June grooming and projects

It's the first week of June and in some ways it feels like it should be April 15th and in others ways it feels like August. For the turfgrass you play on and the trees if feels like early May with July rapidly approaching. The course has matured a lot in the past ten days as ample rain, warm nights and days filled with sunshine have allowed growth to peak.

Monday, June 2nd we verticut or thatched the greens on all three 9's despite the 3" of rain before and after the job. Holes 1-14 were done and topdressed with sand before the heavy downpours and for golfers it is hard to tell we did anything because the huge rain drops pounded the sand into the turf. For holes 15-27 and the extra greens we were not as lucky and gofers will see some sand although it should not effect ball roll. The verticutting and sanding are key to providing smooth and consistent greens though the season. The cutting action from the verticut blades fills old ball marks and other small inconsistencies on the greens.

Last month I discussed the bridge collapse and am happy to say despite the wet weather we were able to get a culvert crossing in place to replace the bridge. In a ideal world we would have had time to engineer a new bridge but with that being the only way to get carts from hole 19 to 20 time was of the essence. Future plans are to add a second culvert crossing for hole 17 to replace the walking bridge over Ray's Creek.

Our work continues on the drainage project on hole 2. The damage from the haul road has been graded and seeded but every time we final grade the swale itself we are blessed with heavy rain before we can get it seeded. The project will help reduce flooding on hole 2 and 9.

The new family tees are installed on each hole and the brass plates are marked with a gold or blue flag so they are easy to see. I have seen a few groups using the tees and they will see more use when the junior programs start. The gold tees average 2065 yards per 9 and the blue 1520 yards.

We are lucky to have great staff members in both the clubhouse and maintenance departments and it is nice to see the students back to help us serve you.