Turf Matters

Stripes, whether on a football field or a golf course fairway, are nice to look at. Some Superintendents/Groundsmen are quite creative and can create nice patterns. However, the danger of having one direction of stripe for years and the same mower every time we mow, is creating ruts where the tyres are.

Nice stripes from a simple tractor. But at least this is a light machine.
Gambar hiasan.

For those not in the know; to get those nice stripes that you see on TV or at your local field/fairways/rough, the mower operator has to mow in the same place and at the same direction every time. The grass then bends in that particular direction and when the mower comes back on the ‘return’ trip, the grass will bend in the opposite direction. The effect of light reflecting on the bent grass are what creates the striping effect. Not really the cutting action per se, more likely the rollers behind the ‘knife’.

Its easier to do with some grass compared to others. For the grasses that are harder to create the stripes, the mower operators has to be disciplined and skilled enough to be able to repeat that task every time he/she mows. Some courses/fields can have a few directions to spread the wear and tear but in Malaysia, most clubs will have one one direction of mowing; from tee to green of fairway or on the football field, from one side of the field to the other i.e. left to right.

If you don’t spread out the wear and tear and keep on mowing in the same place/direction every time over many years and even during wet soil conditions – especially if you don’t aerate your fairways – what will happen is that the machine’s tyres will always be in the same location every time you mow and this will soon create ruts.

Maybe not my best artwork; but what I’m trying to show is a profile of ruts created by a machine’s tyres.

I recently advised one club to change the direction of their fairway stripes because it has been that since the beginning. I suggested a ‘diamond’ cut from two directions to create a checker board effect from a straight up and down striping as it is now. At least then there can be two set of places where the machine’s tyres can be placed and since that particular club mows its fairways twice a week, that means on one day it will mow from left to right and on the other; right to left.

When the owner came by a few weeks ago, he decided he preferred the old stripes and instructed the Superintendent to go back to the old stripes. The Superintendent were not able to give a proper explanation why we changed mowing direction and had no choice but to go back to the previous direction.

Sigh… I guess I should let it go, but the rainy season has just begun and I’m afraid the ruts will just get worse.

Belang pada padang – samada pada fairway padang golf atau di padang bola – adalah cantik. Tetapi ia datang dengan kos tertentu. 

Pedulikan botol air mineral tu. Apa yang saya nak tunjuk ialah arah rumput baring akan menentukan warna belang rumput.

Untuk mendapatkan belang tersebut, si operator yang membawa mesin mestilah memotong pada arah dan tapak yang sama setiap kali dia memotong. Ini kerana belang itu datang dari rumput yang ‘baring’. Bila mesin itu potong ke arah hadapan kita, rumput itu akan baring ke pergi dari; dan bila mesin itu potong di arah berlawanan iaitu ke arah kita, rumput akan baring ke arah kita. Cahaya yang melantun atas permukaan rumput itu akan membalikkan jumlah cahaya yang berbeza dan memberi kesan belang yang kita nampak. 

Oleh kerana mesin itu terpaksa potong pada arah dan lokasi yang sama setiap kali ia potong selama bertahun-tahun; tayar mesin itu akan berada di lokasi yang sama dan akan membentuk lekuk terutamanya bila kita potong pada waktu tanah lembik; i.e musim hujan. 

Untuk mengurangkan efek tersebut, saya cadangkan padang mempunyai dua atau tiga ‘pattern’ belang supaya mampatan dari tayar boleh di sebarkan ke beberapa lokasi. Ini mungkin membantu. 

Contoh belang atau stripe di padang bola.