zephyr88 said:I played about a month ago. I was excited to get back to College Station and I hadn't played our course in years. I knew something was up the moment that I rolled out to the driving range (which looks like the Serengeti). It literally looked like they give zero fuggs to first impressions. We teed off and upon approaching the 1st green, we had our next disappointment. This repeated itself many times thruout the round. We're an agriculture school. We are fortunate to have a large tract of land where we can have an on campus golf course. But, you're right - it's embarrassing and pathetic that basic care to this asset is ignored.AustinCountyAg said:
Don't know and don't care. It's embarrassing and pathetic
TheRatt87 said:zephyr88 said:I played about a month ago. I was excited to get back to College Station and I hadn't played our course in years. I knew something was up the moment that I rolled out to the driving range (which looks like the Serengeti). It literally looked like they give zero fuggs to first impressions. We teed off and upon approaching the 1st green, we had our next disappointment. This repeated itself many times thruout the round. We're an agriculture school. We are fortunate to have a large tract of land where we can have an on campus golf course. But, you're right - it's embarrassing and pathetic that basic care to this asset is ignored.AustinCountyAg said:
Don't know and don't care. It's embarrassing and pathetic
It's not just that we are an agricultural school. We also have one of the premier Turfgrass Science programs in the nation that churns out future golf course superintendents Never understood why they didn't just assign a handful of Turfgrass students to maintain each hole under the guidance of the superintendent.
To have a golf course architect redesign/renovate the course and then have a management company operate & maintain it, and yet be in this kind of condition is ridiculous.
Bad Poster said:TheRatt87 said:zephyr88 said:I played about a month ago. I was excited to get back to College Station and I hadn't played our course in years. I knew something was up the moment that I rolled out to the driving range (which looks like the Serengeti). It literally looked like they give zero fuggs to first impressions. We teed off and upon approaching the 1st green, we had our next disappointment. This repeated itself many times thruout the round. We're an agriculture school. We are fortunate to have a large tract of land where we can have an on campus golf course. But, you're right - it's embarrassing and pathetic that basic care to this asset is ignored.AustinCountyAg said:
Don't know and don't care. It's embarrassing and pathetic
It's not just that we are an agricultural school. We also have one of the premier Turfgrass Science programs in the nation that churns out future golf course superintendents Never understood why they didn't just assign a handful of Turfgrass students to maintain each hole under the guidance of the superintendent.
To have a golf course architect redesign/renovate the course and then have a management company operate & maintain it, and yet be in this kind of condition is ridiculous.
Golf course is not run and managed by the school from what ive heard. Which is asinine. Probably purposefully letting course go to **** so that they have reason to sell to a&m and build something else there like that dip**** at the batt wrote about.
Amen! Our course should be a showcase.AustinCountyAg said:
For a course connected to an Ag college those greens are a complete embarrassment. I dont give a **** about prior weather, or excuses. I can point to hundreds of low end courses in TX whose greens look like Augusta compared to that.
TheRatt87 said:zephyr88 said:I played about a month ago. I was excited to get back to College Station and I hadn't played our course in years. I knew something was up the moment that I rolled out to the driving range (which looks like the Serengeti). It literally looked like they give zero fuggs to first impressions. We teed off and upon approaching the 1st green, we had our next disappointment. This repeated itself many times thruout the round. We're an agriculture school. We are fortunate to have a large tract of land where we can have an on campus golf course. But, you're right - it's embarrassing and pathetic that basic care to this asset is ignored.AustinCountyAg said:
Don't know and don't care. It's embarrassing and pathetic
It's not just that we are an agricultural school. We also have one of the premier Turfgrass Science programs in the nation that churns out future golf course superintendents Never understood why they didn't just assign a handful of Turfgrass students to maintain each hole under the guidance of the superintendent.
To have a golf course architect redesign/renovate the course and then have a management company operate & maintain it, and yet be in this kind of condition is ridiculous.
TSUAggie said:
The golf course industry, specifically Turfgrass maintenance, is a dying industry. Things aren't like they used to be. It's not worth it to be a superintendent anymore. Nowhere near enough resources to do what's needed and it's impossible to find people willing to work out in the elements these days. You're expected to work miracles or be fired. Many of my colleagues are leaving the industry and there's not enough new blood willing and ready to take over. Unrealistic expectations and ****ty GMs/golfers are ruining the industry.
Funky Winkerbean said:TSUAggie said:
The golf course industry, specifically Turfgrass maintenance, is a dying industry. Things aren't like they used to be. It's not worth it to be a superintendent anymore. Nowhere near enough resources to do what's needed and it's impossible to find people willing to work out in the elements these days. You're expected to work miracles or be fired. Many of my colleagues are leaving the industry and there's not enough new blood willing and ready to take over. Unrealistic expectations and ****ty GMs/golfers are ruining the industry.
And management companies whose only strategy is to cut expenses, then cut them again. They also will shift profits from one course to another and rarely invest in capital expenditures.
When I played the campus course in May the starter told me that two freezes came through CS this past winter. He said they were ready for the first one and watered the heck out of the greens so ice would form on top and make a protective barrier. He said the second one came in out of surprise or it ended up being far colder than expected and they didn't take the same precautions that time. Not sure if this is accurate to what happened but it's what I was told.Boodlum said:
Growing quality turf grass in College Station isn't easy. College Station has some of the worst soils and water you will find anywhere in the country. When you mix these factors in with rising maintenance cost, lack of labor force and owners not willing to go above and beyond to correct the underlining condition you end of with less-than-ideal course conditions.
Like most of the course in the area, the campus course lost most of their greens in the freeze of 2020. They were replanted with G12 berumuda and were still fairly young when they lost them for a second time. The difference between the two freeze was snow cover and moister in 2020 compared to a really dry and windy storm that blew through in 2023. Bermuda grass superintendent need to be very proactive when these conditions arise. It is very important to have adequate soil moisture in the rootzone to prevent desiccation during extended periods of freezing temperatures. I cannot speak for what measure were taken in 2023 but I've been told they lost power to their pumpstation the night the storm hit CS. Did they try to irrigate heavily prior to the storm or were they relying on the irrigation system to freeze them over that night to act as an isolator? Either way, it was the lack of moisture that killed the greens.
If I was the owner of this property, I would have bought greens covers after the 2020 fiasco. The campus course has no protection from the elements when it comes to these weather conditions. This place is basically a wide-open field. In 2023 the freeze came in with 30-40 MPH winds. Even if they had power to their pumpstation, it would have been virtually impossible to get uniform coverage to freeze the greens over. I've been in this business for 18 years and figured I would share my two cents.
ViewFromTheSidelines said:
Briarcrest was in great shape earlier this month. Great course. Much better than the campus course.
