GEARING UP. 
ONE FOOT 
ON THE 
BRAKES
L
OOK Magazine recently had a robust 
conversation with CCL Golf Course 
Superintendent Ryan Krings to check his 
blood pressure after heading down the final 
stretch to get the 106 (2.0) golf ready. 
We pushed to a soft golf course opening. 
Your thoughts? 
Very young right now. We laid sod right up until October 
and November last year. There’s a big jump from sodding 
the course to being ready for play. It takes time and 
there’s some rooting that needs to happen. One of the 
big concerns with new greens is whether they can handle 
traffic at the rate we want on a golf course. It’s especially 
difficult at opening given the excitement for it. 
You seem nervous.
Just being able to handle mower traffic and 100+ rounds 
a day and not set the greens back makes me sweat. It can 
happen. If we have too much traffic too early, we could 
easily get turf thinning out. So, we’ll have to monitor 
play closely as we go. It’s why we are not allowing guest 
play early on. Our priority should be for members to 
enjoy the course first. Tee time spacing and setting a 
limit to a specific number of rounds per day protect our 
investment.
So, err on the side of caution?
The big message is that we won’t get too aggressive out 
there. We’ll monitor green speeds closely and not push 
them too hard year one, understanding that these greens 
will get better month to month and peak next fall. 
Are you concerned about cart traffic?
The biggest concern is the maturation of the greens. I’m 
not concerned with our fairways and cart traffic. I will 
never discourage walking! It’s always great for the overall 
health and conditioning of our golf course and there are 
for sure some health benefits for members when they 
walk more often. 
Green Surface
Subgrade
5 mil plastic barrier on top of native subgrade
Spec Root Zone
12"
Excess
Root Zone
6" removed
Drainage
4" pea gravel layer
Pea gravel in drain trenches
Perforated pipe
30 Years of Topdressing
Restoring USGA Spec
Benefits:
•	 Better turf health
•	 Better drainage
•	 Consistent playability
Upper zone had increased from 12 inches to upwards of 18 inches. 
Excess greens mix was removed and restored to USGA spec.
GROUNDS  |  Ryan Krings • ryan@ccl.cc

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