Course Update

Unfortunately the men's one day member/guest has been canceled for today due to the inclement weather. A tropical storm from the south combined with a front from the west is adding up to some serious rain. The course has received one inch of rain so far this morning with 2 more inches in the forecast. Wetting agent applications were made to the tees and fairways on Monday which should help move this rain through the soil profile. Tropical Storms from the south have been know to carry disease spores with them including Gray Leaf Spot which damaged our rough late last year with Sandy so a plant protectant application was made to rough areas to prevent this disease. My crew did an outstanding job of getting the course ready, its too bad it got washed out. A date is being determined for a rescheduled event which will be sent out by the pro shop.

We completed some projects this week including replacing the range nets at the practice area and adding bunker sand to certain bunkers. The bunker on 5 is plagued with rocks so we added a significant amount of sand to this bunker to help with the rocks, this is a Band-Aid approach as compared to a complete rebuild of the bunker but should minimize the rocks for a few months. The other two bunkers to receive sand were the practice bunker and the left greenside bunker on the 9th hole. These bunkers will be softer then the other bunkers for a few weeks as the sand settles and firms up. The stumps along the cart path on the 6th hole were buried this week and finish our work from Sandy. These areas will be covered with leaf litter from the trees and return to their natural state in a few weeks.

I was repairing a broken sprinkler the other day between the bunker and green on the 6th hole when I was able to take a great picture of how much sand has accumulated in the years since the renovation on the bunker banks. The rough between the bunker and green has raised up 6 inches from sand being splashed out over the years. In recent years we have done some bunker renovations and I have explained the important issues like liners in the bunkers, dedicated irrigation for the bunker banks, new drainage, and firmer sand but I have not touched on how much material is removed from the bunker banks during construction to get back to their original shape. The picture below really shows how important this issue is during bunker renovations, as you can see the original soil line about 6 inches below the sand.

Ready for the Member/Guest

Burying Stumps on 6

Sand Build-Up on Bunker Banks