Why is #6 Path Only

We wrote on the topic of heat stress and turf damage due to cart traffic back in July of 2018. Feel free to scroll down and reread that post if you would like but I will briefly touch on this topic again. This year we decided to experiment with keeping #6 cart path only during the summer months. Obviously, we realize this is a minor inconvenience for some golfers as we received many questions and complaints as to why we did this. The job of the maintenance crew, first and foremost, is to maintain the health of the turf and provide the best playing conditions possible for our golfers.

#6 is our most temperamental hole here at Adams Pointe. The topography of this hole presents many challenges with drainage being one of the biggest. The high hills dry out very quickly while the low swells stay wet longer than they should. Add in poor, high clay soil, little air movement caused by the thick woods surrounding the entire hole, this hole has the potential to get away from us very quickly. The goal of keeping carts on the path is to reduce compaction leading to even more stress on the turf during the summer months when the heat is already pushing the cool season bent grass to its limits. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, we saw a huge difference in turf health in the fairway. We observed a thicker stand of grass and less weed infiltration this year as a result. We will continue to keep carts on the path on #6 during the summer months in an attempt to keep the turf thick, healthy and playable. 

Past years of #6 during summer with visible damage caused by cart traffic

#6 as of 9/28/2020 after summer with carts being path only