COURSE + GROUNDS
Turning the Tide After the completion of a water-diversion project that was years in the making, golf course maintenance and conditioning have been smooth(er) sailing for the grounds crew at Pine Orchard Yacht & Country Club. By Betsy Gilliland, Contributing Editor
HAVING A WATER VIEW IS a desirable feature for any golf course. Being water-logged, though? Not so much. At Pine Orchard Yacht & Country Club, a private club founded in 1901 on Long Island Sound in Branford, Conn. , the first and ninth holes of its picturesque nine-hole, regulation golf course flooded for years after storms and during high tide. Those days, thankfully, are now a thing of the past, however. In May 2020, the property completed a ninemonth, $1.2 million water-diversion project to improve the golf course, which plays as an 18-hole course because of different sets of tees on each hole. The primary goals of the project were to raise the first fairway, expand the pond on No. 2, raise the
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fairway on the ninth hole to eliminate full-moon and high-tide flooding, and reduce or eliminate flooding after major storms. In addition, the project included removing phragmites, an invasive species that grows along shorelines, and opening up course views on multiple holes. “We took the two or three worst spots on the golf course and made them the best,” says Golf Course Superintendent Wes Mackie, who joined the staff in January 2019. While the work took less than a year to complete once it finally got underway, the complex project was years in the making. Pine Orchard’s staff members credit the dogged determination of longtime member Nick Torello with making it happen.
February 2021
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