Course Maintenance Announcement

Course Maintenance Announcement

With the leaves turning and beginning to fall that signals the end of the golf season is nearing. In preparation for this we are getting ready to begin fall maintenance on the course. We will be aerifying all Fairways and Greens this fall and implementing a few newer techniques that we feel will greatly improve conditions moving forward. We will experience rotating closures on each nine to accommodate the crew being able to work in the safest and most efficient manner, as well as reduce interference to guests as they play.

Starting Monday October 11th the front nine will close through completion of fairway aerification with a target of transitioning to the back nine on either Friday or Monday the 18th (all 18 will be available for play on Saturday and Sundays).

We hope to complete fairways and move to greens and select tees on Monday the 25th. Again we will start on the front nine and progress to the back nine resulting in rotating closures to accommodate safe play and work.

We will do our best to update which side will be available each day keeping in mind we are at the mercy of mother nature in regards to rain and potential frost (ick!) delays. 18 hole play will still be available however it may require replaying the same nine Mondays through Fridays with all 18 open on weekends throughout the season.

The driving range will close at 1pm on Sunday October 31st for the remainder of the season. We project the course will close for the season on November 7th (last day of play) to allow for maintenance work to be done on both nines as we address some of the issues that have plagued us the past few years.

For more information on what aerification means to the course check out this article from the GCSAA.

Tree removal on both nines- as we have previously communicated there are many trees that are in need of removal throughout the course.  While we have been able to take approximately two dozen down during the season there are plenty more to go.  We have contracted tree companies to assist before the snow falls.  This process will continue over the next few seasons as we hope to have them all down and begin replacing them by the end of 2023.

Fairway Aerification-  We have struggled for many years with drainage issues during heavy storms and spring thaw.  One of the ways we will be addressing this is by altering our aerification process on fairways.  Historically the core plugs that are removed from the ground get mulched up and swept back into the holes.  While this does help “fluff” the turf it doesn’t change the composition of it.  This season we will be collecting all the core plugs (to be used as top soil on other projects) and top dressing the fairways with sand to fill all the holes.  This is common practice on putting and tee surfaces but isn’t generally done to fairways.  We feel that by adding more sand into the composition of the soil it will assist with getting water to penetrate the turf and get to the root systems where it does some good rather than pooling on top.

 

Drain tile- The next step will be adding new and larger drain systems that will help hold, and move, water off the turf surface.  There will be vertical “dry wells” placed in the roughs connected to drains leading to the ponds as well as surface drains connecting into the underground drain pipes.  We will also be using larger drain pipes than previously to allow for more water flow and retention below ground.

From there we are adding a new dry riverbed to holes #3 and #4 that will run across each fairway.  This will begin on the right side of #3 fairway and extend to the right side of #4 and be approximately 10 yards wide.  There will be drainage underneath with the river bed acting as an overflow to divert and collect water off of the fairways and then feeding into the pond on #4.  We anticipate this riverbed to be dry majority of the time but it will act as an additional hazard and change the way you approach these holes (#4 in particular).

Lastly we will be adding drain tile and a digging a small retention area in the rough behind #8 green to divert water from in front of #8 as well as the area between #8 green to #9 tee box.

We will be concentrating on the front nine holes with the drain tile projects this fall and the back nine next season as we evaluate the areas of highest need.