Fast, Easy, Cheap Tee Pads - Any Ideas?

[Billipo]

For years our club has been marking the red layout on one of our courses with marker flags. They are a pain to replace and park doesn't like then when they mow.

I was looking to utilize a length of treated wood decking (1"x6")- painted red and secured flush to ground level with 12 inch stakes to mark front of the 18 natural tee boxes.

Looking for other suggestions. Need an option which won't be grown over in a year and are mower friendly.

Our small club maintains 8 courses and there are many other priority projects which will consume our volunteer labor and funds so for now we need fast, easy, cheap.

Appreciate any suggestions.

 

[sisyphus]

I'm about to try this, but not sure how it'll hold up (this is fast, easy, moveable, etc. until we're ready for concrete):
At the front two corners of the intended tee box, dig out a 3-4" deep hole, 1' in diameter, set a paver brick in pea gravel.
Yep, it's temporary, and will still mean natural turf, but should endure mowing over and be visible for a year or two. Maybe by then, a true pad...

 

[DavidSauls]

One course I saw used 6" round cement pavers, set flush into the ground for the front 2 corners, and painted them with numbers and distances (there were no signs). The decking board will better define footfaults, but will also eventually rot away.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Check out this You tube clip and linked thread.

https://youtu.be/IrKvs-4E85U

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3231311

I've played on these, and had no complaint. They won't last for years with exposure to the elements, but they're quite simple, seem affordable, and do a decent job a players perspective.

 

[Billipo]

Course started with rubber pads on white, gravel on blue, red. Everyone hated gravel, park tore up several of the rubber pads with mowers .

White and blue have concrete pads since 2019. Park and players love them.

Not in position to pour reds for at least a few years.

 

[seedlings]

Survey markers. There are many types, here's one. They hammer flush to the dirt.

 

[glassila]

Survey markers. There are many types, here's one. They hammer flush to the dirt.

The survey markers are nice, but at $8 apiece? yikes, that's kind of steep.
I'd look at plain old bricks or 8" x 4" pavers or something like that. Less than a buck a piece, easy to put in flush with the ground.

 

[oldmandiscer]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/599889...xz7xb13cN7Wqf5vthMOT7I-fIe2WCRmwaAqhTEALw_wcB

 

[DatRedDude]

Survey markers. There are many types, here's one. They hammer flush to the dirt.

The survey markers are nice, but at $8 apiece? yikes, that's kind of steep.
I'd look at plain old bricks or 8" x 4" pavers or something like that. Less than a buck a piece, easy to put in flush with the ground.

get what you pay for, if you go cheap it will show eventually. Run a league, do a 50/50, could have these paid for in a month.

 

[jupiterboy]

Woods not going to age well, and it takes work to keep it in good shape.

I wonder about digging out the space and filling with sand, leveling then adding one of those industrial rubber matts they put under a treadmill, etc. You can get them cut to size. They are super heavy.

Pavers, too, could work well.

 

[jakebake91]

I was looking to utilize a length of treated wood decking (1"x6")- painted red and secured flush to ground level with 12 inch stakes to mark front of the 18 natural tee boxes.

Appreciate any suggestions.

There's a local church course near me that has what appears to be a deck board anchored into the ground just as you describe. Has hole number and distance painted (or routered? Can't remember) on it also. Seems to work well enough. PITA to navigate though because you have no idea where the teepads are.

 

[R-Ogre]

There's an old saying: fast, good, cheap, choose 2 cuz you can't get all 3

 

[Billipo]

There are tee posts. So pads can be easily found.

 

[Billipo]

How about cheap, easy, better?

 

[Rastnav]

Need an option which won't be grown over in a year and are mower friendly.

I believe these two things are mutually exclusive, especially when you are looking for a low cost (in all senses) solution.

Anything that's flush with the ground is going to get overgrown without some sort of maintenance, especially if it's not very large. And quick, low effort installs are going to be small.

That said, I think marking the corners with sunken pavers surround in pea gravel as has already been suggested is probably the biggest bang for the buck and effort.

 

[seedlings]

Spray a tight line of Round-Up every few months.

 

[trashmonster1985]

Spray a tight line of Round-Up every few months.

I would suggest using a blowtorch in the winter months.
Roundup is a short term solution that's going to bite you in the butt down the road. It's nasty stuff to use, overuse anywhere near waterways causes major problems and if it's residential Roundup all its going to do is kill the weakest weeds in the area, and allow for tougher plants to take there place.
Glycophosphates can work when used at the right time of year and with proper plant identification.
And depending on where you live, you can't spray Roundup in public areas without a commercial license.

 

[Billipo]

Thanks for input.

Gonna stay with 1 x 6 boards. I believe that board width and bright red paint will help with visibility even if we can't get around much for regular maintenance.

My concern with marking front corner suggestions is that grass has less area to grow over in all directions. In other applications, we have never had pavers on our drop zones or putting circles that didn't grow over quickly. ( We now use cinder blocks).

Also from drop zone experience, but not mentioned in suggestions is not to recess marker below current ground level. Seems if they are inset below ground level they grow over real quick.

Yah wood rots but maybe treated wood with a heavy coat of exterior paint may help. Or when they rot we have time and money for concrete.

Definitely gonna evaluate treating area adjacent to kickboard and not just tacking down the boards....weed killer, burning, aggressive string trimming, and/ or something else not sure yet. I've got until spring to figure it out now.

I'm confident of one thing...it will be an improvement. Again thanks for input.

 

[jupiterboy]

Thanks for input.

Gonna stay with 1 x 6 boards. I believe that board width and bright red paint will help with visibility even if we can't get around much for regular maintenance.

My concern with marking front corner suggestions is that grass has less area to grow over in all directions. In other applications, we have never had pavers on our drop zones or putting circles that didn't grow over quickly. ( We now use cinder blocks).

Also from drop zone experience, but not mentioned in suggestions is not to recess marker below current ground level. Seems if they are inset below ground level they grow over real quick.

Yah wood rots but maybe treated wood with a heavy coat of exterior paint may help. Or when they rot we have time and money for concrete.

Definitely gonna evaluate treating area adjacent to kickboard and not just tacking down the boards....weed killer, burning, aggressive string trimming, and/ or something else not sure yet. I've got until spring to figure it out now.

I'm confident of one thing...it will be an improvement. Again thanks for input.

Problem with wood is that it takes water from the bottom up. We've used a product called Seal-Once on our deck and it is not a traditional sealer and it works very, very well in terms of preserving the wood. We did traditional sealers for 5 years before we used this and it was a sand and retreat yearly situation, largely because of snow load. Seal-Once lasts many years and is easy to reapply with a roller with little prep.

 

[acrosley]

A couple courses near me use concrete hog slats for tees. Not sure where they get them tbh but I don't think they're prohibitively expensive