winter clearing work under way

The maintenance staff has been busy so far this off-season working on the natural areas throughout the golf course. Maintenance foreman Carmen Castle has been using the bush-hog to cut down all the areas that were cleared last year for views along some of the soundside holes. Carmen has completed the back nine and will be moving to some of the areas on the front nine in the coming weeks. Staff members Eric Wolfgram, Rob Shaffer and assistant superintendent Ben Parker did a great job of clearing around the pond on the 14th hole and pulling up the large wax myrtles that had taken over around the edge of the pond. This has improved the line-of-site views from the back tees quite a bit. During the coming weeks we will also be clearing around the pond on the 1st hole. Assistant Ben Parker has done a great job with our winter herbicide sprays for poa and broadleaf weeds. We are spraying a product called Simazine which will take out any poa and a variety of winter broadleafs that may germinate this winter.Overall, the course is in great shape so take advantage of some of these warmer days we have had and get out and play a round of golf.

The sound side wedding ceremony site is almost ready for some lucky couple to tie the knot! Our staff has been working hard to get the site irrigated, sodded, and hydroseeded with lovegrass before the first wedding there at the end of May. Kudos go out to maintenance staff foreman Carmen Castle for grading the site, installing the irrigation and helping to put the finishing touches on the area. We have laid a truckload of bermuda sod and seeded lovegrass, ryegrass and fescue along the sound front for soil stabilization. The site is looking good and will only get better as things mature there. If you get by the seventh tee box make sure to check it out!

March aerification

On March 12th,13th and 14th we used our deep tine aerifyer (Verti-Drain) to punch holes in the greens for the first time this year. We used a 7inch x 5/8 inch coring tine to remove material from the greens and applied approximately 50 tons of sand and dragged the sand back into the holes. This process will allow air and water movement through the soil profile as well as reducing the effects of compaction on the greens. The process is complete despite getting rained out on the morning of the 13th. The deep holes proved to be difficult to fill completely with sand and the staff will be topdressing lightly next week to cap off the tops of the holes. The greens should recover quickly with some help from Mother Nature in the form of good weather. Kudos to the maintenance staff for working through the inclement weather to complete a successful aerification. Our next greens aerification is scheduled for May 29-31.

poa control

While the golf course is pretty clean overall, we have had some poa annua break through our fall pre-emergent herbicide application. The poa is evident on holes 1,2,3, and 11 and we have sprayed a post emergent herbicide on these weeds for control. The plants slowly die after the application over a three to four week period so we should see these holes look cleaner over the next two weeks. The pictures show the plants as they begin to die out. We are now spraying our spring pre-emerge for the control of poa annua, crabgrass and goosegrass this summer.

During the last two weeks we have had a contractor clearing several areas along the sound side holes to remove large trees and brush. This work is now complete and our staff has been putting the finishing touches on these areas. The space along the sound at the seventh tee has been cleared and leveled so as to provide a future wedding ceremony site. All of the rest of the cleared areas can now be maintained in house by the course maintenance staff so we will be able to keep these beautiful new views.