Tee Box Areas

[Royal Hill]

Of the ones I see on this thread, I like the idea of the stardoggy posted ones the best. Even those same concepts but with a larger "surround" land area.

so, here's a concept - the tee itself is a solid surface. Poured, not going to change. Good stuff. check. The raising of the "surround" above the native elevation is to be done with a border enclosing material (wood, rocks, pavers, blocks, old tires, old telephone poles, etc) Good. Check.

Now... whats in between is the thing.

Soft fill - will fluff out (sand, soft dirt, pea gravel, any gravel really even if initially compacted, bark chips, shreds, ground up tires, old sweatshirts)

Semi hard materials - IF it is softER than the concrete tee, it will also wear. Water retention, cupping, ditching, etc. No way around it, it'll happen. Some "crown" or drainage direction-ality will help. Pooling will always lead to potholing. Feet and boots like to dig, dogs like to dig, people like to kick holes 'just because.
But... maybe the timeframe is long enough that "re upping" the semi hard material makes it worth it. Thinking a semi hard "farmers mix" of sand and concrete or whatever, some "soft solid"

Solid surface, but pervious. - better, but getting costlier. Pavers, some of the hex grid materials out there, stepping stones pavers with spacing for whatever in between infill or vegetation... Those cement pavers that look like x's that people use to build creek crossings...

Intact surface that is different than but not for teeing use - artifical carpet, fake grass. Would keep mud and infill off tee. Players are not teeing off it, so less abuse.

If I had to pick a really good best recommendation - it'd be artificial grange grass covering the surround, that is crowned for water runoff. Hey, closest I could see in example would be the swedish Terminalen course hole one at Skeleftea.

 

[Matt B.]

Of the ones I see on this thread, I like the idea of the stardoggy posted ones the best. Even those same concepts but with a larger "surround" land area.

so, here's a concept - the tee itself is a solid surface. Poured, not going to change. Good stuff. check. The raising of the "surround" above the native elevation is to be done with a border enclosing material (wood, rocks, pavers, blocks, old tires, old telephone poles, etc) Good. Check.

Now... whats in between is the thing.

Soft fill - will fluff out (sand, soft dirt, pea gravel, any gravel really even if initially compacted, bark chips, shreds, ground up tires, old sweatshirts)

Semi hard materials - IF it is softER than the concrete tee, it will also wear. Water retention, cupping, ditching, etc. No way around it, it'll happen. Some "crown" or drainage direction-ality will help. Pooling will always lead to potholing. Feet and boots like to dig, dogs like to dig, people like to kick holes 'just because.
But... maybe the timeframe is long enough that "re upping" the semi hard material makes it worth it. Thinking a semi hard "farmers mix" of sand and concrete or whatever, some "soft solid"

Solid surface, but pervious. - better, but getting costlier. Pavers, some of the hex grid materials out there, stepping stones pavers with spacing for whatever in between infill or vegetation... Those cement pavers that look like x's that people use to build creek crossings...

Intact surface that is different than but not for teeing use - artifical carpet, fake grass. Would keep mud and infill off tee. Players are not teeing off it, so less abuse.

If I had to pick a really good best recommendation - it'd be artificial grange grass covering the surround, that is crowned for water runoff. Hey, closest I could see in example would be the swedish Terminalen course hole one at Skeleftea.

Good ideas. In a more "natural setting" type of park or other space, artificial turf may not be a good fit for the land owning agency or the aesthetics. I think compacted gravel inside a border "frame" is a pretty good solution. Something like 1/4 minus or decomposed granite on top, compacted well should make a pretty solid surface that won't track a lot of material on the pad.

At the course we are installing that prompted this thread we have about half the pads poured essentially on the surface of the ground in order to deal with seasonally wet soils and to mitigate for future compaction and erosion. We are going to frame the pads in with large rocks, juniper posts and cedar logs, with compacted gravel in the space around the tee pad. Enough surface area all around the tee pad for someone to take a giant step off the pad in any direction and be on the same level.

We plan on building these "Tee Box Areas" around all of the tees, even the ones installed flush to the soil surface. The material around the flush pads may be wood chips instead of gravel. Impacts to soil - erosion and compaction - happen at all tees and baskets, and should be mitigated against in the design process. Trees near baskets and tee pads should always have wood chips protecting the root area from compaction, or other design features protecting them.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Of the ones I see on this thread, I like the idea of the stardoggy posted ones the best. .

so ghetto fabulous vs fabulous?! Yes those are much more realistic for an average course but don't seem to be really anything special? The one actually looks deteriorated.

 

[Matt B.]

Here's what we are working on. These will be filled with compacted gravel, topped by compacted decomposed granite. The box framed with rock is at the bottom of the steps, made with the same rock.

 

[Matt B.]

End results:

 

[TimSyl]

nice

 

[Royal Hill]

so ghetto fabulous vs fabulous?! Yes those are much more realistic for an average course but don't seem to be really anything special? The one actually looks deteriorated.

I'm actually going to re up my favorable feelings about the rollin ridge ones. Just watched the DGguy final nine silver cup at RR. 'haint been there - but watched throughout the magic of tv…

They are looking good. And will likely look good going forward - here's why I think so: I think the support being river rock/cobbles will age gracefully. And being cobbles, there are no set edges, no right angles. This is a principle that is worth considering - if there are no sharp angles, no right angles, it tends not to tell its age over time. straight edges chip, angles get broken off. Nature doesn't like straight lines. and for the people element - lets say it - smooth burnished cobbles are not good tagging or vandalism targets, thats a plus.

The rocks will burnish, polish, and maybe one or two will get lost over time. An overzealous digging terrier could cause some issues. I noticed that many on the video have a "toe line" with the extra square of concrete for the follow through on the tee proper. Thats a plus.

I could see some of the cobble build ups having some mowing frustration in the field locations, as they will either be left with a taller grass border or require string trimming. Or be a frustration point for a mower running into the irregular border. But ok with me.

Disney or fancy zoo principle - the infrastructure at the theme parks are genius - they recognize that bright solid paint schemes on hand rails, etc are trouble, as they show wear and tear more readily - the real genius is when they use pre rustic-ed elements that wear in beautifully. Hand worn and burnished is beautiful when its "intended" that way.

 

[Matt B.]

I'm actually going to re up my favorable feelings about the rollin ridge ones. Just watched the DGguy final nine silver cup at RR. 'haint been there - but watched throughout the magic of tv…

They are looking good. And will likely look good going forward - here's why I think so: I think the support being river rock/cobbles will age gracefully. And being cobbles, there are no set edges, no right angles. This is a principle that is worth considering - if there are no sharp angles, no right angles, it tends not to tell its age over time. straight edges chip, angles get broken off. Nature doesn't like straight lines. and for the people element - lets say it - smooth burnished cobbles are not good tagging or vandalism targets, thats a plus.

The rocks will burnish, polish, and maybe one or two will get lost over time. An overzealous digging terrier could cause some issues. I noticed that many on the video have a "toe line" with the extra square of concrete for the follow through on the tee proper. Thats a plus.

I could see some of the cobble build ups having some mowing frustration in the field locations, as they will either be left with a taller grass border or require string trimming. Or be a frustration point for a mower running into the irregular border. But ok with me.

Disney or fancy zoo principle - the infrastructure at the theme parks are genius - they recognize that bright solid paint schemes on hand rails, etc are trouble, as they show wear and tear more readily - the real genius is when they use pre rustic-ed elements that wear in beautifully. Hand worn and burnished is beautiful when its "intended" that way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but how about the pictures I posted of the ones we did?! :|

 

[Aim For The Chains]

I like yours about 5x more matt.

Moar fabulous. Id fill around with bigger rock on top personally.

 

[Matt B.]

I like yours about 5x more matt.

Moar fabulous. Id fill around with bigger rock on top personally.

I did a lot of research and talked to a few rock guys and they really thought that the decomposed granite on top of gravel, both compacted, will be the best drainage and least amount of tracking material onto the pad. The granite has already gotten nice and hard as it settled in all the rain we've had. I wanted an even, solid surface for people to step onto if they went off the pads.

We will see over the next few years how well this works and what kind of maintenance and refreshing it needs. I really wanted to frame all the boxes with big rock but it was not in the budget. We used Juniper to avoid any potential criticism about treated wood, creosote, etc. in this natural area. It should last a good long while.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Ah makes sense looked like sand for some reason...

 

[Matt B.]

Ah makes sense looked like sand for some reason...

The pads installed on the ground surface were poured on top of 2" compacted 3/4 minus, with a 2x6 frame. We framed the "tee boxes" with 6x6 juniper and filled them with about 2" of 3/4 minus compacted with a plate compactor, then topped with the decomposed granite, also compacted. Some of the boxes are partial for tees on slope, so the compacted material thins out to where it meets grade.

 

[goosefraba1]

Any updates from the OP? I've been using crushed limestone and gravel to make our teepad areas. Evuntaully, we will pour concrete 5 x 10 over this. We will most likely make the pad areas look great by boxing in the whole area.

I have been using large mixture of sandstone and limestone stones to edge to gravel pads for now. This will eventually be pushed farther out when we pour the pads.