This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Two Greens Suffer Damage at Atlanta Athletic Club

Mowing mishap leaves No. 14 and No. 17 in need of emergency repair on eve of 93rd PGA Championship.

How it happened remains a mystery, but a pair of greens at the Atlanta Athletic Club suffered some slight damage while being mowed on Wednesday and required some emergency re-sodding by the maintenance staff.

Small areas of the 14th and 17th greens were damaged when the brushes on the mowers stuck in the grass and damaged the turf. The damage was quickly repaired and will be played as ground under repair for the remainder of the tournament. Players will be entitled to free relief from the areas, including intervention on line of putt when the ball is on the green.

“Last night we felt like our hearts had been ripped out,” said Ken Mangum, director of golf courses and grounds at the club. “Something occurred that I've never seen before and I can only speculate on what happened.”

Find out what's happening in Alpharetta-Miltonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Mangum hypothesized that the humidity had increased enough to cause the brush on the mower to dig into the green and cause damage to about two feet of turf. Mangum said they considered sanding the area, but agreed the best solution was to replace the damaged turf with some fresh turf from the club's nursery.

“It's a little bit like cutting yourself with a razor on your wedding day,” Mangum said. “That's kind of the way we felt. But it'll be fine and our guys, our team, did a great job of repairing it.”

Find out what's happening in Alpharetta-Miltonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Mangum said the brushes have been removed from the mowers and won't be used the rest of the week. The speed of the greens won't be affected.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?