Friday, September 9, 2016

GOLF COURSE UPDATE 9/9/17

The unofficial end of summer has passed and with a busy fall golf schedule in place, I’m excited about how well our property endured the season. With our playing surfaces weathering a brutal summer and peaking during the Club Championships, we are beginning September with all our finely managed turf aerated and on the path to recovery. Even with the 7” of rain in August and the oppressive heat that followed, our playing surfaces performed weekly and managed to come thru August with very little summer stress. Any areas of weakness in management or turf always become evident this time of year, and over the next few months, we will make adjustments to those areas or personnel that did not meet my expectations.

Looking ahead to projects once tournament season concludes and more manpower becomes available we will begin making improvements within my operating budget.

1.    Tee-squaring detail/Tee re-leveling #2 Black/White, #17 White, #18 White, #16 White, etc
2.    Fairway bunker depth assessment and addition of quartzite (similar to greens as of 4/16)
3.    Drainage to low-lying FWY./APP. areas impacted by August rains to improve turf quality
4.    Irrigation head raising (starting with Greens)
5.    Nursery Green Construction
6.    Tree Maintenance continued from spring with pruning branches and take-downs 
7.    Chipping Green Area extension and Bunker Renovation

As always these in-house projects will only be part of our ongoing maintenance responsibilities and will also be scheduled around seasonal aeration. Fall project work timing is perfect for making improvements that will be ready for 2017 golf season as our golf course continues to progress with offseason aeration. Unfortunately, the summer golf season may be over but things are just getting started for us as we continue enhancing our property and achieving our Department goals.