Below is a description of an idea to rejuvenate the Browns using olive oil press waste as a layered sub-base, with interleaved garden netting and a top dressing of fine oiled sand.
CURRENT SITUATION
Many of the browns have been left to compact over years, some for decades, resulting in a packed surface that is as hard as concrete. Balls pitched onto the surface tend to have a high bounce and generally do not finish on the browns. A coating of oiled sand/grit is spread to control the ball speed. The ball tends not to run true on such a surface. In addition, it is difficult to install the cups properly to have a clean edge and the same surface characteristics up until the cup's edge.
Browns were developed in the midwest of America in the early 1900s in rural areas where grass greens were too expensive to consider. In America, brown maintenance included the use of sweeps (browns were swept by players immediately after finishing each hole to prepare the surface for the next group to play the hole). This system of sweeping after finishing a hole was in place during the Cooper and Brady years, and members remember that the browns were much more playable in those days. After 1995 the practice of sweeping died out, although in 2012-2014 sweeps were made available, but members did not have the training to make sweeping after finishing every hole become a habit.
In America, once every year or two, the browns were dug up as the sand and oil mixture became compact and hard. This annual or biannual task would break up the sand and oil which compacts hard like concrete. In addition to the lost art of sweeping browns after finishing every hole, the second most important part of brown maintenance of breaking up and pulverizing the compacted sand-oil surface has never been done. Here is a picture of a cross-section of the compacted layer which is on every brown at CMC. This layer is about 3 to 4 cm thick and is as hard as concrete. However, once the surface has been penetrated, the layer breaks into small pieces, which can be pulverized back into dust and re-rolled to make a firm, but forgiving, surface.
Many of the browns have been left to compact over years, some for decades, resulting in a packed surface that is as hard as concrete. Balls pitched onto the surface tend to have a high bounce and generally do not finish on the browns. A coating of oiled sand/grit is spread to control the ball speed. The ball tends not to run true on such a surface. In addition, it is difficult to install the cups properly to have a clean edge and the same surface characteristics up until the cup's edge.
Browns were developed in the midwest of America in the early 1900s in rural areas where grass greens were too expensive to consider. In America, brown maintenance included the use of sweeps (browns were swept by players immediately after finishing each hole to prepare the surface for the next group to play the hole). This system of sweeping after finishing a hole was in place during the Cooper and Brady years, and members remember that the browns were much more playable in those days. After 1995 the practice of sweeping died out, although in 2012-2014 sweeps were made available, but members did not have the training to make sweeping after finishing every hole become a habit.
In America, once every year or two, the browns were dug up as the sand and oil mixture became compact and hard. This annual or biannual task would break up the sand and oil which compacts hard like concrete. In addition to the lost art of sweeping browns after finishing every hole, the second most important part of brown maintenance of breaking up and pulverizing the compacted sand-oil surface has never been done. Here is a picture of a cross-section of the compacted layer which is on every brown at CMC. This layer is about 3 to 4 cm thick and is as hard as concrete. However, once the surface has been penetrated, the layer breaks into small pieces, which can be pulverized back into dust and re-rolled to make a firm, but forgiving, surface.
While this layer can be broken down and pulverized back into sand, with some effort, it will quickly compact again. One idea is to try to find a material that we could use as a sub-base that won't compact and will remain resilient over time. As with the current system, we could then top dress this with oiled sand to provide the speed of the brown. Below is a description of a trial to test out this idea.
TRIAL WITH OLIVE OIL PRESS WASTE AS SUB-BASE
Step 1: We dug in the portable hole and also dug a trench around the edges of a small section of the practice brown. The trench around the edge would be used to bury the edges of the final layer of garden netting. We didn't dig up and pulverize the compacted sand-oil surface for the trial. If we were to extend this trial to a full size brown, it would be necessary to break up and pulverize the layer to allow for drainage.
The sleeve of the portable hole is made from thick roofing felt. The hole is set in builder's sand in a plastic pot. The top of the sleeve is about 3 cm above the edge of the pot. The entire pot will be buried within the olive oil waste, and the top dressed sand will come flush with the top of the sleeve. In the future, we could make a galvanized sleeve (with a threaded support into a nut at the base to allow for vertical adjustment) and set this in a base of cement (using a mould to create standard holes.)
Step 2: We spread the contents of one bag of olive oil waste on the surface, about 2.5 cm deep. We chose olive oil press waste for a number of reasons. First, many olive mills don't use the waste byproduct, and are happy to have someone take it away for free. Second, the waste consists of the pieces of crushed pits as well as the particles of the dried olive flesh. When wet and rolled, the particles mesh or bind together unlike crush rock or sand. Spread in thin layers, this material would form a stable sub-base, and mimic the sand/root-zone layer that makes up the sub-surface of grass greens. The material doesn't absorb water but will absorb and release oil.
We wet the layer and then used the roller to compact it.
We leveled the surface with a board and rolled it firm.
Step 3: We covered the first layer with the garden netting and then spread another layer of the olive press waste on top. We used garden netting between layers to increase the stability of the olive oil press waste and mimic the sand/root-zone layer that comprises grass greens.
Step 4: We wet and rolled the second layer in the same way as the first layer. We filled in the top of the portable hole with the olive oil waste, but the roofing felt collar was still a centimeter above the surface.
Step 5: We then covered the second layer of olive press waste with the garden netting, burying the edges of the netting in the trench around the outside edge. We tried to make the netting as smooth and flat as possible and rolled the netting to ensure that it 'bedded into' the underlying layer of olive oil press waste. In the future, we could use strips of roof felt as an edging to create a distinct separation between the brown putting surface and the surrounding grass apron.
Step 6: We then spread a layer of dry sand on top of the netting. The sand fills in the holes on the netting when it is spread dry. We brushed and rolled the sand to work it into the netting. We then added more sand to about a 1.5 cm depth across the surface and level with the top of the roofing felt sleeve in the portable hole.
PLAYING CONDITIONS OF TRIAL SURFACE
The brown is now ready to play. You can try it out - it is next to the practice artificial grass green. Because the surface and sub-surface now mimic a grass green, you need to treat this surface with the same degree of respect and care as you do with a grass green. That means you need to repair ball marks, you MUST not step in the line of your partners' putts. With real grass greens, the greenskeeper and his staff spend hours mowing the grass and ensuring an even smooth surface. This upkeep at CMC rests with each golfer, who after FINISHING EACH HOLE, MUST sweep the surface in order to leave it in a good condition for the next group. Please carefully sweep the trial brown after you finish.
Here is a video, showing the properties of the surface when struck by a pitched ball. As you can see, there is a ball mark and the surface absorbs the impact of the ball which runs out to a distance depending on the angle and height of the pitch and the spin on the ball. The layer of sand in the trial is about 1.5 cm thick, and the STIMP is about 7-8 (we have a home-made STIMPMETER in the clubhouse). This is slower than grass greens, which average around 10. However, the depth of sand can be reduced to increase the speed, and using a leaner mix of oil into the sand will also increase the speed.
There is a ball mark at the first point of contact. You can see the bounce and roll from the pitch below - very similar to that of a grass green.
When you step on a grass green, the blades of grass will be compacted, and there will be a slight impression in the soil from the weight of your step. You may not notice this because the grass looks like one smooth surface, but that is why you never step in the line of a putt on a green. The blades will bend back and the soil will release back to its original position in a few minutes, With the oiled-sand surface, you can actually see the footprints and the depression of the surface (which on a grass green is not easy to see). Unlike the grass green, the surface will not return to its normal state. That is why the brown must be swept after finishing each hole.
Here you can see the footprints and depressions left when walking on the brown. As with a grass green, where players try to minimize the amount of walking on the surface to the minimum, players on browns must also tread carefully.
After playing on a grass green, the blades of grass and the sub-surface will return to its normal state in a few minutes. Returning the brown to its normal state requires sweeping.
The trial is using a layer of 1.5 cm of quite heavily oiled sand as the top dressing. The STIMP of this configuration of depth of soil and amount of oil is about 7-8, which is relatively slow compared to grass greens. With some experimentation, we might be able to increase the STIMP to 9-10 with a thinner top dressing layer, and a slightly leaner mix of oil. We can also probably introduce some slight contours in the surface to create breaks and down- and up-slope pace. We can also try to find the soya bean oil byproduct, SOAPSTOCK, which is used in America on dirt and gravel roads as an environmentally friendly alternative to oil. SOAPSTOCK has longer-lasting properties as a road surface treatment for dust control, and might mean a much lower frequency of re-oiling the browns.
The fine oiled-sand makes for a very true putting surface. See the video below.
