Fast and Firm: Equipment required

Golf’s powers that be are now endorsing “firm and fast,” along with “brown is the new green,” as noble ways to protect, preserve and promote the game. GCI's Tim Moraghan examines some of the costs associated with this philosophy.


Published June 14, 2011
The game’s powers that be are now endorsing “firm and fast,” along with “brown is the new green,” on the golf course as noble ways to protect, preserve and promote the game. I fully support reducing chemistry and excessive irrigation to enhance playing conditions and environmental quality. However, I think there is likely much more to attaining firm and fast conditions than less water and more sand top dressing.

Firm and fast conditions don’t happen overnight. You and your committee members must understand the costs of achieving this goal:
  • To sand top dress fairways, intermediate roughs, and/or teeing grounds requires several pieces of large and expensive equipment: a large-scale fairway top-dressing unit, a front-end loader to move sand, a tractor strong enough to pull the top-dressing unit, brushing attachments to move sand into the turf canopy, and a dry storage facility for the sand supply.
  • Sand can cost as little as $10 or as much as $30 per ton, plus delivery charges.
  • Extra time (and, therefore, money) will be spent on equipment maintenance sharpening reels and repairing mowers.
  • You’ll need storage facilities for materials and equipment.
  • Even if your irrigation system is state-of-the-art you’ll need to amend it with several hand-held units to check soil moisture levels. Figure at minimum a soil probe, moisture sensors, in-ground sensing units, and several hundred feet of one-inch hose for “corrective” watering.
  • If your irrigation system is lacking, you may need to add quick couplers throughout each fairway, teeing grounds, and greens to allow for hand watering. 
  • Most importantly, you will need to allocate time to properly train your staff.

Editor's note: For more on the fast-and-firm debate, check out Tim's column in GCI's June issue.

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