Fairway Contour Mowing

by PATRICK M. O'BRIEN Director, Sou theas te rn Region, U S G A Green Sect ion MOST GOLF COURSES like to offer their golfers an artistic contrast between the fairways and roughs, a feature that enhances the natural beauty of each hole. This is true especially if the fairway perimeters are curbed rather than set in a straight line. This feature is termed contour mowing, and it is usually considered highly desirable by most golfers. Historically, while the term "fairway" was understood to be the closely mown areas of the course other than greens the word did not appear in the Rules. Even today, the Rules of Golf doesn't use the term. Between 1700 and 1850 golfers played principally on links courses adjacent to the coastline. Their fairways consisted of the native grasses, which were bentgrasses and fescues, kept short by the first greenkeepers, the grazing sheep, and rabbits. The deep, inescapable rough on either side of these fairways was spotted with heather, a woody groundcover, and gorse, a thorny bush. The main route to the putting green was usually no more than 40 yards wide. With such narrow fairways and difficult rough, slow play, injuries, and lost balls were an integral part of the early game. In the middle-to-late 19th century, as play increased at St. Andrews following the arrival of the gutta-percha ball, the fairways were widened, principally to prevent injuries. The heather was cut away in what was probably the first attempt to specifically shape the route between the teeing ground and putting green. The fairways on British courses eventually became even wider, for two reasons. First, the gutta-percha ball travelled further than the leather-bound feather ball, and therefore required a wider fairway. Second, since the guttapercha ball would not dent like the feathery ball, the players now had new clubs called irons. Playing with irons killed or injured much of the heather and the fairway grasses spread into more of the links land. With more grasses on the fairways, additional men called greenkeepers were needed to help maintain these large areas between the tees and putting greens. Even in the early days of golf, the primary goal with the tee shot was to aim at, and hit the fairway. Later, more emphasis was placed on hitting a particular side of the fairway. Position became even more important as the fairway was perceived as the defence for the putting green. The reward for a well positioned tee shot was a better angle to the putting green, and a well-designed fairway helped make the game even more interesting. The first greenkeepers didn't have enough equipment or labour for intense maintenance, they believed the fairway grasses should take care of themselves. The low-maintenance approach worked quite well, given the acid, sandy soils and the temperate climate. These conditions caused the fairway grasses to grow veiy slowly in beautiful patterns.