News and Updates

The driving range at Overbrook has always been a challenge to manage. Its width does not allow enough space for the number of people that want to use it, its length cannot contain every golf ball, and the grass tee is undersized for the number of shots that the membership hits. At no time in the season is the last deficiency more evident than right now. The condition of both hitting areas, the grass, and the mats, is not currently befitting of our club and the standards that we’ve established. So, what happened?

First, let’s review the mat situation. The mat line at the range was installed several years ago. Last May, we noticed that the mats were breaking down and no longer providing a quality surface from which to practice, and subsequently, a new mat line was purchased. Due to supply chain and manufacturing issues, one year later this mat line has not been installed yet. Despite repeated calls to this company, as well as other potential vendors, we still have not received the new range line.

Moving on to the issues with the grass... The primary turf on the range tee is bermudagrass, which is a warm-season turf variety. These types of grasses need soil temperatures in the 70s and 80s to grow consistently. This type of grass is perfect for our range in the summer when it is at its busiest. We can get four or five days out of the tee and be confident that it is going to heal in a couple of weeks when we need to use it again. Additionally, we made the decision last year to re-level and re-sod the entire tee on July 5th. This project was received so well that we decided that we would make it a part of our regular program, only instead of waiting until July 5th, this year moved up the date to May 29th.
As illustrated in the graph above, during the period of April 11 through April 17, the average soil temperature was quickly approaching the ideal range for our tee. Because of this temperature trend, combined with the aforementioned mat situation, as well as the fact that we know we have a new grass tee surface coming at the end of May, I made a calculated decision to open the grass earlier than we had in past years. Since that decision was made, temps have cooled off significantly—we have even had two frost delays this week—and we have had nearly zero recovery on the grass tee.

So that’s how we got where we are today. Where do we go from here? In the short term, we will predominantly be using the mats for practice and warm-ups. We expect the new mats to arrive and be installed any day now, which will improve the experience. We have performed a heavy ryegrass (a cool season turf that will perform at lower temperatures) overseed on the range tee and the rain this weekend should help with germination and establishment. We will use the ryegrass to aid in recovery until we are able to sod the entire tee surface.

With the Trackman Range system, we know that each month during the golf season, approximately 100,000 golf shots are struck on our driving range. To prolong the life and quality of the grass tee box, we must begin to think about the driving range a bit differently than we have in the past. There are only ten lines on the range, 20 if we shift slightly and have golfers with their feet in old divots. Once those areas are used, it could take anywhere from a week (in the middle of summer) to several weeks (in the shoulder seasons) for the tee to heal. Although we understand that most people prefer to hit off the grass and not mats, unfortunately using the grass portion of our tee box cannot be our default, especially in early spring and late fall.

We have a limited driving range with various safety factors to consider as well. Determining how much practice is done from the synthetic mat and how much is done from the grass tee box will be based on how fast the turf is recovering at that time of year. When recovery is slower, the bulk of our weekday member practice will be done off the new Turfhound synthetic tee line with the grass area utilized primarily on weekends, holidays, and special events. As is the case with many of our decisions, this is the best option to accommodate the most amount of our members at our highest days of usage.

The driving range continues to gain popularity amongst the members. Looking out into the future, Club management is working with both the Green and Golf Committees to establish new procedures to make the range experience as good as it can be. Ideas include replacing the range mats every year, performing a heavy overseed in the fall, covering the grass tee all winter, or even possibly sodding the tee twice a year, once going into the summer and another going into the fall. Each of these has options both positive and negative ramifications that club leadership is currently weighing against each other but with the ultimate goal of making the range experience the best it can be throughout the season.