Winter greens come and go but when the temperatures really drop one thing that is a constant at many of our golf courses are winter tee mats.
Why do clubs use them, how do they help, and how do they decide whether or not to install them during the coldest months?
For Your Course, produced by the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association, we spoke to three course managers from across the UK to understand how they overcome common problems that arise on golf courses during winter.
This week, we’re looking at winter tees policies. And we couldn’t let the topic go without getting our turf experts to talk about temporary greens too!
Tackling this debate are Mark Crossley, the course manager at Prestbury, in Cheshire; Greg Fitzmaurice, a master greenkeeper who is the course manager at Hunley, in North Yorkshire; and Chris Rae, who is the course manager at Orkney, in the Northern Isles.
Where do you stand on the use of winter tees?
Mark Crossley: “We try to give the members the full experience as often as possible, but we’re an inland course in Cheshire and that sometimes means we need winter tees.
We don’t generally use winter tee mats, so even our winter tees are grass, which I think helps politically when members are playing a shorter course in winter.
It’s an interesting time now with year-round qualifiers and the pressure on course managers to have a measured course 12 months a year.
That’s creating more issues in terms of wear and tear on teeing ground. Winter tees weren’t necessarily part of a measured course before, but they are now and that’s a new challenge for us all.”
Chris Rae: “I’ll bring them in when they are required. It might be that it’s getting wet beside a tee and I’ll just say, ‘Right, we’re going to the winter tee on this hole’, and gradually you end up on full winter tees by December.
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We’ve got 10 or 11 permanent astroturf tees and they’ll tend to come in from November until around March, depending on the weather.
For the other seven holes, we’ll just put tee markers to the side in a decent spot. We don’t have any official comps from the end of September so the yardage isn’t an issue, but it’ll be a good 1,000 yards shorter.”
Greg Fitzmaurice: “We usually put the par-3s on mats first because they get a bit more hammer. Sometimes it’s easier just to move completely over to mats from October, but the director of golf and I are both of the opinion that playing off mats might put visitors off and so we’ll phase them in depending on the conditions.”
What is your policy on winter greens – temps or no temps?
Mark: “Our winter greens policy is to treat them as frost greens, so if there’s any hint of frost we go to the temporary greens.
It’s very rare; there was the odd occasion last winter and this spring where a couple of the greens became unplayable, so then the flags went on the temps. But generally speaking, we play off the greens all year round apart from in frosty conditions.”
Chris: “We use winter greens on every hole by cutting somewhere near the apron or front of the green that is dry and not too sloped. This can make the hole a good 50 yards shorter than usual.
We also use our putting green as a double green for our 18th and 15th holes, so we don’t have that as a putting green in winter. Once we’re on winter greens we stay on them.”
Greg: “When I started my career at a different course, they firmly believed winter greens were necessary to protect the putting surfaces.
But when I came to Hunley, there wasn’t a culture of using winter greens because there wasn’t really anywhere to place them. In my time here I’ve not experienced severe problems from playing on the greens in winter.”
- This article appears in Your Course, the twice-yearly publication from the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. Your Course invites golfers to gain a deeper appreciation of what preparing and maintaining a golf course really involves. Head to www.bigga.org.uk to find out more.
Now have your say
What do you make of these comments on winter greens and winter tee mats? Does your course use winter golf mats? If they don’t, would you like them to? Or are you vehemently opposed? Let us know by leaving a comment on X.
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