lumps created and topdressed/ broomed/ drug the areas by hand and rolled again to work some of the sand into the depressions. Once we reached a satisfactory smoothness, we ran a mower over to pick up any excess sand left behind.
The result is undoubtedly an eyesore that will hopefully heal soon with some more rolling and topdressing.
If anyone witnesses this taking place at Legacy Ridge or any other course, please notify local PD immediately so they can handle the situation. This type of activity shows a complete lack of respect for private property is no different than vandalising or robbing another place of business. When you consider that the USGA estimates cost of a new green between $4 and $7 per square foot, if our putting green were damaged beyond repair we could be talking in excess of $50,000 to replace it. It would require severe damage to necessitate that, but had this occurred immediately after the 4.5" of rain we had weeks ago, that could have been a reality. Too scary to think about. Please respect our golf course as we maintain it for
you our guests and neighbors.
