The mowers are set to cut the grass at a height of 2.25 inches. We attempt to mow the rough two times per week during the growing season. Weather conditions (Rainfall) always changes the mowing schedule. Having Monday available to mow the rough is critical to completing two mowing cycles in one week. Having the course available to mow while it is closed allows us to move quickly through the golf course uninterrupted.
We always start Monday morning being behind schedule on the rough, this is due to the fact that we do not operate the rough mowing units on the weekend. This makes Monday a very critical day, we attempt to mow as much of the rough on Monday as possible. Sometimes we cannot mow on Monday due to rainfall during the day or from the previous night. This means we will start on Tuesday, and the rough has been growing for 3 days without being cut at all! At certain points during the year the grass will grow one inch or more during these three days. This seems to happen many times a year here.
The only way to keep up during rain events is to work plenty of overtime on the days when conditions are favorable to mow, sometimes leading us to mow rough until near dark on some nights. If the rough is very deep we must wait to mow until the dew is gone, or the grass clippings will clump very badly and leave a mess. This means we also lose a couple more hours in the morning. This is not a problem for us in the Summer when the daylight lasts until 9:30 pm. Having dedicated staff willing to work long hours during the mid-season is critical to providing the conditions that we have here at Kenmure.
During the months of October and November before the hard freeze, the grass is still growing vigorously and we do not have the luxury of 3-4 extra hours of daylight to make up lost time from rainfall. When we have wet conditions during this time of year we can sometimes struggle to get all the rough cut in a timely fashion, getting behind and not catching up with all the grass until Thursday or Friday. This would mean that you might have encountered some difficult shots out of some areas on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Take for example this picture I took this morning (Nov 11, 2017). This clearly illustrates how drastic the difference between cut and un-cut grass in the Rough can sometimes be:
Trying to keep on schedule with mowing, while minimizing clippings is something that is on my mind constantly during the growing season. Every single week of every year always brings different challenges to this schedule, we adapt and restructure constantly to try and stay caught up with whatever the current climate conditions bring us.
