Course Update 12/21/22

Fall maintenance was excellent this year with fantastic weather. Dryjecting of greens in late September went very well and then after we closed we did a conventional aerification and pulled cores out of all of the greens. We’ve observed some buildup of some organic matter and definitely struggled with some ‘puffiness’ of the greens this summer…additional aerification combined with verticutting and topdressing will put us back on course. We were also able to aerify all of the fairways on the front nine and the tees on the entire golf course. We’ll use the weather and the progress of bunker renovation to determine our schedule for aerifying back nine fairways.

Bunker renovation progress stopped in a hurry when the weather went from beautiful to ‘Montana mud season’ over night. When the snow melts this Spring, Heritage Links will be picking back up with completing the back nine. All of the bunkers are shaped on the back. Holes 10-12 are ready for concrete liner and sod. Our understanding with Heritage for 2023 is that they will return with a sufficient amount of staff to complete the project in a timely manner. We plan on working from the first opportunity in Spring right through summer until the project is complete with the caveat that construction will stop for the major tournaments and all bunkers will be buttoned up and playable for said tournaments. 

This Fall we had excellent weather and a really successful application for preventing recurring pink snow mold on greens. We have always used the best available chemicals and timing to control winter diseases. We took an extra step this season and pre-treated the greens with an extra application of chemical in a window 4 weeks before our normal application. Time will tell how this winter treats us, but all precautions have been taken to prevent a repeat of last Spring’s pink snow mold outbreak.