Greens and Grounds

GREETINGS FROM GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE Mother Nature has been kind to us on the temperatures so far this winter. We have not had to cover greens but one time so far this winter. Hopefully, the weather will continue with warmer temperatures. We are still getting more than our share of rain. This time of year when the turf is dormant, it seems like the course continues to stay wet. Hopefully, that will be changing in the next couple of weeks.

The maintenance team took advantage of the warm dry weather we had the first full week of February. We were able to get the course treated with our pre and post pre-emerge herbicide application. This is a very key application to make sure we keep the course clean of unwanted weeds, and to remove any unwanted weeds that may have germinated over the winter.

We have addressed the locations of the water coolers on holes 2, 16 and 18. We installed some flagstone to dress up these locations. This improved the appearance of the locations. Since we have had a lot of rains, we are on a regular bases checking and address the sand depths in the bunkers. The Cap Con style bunkers we have are working great with no washouts and the bunkers do not hold water. When we have a larger rain event, repairing bunkers is not as labor intensive as it was before the redo.

We take this time of year to address and check the irrigation system for accuracy and operating correctly. By taking time now, this will prevent down time during the summer growing season.

We have had to remove trees around the clubhouse, some were storm damaged and have died. We will be replacing those trees with some type of landscape screen trees. This time of year we will also be replenishing all the mulch around the clubhouse, tennis and pool areas. We are hoping that March and April are great months with above average temps and little rainfall, so that everyone can keep enjoying the course.

See you out on the course.