Another tee pad thread.

[Doofenshmirtz]

I'm designing a course of a golf course and have some restrictions. Whatever is put in needs to be reasonably easy to remove, level or nearly level to the ground (so mowers can easily mow over it), installable without heavy equipment (to prevent damage to the course), durable and cost under $200 per tee pad (the budget is what the budget is).

The initial plan was (and still is) to use natural tees with easily movable markers. I have the markers made (3/4 pvc pipe, cap, 6" 60d galvanized nail and 3/4" fender washer), but in testing out some of the holes it has become apparent that the soft, sandy soil in some areas will allow disc golfers to cause a lot of turf damage when teeing off. So, I plan to start buliding tee boxes in the softest areas first and eventually put them on all of the holes.

I'm leaning toward horse stall mats (although open to other suggestions). I can get 3 - 4' x 6' mats (3/4" thick) for around $180 and 12 galvanized 12" nails (4 per mat) for a little over a dollar each. Putting three mats together on the long side would create a 4' x 12' tee box. Putting two together on the short side would create a 4' x 12' tee box and be considerably less expensive. Thanks to this being a golf course, almost all of the tee locations are already nearly perfectly flat and need little prep work.

So I have a few questions:

1. Is 4' x 12' big enough?
2. Is there anywhere that I can get a 4-6' x 12', one-piece mat, for a comparable price?
3. Does anyone have any other ideas not involving plywood or turf?
4. How long can I expect horse stall mats to last?

 

[dmoore1998]

What about pavers?

 

[wellsbranch250]

1. Is 4' x 12' big enough?
2. Is there anywhere that I can get a 4-6' x 12', one-piece mat, for a comparable price?
3. Does anyone have any other ideas not involving plywood or turf?
4. How long can I expect horse stall mats to last?

1. yes, 4 x 12 is a good enough size in my opinion.

2. yes, they have rolls of the mats at some stores that are 4 feet wide. a local store here in my town, which i believe is a franchise, sells them at $12 a foot at 1/4inch thick.
https://www.ruralking.com/catalog/product/view/id/33024

3. ive seen this done once. seems to be holding up thus far (2 years) turf over 1x6 decking planks over a 2x4 frame works as well. a local course did this with recycled tuff from a football field and got the turf super cheap.

4. i have a horse mat (over gravel) on one tee at my house. no breaks yet in 3.5 years, but it gets low use. also note, mildew is becoming an issue on it. its super slippery when wet. I probably need to scrub it.

 

[Doofenshmirtz]

What about pavers?

Every local option blows the budget.

 

[zontar]

horse mats are darn tough. it takes a lot to wear them out. much water and I would be leery of teeing off of them aggressively. I use one outside of my garage for working on motorcycles, and my daughter uses them for real horse use. I would want to test one before buying all of them.

 

[ray1970]

I've played several courses that use some sort of heavy rubber mat. Might be the ones you're referring to. They seem to hold up well and I've never found traction to be an issue. Honestly, I'd prefer the heavy rubber over turf any day. I also think 4x12' is plenty big.

 

[jupiterboy]

They use something like this on a local beach. No idea about the price, but the mechanism for fastening it to the ground seems pretty smart.

https://www.mobi-mat-chair-beach-access-dms.com/walkway-ground-mats/

 

[biscoe]

4. How long can I expect horse stall mats to last?

I put a couple in at Hawk Hollow and they lasted 2 rounds before I decided they were much worse than natural tees. They get slick from pretty much anything, sand definitely being on the list.

 

[ohtobediscing]

Having played on several courses with mats, I've found them to be plenty durable. However, on a course little-used in Ferndale WA (now extinct), I found several to be slippery with algae growth in the shade.
I have seen low-profile carpet layered on mats: it gave good traction, even when wet, and the course owner just replaced the carpet every year or two due to wear.

 

[biscoe]

Natural tees tearing up the grass a bit may be preferable to something else that flat out kills the grass in an area as well.

 

[BillFleming]

Natural tees tearing up the grass a bit may be preferable to something else that flat out kills the grass in an area as well.

This is a great point to consider. The disc golfers, on the bare grass, will tear it up, but people can move to different spots on the tee and the tee can be easily moved. A mat will kill all the grass under it.

Ball golfers tear up the natural tee pads also, they move to a spot that isn't so damaged and every so often the course moves the tee markers to another spot so the grass can grow back/recover.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

4x12 should be big enough for everyone not named James Conrad.

Natural tees tearing up the grass a bit may be preferable to something else that flat out kills the grass in an area as well.

Completely valid point.

My biggest issue with natural tees on courses that get any real traffic, is that they becomes rutted out depressions which can affect footwork and hold water long after the rain ends.

 

[glassila]

Every local option blows the budget.

I'm not sure where you live, but pavers should cost a lot less than $200 per tee pad.
16" x 16" pavers are less than $5 a piece at Home Depot.
A 4' by 13' tee pad (3 pavers by 10 pavers) would cost around $150.

Also, if a local company is making the pavers they probably sell factory seconds for a significant discount.


https://www.homedepot.com/p/16-in-x...e-Brickface-Square-Step-Stone-72661/100333091

 

[Doofenshmirtz]

Natural tees tearing up the grass a bit may be preferable to something else that flat out kills the grass in an area as well.

It's not in this case. When we tested several tee areas, it became apparent that the turf was giving way with just the to four people throwing. Worse than that, the throwers' feet were digging in enough that made it apparent that in a tournament situation the tees might seriously deteriorate over one round. There are places where this might not be the case, but enough that the problem was obvious.

What "flat out kill[ing}" the grass will allow is for the rubber pad to prevent damage from play that, in this case, is the bigger problem.

 

[dmoore1998]

I'm not sure where you live, but pavers should cost a lot less than $200 per tee pad.
16" x 16" pavers are less than $5 a piece at Home Depot.
A 4' by 13' tee pad (3 pavers by 10 pavers) would cost around $150.

Also, if a local company is making the pavers they probably sell factory seconds for a significant discount.


https://www.homedepot.com/p/16-in-x...e-Brickface-Square-Step-Stone-72661/100333091

I was kind of assuming volunteer installation, but I suppose if that's not the case then you're way over budget if you're gonna pay folks to dig, lay down substrate, compress, then lay pavers over top.

 

[chevis]

i'm not sure how industrial kitchen mats would work, but the grass wouldn't totally die with the holes. i've seen them used in a short course that doesn't get much traffic & the grass was growing through them (& everywhere, overgrown). https://www.americanfloormats.com/commercial-restaurant-kitchen-mats/
that's just the first site i could find that sells them, so maybe you could find less expensive.

 

[coupe]

i'm not sure how industrial kitchen mats would work, but the grass wouldn't totally die with the holes. i've seen them used in a short course that doesn't get much traffic & the grass was growing through them (& everywhere, overgrown). https://www.americanfloormats.com/commercial-restaurant-kitchen-mats/
that's just the first site i could find that sells them, so maybe you could find less expensive.

No way the grid stands up to the repeated torsional stress of pivoting on your plant foot. Apex Nature Park had this type of mat on several teepads when it first opened and started seeing tear outs in the left front corner within 3-4 months of opening.

 

[Doofenshmirtz]

i'm not sure how industrial kitchen mats would work, but the grass wouldn't totally die with the holes.

I'm not really sure why you would want grass growing underneatn a tee pad. I guess this is a bigger problem up north. Down here, the grass will grow back almost immediately once the pad is removed. Heck, I just had to mow this past weekend. Although, I should be able to take a break in mowing until early February.

 

[Doofenshmirtz]

I've found an interesting product called HexPave that might be described as a sort of hybrid, natural/plastic tee pad. It is a hex grid that you can fill with gravel, sand or topsoil and just let the grass grow through, water will soak through but should prevent the ground from getting worn. You can also just mow over it. It has a feature for traction. Has anyone had any exprience with this type of pad?

I'm probably going to install one pad with this material to try it out. The price is decent at about $140 per pad with free shipping if the order is $1000 or more. The size of one unit will make a 5-1/2' x 11-2/3' pad with one square left over.

 

[biscoe]

Diavolo had some stuff similar to this. I did not particularly care for it. You will still have issues with the spot where most people plant losing fill material and pitting out and when you lose the fill in a spot it will then get to be a hazard from not allowing any rotation of the foot.