When a golfer sees a small brown patch, they see a nuisance - You see a symptom. Talk about a moment you encountered this predicament while you were a Superintendent.
This is a great question because some grass will die somewhere for some reason, and you need to know why or at least find out why. As a Golf Course Superintendent (or when I was doing lawn care) owners and members would always ask about a spot they saw somewhere and why it was brown or dead. I never really minded, as most times I was on top of things. If I didn’t, it was good to hear from a person about their concern.
When it comes to grass, especially in the Mid-Atlantic area, it’s how much can you keep alive during the year, when are you going to replace what has died, and how fast!
This question immediately brought up a story about a concerned member of the golf club and small dead brown spots. I knew about them, took as much action as I could about them, but had to wait for others. I don’t like waiting, and the others in this story were the Gas and Electric company.
The member involved rolled up on me one fine day in a cart, after playing a round of golf with a guest. He didn’t seem very happy when he slammed on the cart brakes, hastily exited the cart and marched up to me. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and I remember being particularly happy.
This incident made me even happier the rest of the day and as I recall it now, I get a smile on my face.
As I have said in earlier Blogs, there are four personality types in the world (D.I.S.C. Personalities) and this gentleman was of the “D” variety. Like most “D’s”, he wanted to get to the point, get an answer and be done with me to move on in life to something else. He mentioned a dead patch of grass that his guest’s ball landed in, and he was embarrassed that his guest had to hit out of the unsightly spot.
Besides that, it was a “horrendous golf lie”, and his guest had a bad shot out of the brown dead grass. I asked him to take me to the spot of major concern. We drove to the 15th rough to a small brown spot of dead grass about 6 inches round. Keep in mind that I said “Rough” and believe me, nowhere near the fairway. Well, on this one I knew the reason for the dead grass. I proceeded to show him the 10 or 12 other small dead spots all in a straight line towards the street about 100 yards away. I explained that all those small spots are in a line because there are very small natural gas leaks from an old pipe underground feeding the clubhouse.
I then told him about when I called the gas and electric company to report this a few years earlier and that we have been unable to grow grass in these spots for years. When the Gas and Electric company visited, they had natural gas detecting instruments and explained to me about “Non-Hazardous Natural Gas Leaks”.
I got a swift, “Thanks” and off he went.
Remind me one day to tell you about the member who got his putter and both golf shoes stuck in an oak tree about 30 feet up.
-Mark S. Merrick, CGCS Retired
Introducing ‘Merrick Mondays’, a segment where we hear from Mark Merrick, our resident brand Ambassador, Chief ‘Cool” Officer, and general source of wisdom and secrets of the universe, to spotlight a dose of interview-style content, weekly.