The first cut

Not always pretty, but definitely exciting

Yesterday we put the first cut on our greens in just over six months. I’ve been part of many first cuts; both performing and directing. The first cut is never the prettiest, but it is almost certainly the most exciting. 

My favorite story comes from my days as an assistant. It was unseasonably hot for April in Minnesota; near 100 as I recall. Myself and a co-worker (20 years later, he’s now a co-worker at Hazeltine) went out to put the first cut on the greens. It was just the two of us walk-mowing all 19 greens and since the course was closed and it was hot, my co-worker mowed shirtless. I’ve never seen someone as sunburned as he was that day. 

No matter how many times I’ve been a part of it, there’s always a certain thrill that comes from the first cut. As time has gone by, I’ve changed my approach to the first cut. It used to be something I was eager to do, oftentimes mowing before the grass really needed it, or when they were shaggy from being covered. This inevitably would set the grass back, when the cold air returned, the greens quickly turned into browns.

It is probably not a coincidence that the longer I’ve been a superintendent, the longer I seem to wait until mowing for the first time. To some degree, it’s weather dependent. A quick look at my photos tells me in my final season at Northland Country Club, 2012, we made the first cut on April 2nd. Yesterday was April 25th–much more weather than patience. Regardless of weather, I’m not in the rush I used to be to make the first cut.

This year I decided to change a tried and true approach. We apply a heavy topdressing prior to winter. In the spring, the surfaces are quite sandy and the first few cuts are often more of a sand harvesting operation than actual mowing. Not only did I wait this year, but I also decided not to roll the greens before mowing. In the past, we may have rolled two or three times before mowing. My intent in not rolling pre-mow was to keep from flicking the sand up to the surface. A couple weeks ago, we had three days of high temps near 90F/30C; the grass really started to grow and it would’ve been easy to make the first cut. In my earlier decision making days, I wouldn’t have waited–this year I did. 

By waiting, the grass continued to grow up and through the sand to the point where I suspected our first cut would be more grass than sand. It sure was! There was a lot of grass; 105 liters from the big putting green, 10x a typical summer volume, almost all grass.

I plan to continue being patient for another week or so. Normally, from this point forward, we would start rolling daily. We’ll get there, but for the time being, I’m going to keep the rollers off. Even now, as the grass has grown, they tend to flick the sand up to the surface where it will impact future mowing. Of course, rolling is a key part of our putting surface maintenance, so the prohibition won’t last forever, but a little patience now could pay big dividends.