Striping with a Purpose

At Kinloch, our operators are trained to "burn" stripes into our tees, fairways and approaches. On fairways and approaches, we have two directions that we mow. Mowing in these directions creates a cross-hatch or diamond pattern in the turf. While there is no question that these mowing patterns enhance our aesthetic value, we mow stripes for other reasons too. For example, on our tee boxes, we stripe the turf in only one direction. We do this so that the golfer has a point of reference when hitting a golf shot.

As you can see in the photo above, our 14th tee box is striped directly towards the center of the 14th green. Although the stripes are nice to look at, these stripes are more about directing the golfer's stance than aesthetics. 

Over time, due to operator error or heavy dew restricting visibility, our tee stripes can get crooked or improperly aligned. So, during our aeration closures, we take the time to re-set our tee lines. 

As you can see in the photo above, twice per year, we mark new center lines on our tees. If you look at the picture closely, you can see that we have run a straight line through both tee boxes. Over the next 6-4 cuttings, the tee lines will not only remain straight and oriented toward the "A" landing area, but all of the tees will be in sync with each other.