I have heard mention that the green speed has slowed up recently. It has, between the warmer weather and the higher humidity last week, the fertilizer kicked in and they started growing like crazy. We had previously been mowing all of the greens without having to dump any grass clippings from the baskets, and by the middle of last week, we were emptying them every 3 greens. They had been rolling at just over 11 before last week and by the middle of last week, because of the rate they were growing, they were rolling just over 9. We chose not to address them at that time because of the Ladies Member / Member last week and their concern about slow play. They are not bad at that speed and we would have had to top-dress them (among other things) in order to speed them up and we did not want to do that right before one of their big events. We are however, scheduled to spray the greens this week (probably tomorrow) and will add Primo Growth Regulator to the mix, which we have not been doing these last 2 months because nothing was growing. The Primo will help control the growth and help to speed them back up. Once we get our list of upcoming events for February from the Pro Shop and can see which dates will have the least effect on play, we can get them scheduled for top-dressing also. That should also help increase the speed.
I have also heard some comments on the pin placement being too close to the front on number 8. With the slower green speeds lately, we have been trying to utilize that front area of the green as much as we can while we have the opportunity. When the greens are faster, we are usually so limited on red pin locations on that hole. What ends up happening is that we get a lot of old cup plugs in one confined area around the current pin placement, forcing players to putt over those old cup plugs that are not very smooth until they have had the proper time to heal. We will try to use that area in the front of the green less as the green speed increases.