Who rates them and how often? I know it takes time to change topography of a course, grow grass. Unlike a bowling lane where you can put down as many oil patterns as you have time to run the machine up and down.

Do they determine the grading by the topography? The cut of the grass? And what specialized tools would a golf course need to uphold and verify their rating on a weekly basis? I know next to nothing about golf.

Erin

All of the mowers have set heights when mowing. There are different mowers for the fairways, tees, and greens. Some courses use a different mower for the fringe as well. Some use riding mowers for the greens, tees, and fringe, some use walk behinds, some a combination. They use a micrometer type device to set the height. It is very precise. As far as when the sloping is graded, I know that the course I worked at they did it after we had any changes to the course. The summer of 95, we had a HUGE flood that covered a good portion of the course with water and we were closed for 2 weeks. By the following summer, there were a lot of changes to the course because of it. They (the USGA) re-rated the course at that time and every spring when they did changes during the fall/winter.

Once settings are done on a mower, they don't change them. The length of the grass then depends on how often the grass is mowed and the amount of rain/watering between times. We tried to mow the whole course every other day with the greens done daily. The rough was done probably every 3 days.

So you could not change a course for a "Sport" league in the evening and a ladies handicap league the next morning. Or have a Sport course for the first 9 and handicap course the last 9, and then put down all handicap the next morning. All the while verifying that the sport is the sport when its supposed to be the sport. Grass can grow fast I know but I don't think it grows that fast. And each course was graded once a season? Bowling centers are certified each season for physical attributes like lane tilt, deep gutters. But as you know if you can find a mechanic that does not tinker with an oiling machine you've found a gold mine. Plus I'd imagine that the lane oiling machine requires more drastic maintenance then the mowers? Not sure but maybe. The blades can get dull etc....but is there a drastic difference between using a mower with duller blades vs freshly sharpened? I've also seen some floods in bowling alleys and it does change the "course". Couple seasons ago, one of our centers had its roof collapse. That's probably not too good on lanes.

Thanks for good explanations on golf courses.

Erin

Grass height is a pretty insignificant factor for most golf courses I've played on, although extreme rough can add to difficulty, as can extremely fast greens, or extremely slow ones (IMO. I hate slow greens). The main determination for difficulty is going to be length of holes, and layout of the course. Lots of sand traps near landing areas, lots of water, narrow fairways, undulating greens all add difficulty. And those things would not likely change throughout a season (I suppose fairway width could).

Erin:

No problem. That was my job for 4 summers when I was in college. They can change it to a "sport" league though. There are multiple tee boxes. Each of them have a different rating based on the distance to the hole. There are some tee boxes that hit over water on a hole while others don't. That adds difficulty as well as sand traps. Also, pin positions can be altered (and are on a daily basis). When we had the Illinois Open at my course, me and the course super went out and walked the course talking about what would be the toughest pin positions. We had a few mapped out and then the mornings I would cut them.

CG: Changing fairway width is normally not that easy. The grass type is normally different between the cuts of grass. On a course, you will see at least 2 different types of grass and up to 4. Most of the time you will see 3 though. The tee and green most of the time will be bent grass. The fairway is a thicker/tougher grass like bermuda. And the rough is a cheaper grass that can be let go easier like a fescue or Kentucky Bluegrass.

Although number 5 at my course is a 230 par 3 water hole. From the back tees, it is actually a yard shorter, but it is farther over water. You only have 10 yards or so of open fairway to the green. So, that's about 210 yds of water. Where the regular tees only have to clear 80 yds of water to a fairway. But, don't slice, cause you follow the water line to the right of the green.

It's like the Petersen Classic tournament here where the lanes are bone dry up to the arrows. You have to loft the ball passed the arrows.

So how could you determine that a lane condition would be Red/White or Blue (degrees of difficulty) and maintain that for as long as desired? How could you do that for one or two of 35 leagues in the center?, for the entire season? Just go on faith that the lane machine is set up and switched back and forth accordingly? And that the mechanic hasn't fallen behind on maintenance or replacement parts? Because I know when you replace some of those parts in the oil machine that it definately effects the oil pattern. If USBC wants to do this, who is going to verfiy that the condition is what it is and how often during the season? Once a year like a golf course and just hope the oiling machine stays the same?

Erin

Right now, it is up to each golf course to maintain their equipment. They have people who maintain each part of the course. Trust me, it isn't easy. If there are issues with the course, it would be up to the golfers to report issues with course to management. Then, they could go to the USGA. I would think that the USBC would do something similar. If a house gets a new machine during the season, the house would have to be re-evaluated. It isn't necessarily a yearly thing. Only when changes are made. If there are changes in equipment or lane conditions, they would have to be re-evaluated. Not yearly. That would be too much work and the USBC wouldn't do it and we wouldn't pay for them to do it.

I would assume the vast majority of leagues will be the normal House shot (red) if you will. Only the exceptions would have to be verified, Sport (white) or PBA/Tournaments (blue).

Erin,
In my opinion, most centers are not going to run leagues with each the red, white, and blue patterns. Its hard enough in most cases to get a center to do a sport league, let alone pay three seperate sanctaions for three different "house" patterns. I think it would be a better use in saying, at my house which is rated a white house shot I am averaging 205 as opposed to you who averages 210 on the red. Of course the averages are just made up, I was just giving an example. Not only that but I assume the bowler (if bowling on all three) would have to pay three sanction fees in order to establish three seperate averages because of the difference in pattern. I am not sure, just a guess, depending on how much variation the patterns would cause in the averages.