Course Update 3/8/2019

Greens: After a very late start to winter, the greens are currently under a very nice protective layer of low moisture snow with no ice present at this time. That bodes well for healthy bentgrass going into the Spring. Our focus for this past Fall was Poa Annua eradication. We used up to 6 staff members each day to physically plug out Poa with 3” plugs from our nursery. At last count before it snowed, we had transplanted more than 8000 plugs in all. This will be an onging effort, as it has been for twenty years now, but we are the closest we’ve ever been to having Poa-free greens. Last Spring we were approaching the tipping point where there was so much Poa present that ballmarks, aerification, or any sort of grooming or verticutting posed a serious risk to spreading and establishing more Poa. This season we are looking forward to being able to focus more on texture, grain, green speed and soil health as we continue to remove the remaining Poa.

Tees/Fairways: We aerified 5 and 8 fairways during the second and third weeks of September this past year. We will be blowing the snow off of those two holes early again as that seems to help set us up for the growing season. Those two holes suffer from shade and poor soil conditions; the more oxygen exchange we can promote through adding sand and minimizing the effect of snow melt, the better these holes will perform. We made several chemical applications for the removal of Poa on the Tees, the Short Game Area, and half of 15 fairway. These areas were showing significant signs of stress going into Winter, but will begin to recover right away as temperatures come up this Spring. We expect to have reduced the Poa in these areas by at least 80%.

Projects nearing completion:
1. We are almost finished moving and renovating the V tee on Hole #1. The tee was moved to the right to bring it out of the shade and improve the shot quality and ability to steer a drive away from the bunker. The length from this tee has increased to 307 yards.
2. We have replaced the rock stairs behind #18 green with wooden stairs built to an architectural standard with a hand rail.
Still to come this Spring:
1. Renovate and expand the II tees on the left side of Hole #7. Small project with big dividend of added tee space on a hole that takes a real beating each year.
2. Regrade and resod the practice facility tee in front of the artificial turf area.
3. We will be adding some artificial turf in front of the teaching area to handle the excessive traffic in that location.
4. We will be adding a railing around the newly renovated tees on Hole #12.
5. We will continue overlay of cartpath as budget allows.
6. Wood bridge inspections are scheduled for this Spring.