Im looking for some ideas or articles on building natural tee pads. While we could go with just grass, we do receive rain in this area so these tees would just turn into mud.

Thanks in advance,

LBS

fly pads ;)

Fly pads are awesome. NOt very natural, but awesome

gnduke posted some good alternatives here. (http://www.pdga.com/msgboard/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=363503&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)

PolyPavement (http://www.polypavement.com/)

Natural Pave XL (http://www.sspco.com/naturalpavexl/naturalpave_OV.html)

or you might think about Pourous Concrete Pavers (http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/porous_concrete_pavers/)



None are exactly "natural," but they aren't slabs of concrete by any stretch.

Since the park is likely within a local municipality, city, county, or other park, it is likely that the highway or parks department has what they call "crusher dust". Basically it is crushed up stone from old roads, rocks, concrete structures, etc. It is about the consistency of very large grain sand. It holds a lot of moisture, and once compacted and rained on, it will set up as a very spongy type of stone tee.

This is what we decided to go with on our ski hill course because it was readily available. It is rock, so it is not biodegradable like a true natural tee, or woodchips. But it has worked very well for us. It does set up nice and firm, but also provides plenty of give so there are never any rolled ankles or times when you plant your foot too hard. We just sprayed weed killer on the grass, laid out a 5' x 12' x 6" tee pad, and compacted it. After rain it set up nice, and after this winter's snow, it should be even tougher. If your parks department can deal with this semi-permanent, but natural solution, it's a great alternative to concrete. If you want it event more firm, rake in a bit of concrete mixture when you set up the tee (or limestone additive).