We painted the top of the holes for today's tournament. This process is done for major events at the Club. There are some courses that do this daily. I personally don't like it for a day to day program because after the first 10 groups or so, it begins to look very sloppy where members bump the edges of the hole with the flagstick. The white begins to flake off and the presentation is poor.
I really like the definition we are getting on the fairway/intermediate rough/rough stair step cuts. This is hard to achieve with our heights of cut. Again, fairways are mowed ay .480", I-rough is 1" and rough 2". On championship golf courses, fairways are mowed much lower and the roughs much higher resulting in better definition.
The 3rd fairway is an example of high earthworm populations. In the past, I wrote many Piper articles on the topic. Earthworms can not and should not be killed. In fact, it is illegal to kill them in NC. Furthermore, there is no chemical that offers control. While they are a pest in this instance because of their muddy castings, earthworms are extremely beneficial organisms. In fact, they are an indicator of a very healthy soil. They naturally add to the organic composition of the soil and their tunneling does a wonderful job of aerifying the soil.