Just a short note to let everyone know that your favorite tree on #9 has been removed.

Driving Range Improvements

In an effort to improve our practice facility and your overall driving range experience, we recently added three target greens and renovated the chipping area at the driving range. The three target greens are placed at 100yds, 125yds and 150yds from the teeing area.

Target areas before

Target areas after

On the chipping area, we enlarge the chipping green, decreased the size of the bunker and created a chipping area where golfers can practice chipping from fairway height and rough height turf conditions.

Chipping area before.

Chipping area before. Chipping green in background behind bunker.

                    

                       Chipping area during renovation

                   

                      Chipping area during renovation

Chipping area after

 We hope you enjoy the changes we have made!

Spring Aerification Schedule

Spring Aerification Schedule


Monday, March 26-Friday March 30- Aerate, topdress and overseed tees
Monday, April 2-Friday, April 6- Aerate and topdress greens
Monday, April 9-Friday, April27- Aerate fairways

This schedule is subject to change due to weather conditions. The weather forecast calls for rain most of next week. If that happens, we will postpone tee aeration until after green aeration.

Vertical Mowing

Vertical mowing, verticutting or dethatching is the process in which special reels are used to cut or slice into the turf to remove thatch.

Vertical mowing reel

Poa Annua is a very fast growing plant, which consequently produces a lot of thatch. Our greens consist of around 80% Poa Annua and 20% Bentgrass. So, in order to control thatch in our greens we try to verticut at least twice a month during the growing season. By removing the thatch, this allows for better penetration of water, oxygen and nutrients to get into the root zone where the plant can absorb these things. Furthermore, removing the thatch provides a better putting surface. Because excess thatch causes the greens to be spongy, bumpy and slow, removing the thatch creates a smoother, firmer and faster putting surface.

#8 Green before verticut

Verticutting #8 Green

Thatch removed by verticutting

Cleanup after verticutting

As you can see, verticutting removes a lot of thatch and plant material. Verticutting is a slow process due to the amount of plant material that has to be cleaned off the green afterwards, but is a necessary cultural practice that helps produce the best possible putting surface

Spraying for pests!

Believe it or not, we are already starting to see a number of broadleaf weeds emerge and so we have begun spraying for them.

Spraying for broadleaf weeds

Also, in a continuing effort to limit the amount of geese on the golf course, we are experimenting with a liquid goose repellent. Our target area is around the lake on hole #18. We will be monitoring this area over the next few days to determine the effectiveness of the repellent.

Spraying goose repellent around the lake on Hole #18

Winter Rules! Carts on path today!

Due to the heavy rain and wet conditions on the golf course, we are keeping the carts on the path today and playing Winter Rules!

January 12, 2012 Course update

With the lack of rain, we have been able to keep up with all of our routine maintenance, as well as some more repairs to the cart paths.

Cart path repair on Hole #18