Although it’s an unpopular decision I’ve made, for the next 3 days, hitting stations will be placed on the mats in addition to several stations on the turf. The reason for this is because we you have a lot of guest play these next couple days and we want to conserve the grass for our membership. As I’ve said before, we could lose as much as 1/4 of the tee on a holiday weekend. If you would rather hit off grass, use the stations off to the side or step in front of the mats. However, I’d encourage those who don’t mind hitting of mats, to use them. Thank you for your understanding.
On a side note, based on the amount of rounds played at Highlands CC, the USGA’s recommendation is for a tee that is 1.25 acres, or 55,000 square feet. Our tee is just shy of what 25,000 square feet. Even though we are grossly undersized for the amount of rounds and usage it receives, we do an excellent job with divot recovery. In my first 5-6 years at the Club, it wasn’t uncommon to run out of grass in August, resulting in the use of mats for the remainder of the year.
If you have any questions about why we are doing this, please feel free to reach out to me. While James is doing a nice job fielding the comments and complaints, he is just doing as he was directed.