River Creek Club Golf Course Maintenance: Indoor putting course at River Creek

It is once again time for the Mitch Kumstein Indoor Putting Tournament. A few years back we designed and created an indoor putting course for the clubhouse. We even have two holes created by our own executive chef Matt Crum. The idea was to provide a little taste or reminder of playing golf during the winter-time, which until this year has not provided many days of suitable golfing weather.
The majority of the course is built out of our original range mats. Chef Crum's holes utilize an outdoor carpeting that doesn't have the same lightning fast speed of the other holes, but present a wonderful challenge of their own. Each hole consists of four range mats that are connected and each mat has been modified to affect ball roll and challenge each player's putting skills. Bunkers were cut in to provide an additional challenge and we are working on incorporating water hazards into next years event. The movement of each hole was created by using pieces of wood ranging in size from 1x4's to 4x4's. We even have a couple of doglegs that utilize a bank shot off the rail to try to score an ace. The finishing hole makes the player decide between two cups. The putt must be perfect or the ball will roll back to the player. If they choose correctly the ball travels down the staircase in a pipe to the "island green" at the bottom. Choose wrong and the ball comes back to the player.
This event is fun for both the employees and the members. Although it is a challenge to transport and build the course, it is very satisfying to look at the assembled course and know we created it out of spare parts. I hope that this event continues to be a favorite with our members and who knows, maybe we will have to update some of the holes to present a new challenge. Below are photos of the course during assembly and after the landscaping was installed. Absent from the pictures is the beverage cart, which we park in the middle of the room.