A late football coach once said that "if your not getting better your getting worse". We take that approach to maintenance of the facilities here at St. James. We constantly strive to get better by not becoming complacent and searching for more efficient and effective management programs.
One area that is always ripe for an improvement is high traffic areas. Every golf course in the world struggles with ways to manage traffic. Signs, ropes and stakes are the staples of golf facilities around the globe. Everyone that has ever played golf has seen this sign at least once.
Our agronomy team has used all of the above tactics to lessen the effects of high golf cart traffic, well except one. We have not put a regulation on our maintenance traffic, particularly around the greens.
The green's complexes around the plantation receive constant traffic everyday. Mowers, rollers, blowers and foot traffic enter and exit the complexes multiple times throughout the day. A majority of the traffic travels the same path to and from the green. These paths are generally in the front of the green, because those routes are considered the "fastest". Our approach to remedying this issue is to divert all of our maintenance traffic to the rear of the greens. Here are some pictures detailing our solution.
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| The arrows show the former routes of our maintenance equipment. |
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| The yellow arrow shows are blue dot on the cart path. This dot designates the entry and exit points for the staff. The blue arrow shows the new paths taken by the maintenance equipment. |
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| Former entry point at #3 on the PC. |
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| New, hidden entry point at #3 on the PC. |
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| Former entry point at #5 on the PC. |
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| New entry point at #5 on the PC. |
The implementation of this traffic system has yielded excellent results this season. The staff's are becoming accustomed to the new tradition and we hope the golfer's will notice the improved playability and overall aesthetic quality around the greens.
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