5 bizarre golf-course problems superintendents have had to solve

If you think taking care of grass is as uneventful as watching it grow, you haven’t spent much time with a superintendent. A greenkeeper’s workday is filled with surprises. Mother Nature throws curveballs. Infrastructure fails. Equipment goes awry. A menagerie of creatures contributes to the chaos.

“Everything that walks, runs, digs, burrows, scratches, forages and even relieves itself on turf can be additional sources of damage,” John Mascaro says.

The president of Turf-Tec International, a Florida-based manufacturer of diagnostic tools for turf, Mascaro also writes “John Mascaro’s Photo Quiz,” for Golf Course Management Magazine, the official publication of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. As its name suggests, Mascaro’s column presents images of on-course anomalies and asks readers to identify their causes.

Here are a few of the most bizarre happenings, courtesy of GCSAA, GCM Magazine and Mascaro’s quiz collection.

1. Did Bugs Bunny take a wrong turn on the way to Albuquerque and burrow through a practice range? Nope. In this case, lightning struck a target green, blowing up an irrigation pipe.

2. One of the golden rules of golf is to always leave the course in better condition than you found it. Try telling that to the feral pigs who left behind this wreckage in a fairway.

3. Just as golfers are forever chasing birdies, birdies are always chasing other things. The chewed-up turf here was caused by sand hill cranes, foraging for insects underground.

4. Wild contours on a green can be cool, but enough is enough. The crazy feature below is not a MacDonald template. It’s an unwanted sod bubble, brought on by a busted irrigation line.

5.  There’s something off about this turf. Literally. It was caused by insect repellent, sprayed by golfers trying to protect themselves.