Golf Maintenance

ON THE GREENS:

LOOK AHEAD.

As we look forward to the new year, the Agronomy team is hard at work preparing the North and South Courses for the winter months and into 2022. We’ve seen a great deal of success this year as we implemented new agronomy practices. Now, with the history and course knowledge gained, our team can move forward even more proactively. With all our exciting improvements ahead, we remain committed to continually improving operations. The new strategic plan we’ve developed will guide and help us plan these projects. As we work on options and plans for improving and making the North Course native areas more playable and maintenance friendly, we’ll begin by installing more native grass trials this winter. The planned expansion of the Fazio putting green, with renovations to the short-game area on the warm-up side of the range and other upgrades at the practice facility will further enhance members playing experience. Along with these improvements to the course, we will apply some aggressive soil amending and deep aeration to continue to work the soil to provide dryer and firmer conditions on the North Course and South Course rough. We have refined and improved our sand channel process and hope to have even more success in 2022. While labor has been a continuing challenge, recently it has stabilized.

With more stability and training we can now turn our focus to detail improvements and further refine course appearance. These accomplishments would not have been possible without the support of our membership which allowed us to initiate new Club agronomy practices and invest in more efficient and reliable equipment. This was evident as we prepared for the fall U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. Showcased in

national media as well as internationally, the North Course was an outstanding backdrop for the USGA championship, and we could not have been more proud.

In the months ahead, we’ll continue exponential improvements as we restore both courses to the premier standard that defines the Berkeley Experience.