Mid May Blog

The rain has become a little tiresome. Brief stretches of nice weather have been bookended with rain events. Since our May 1^st opening, we have accumulated 125mm rain (and counting, as it is raining as I prepared this entry, of course). With a typical May we would receive 85-100mm and we are not even halfway through the month, things are moving slowly. Whether it is the staff getting through edging the bunkers, progressing through our cultural practices, getting our herbicide applications in the rough complete, or the greens filling in and being in peak condition, patience has been the theme for the first two weeks of the golf season. While there is frustration with the carts being restricted to paths only and the Driving Range closures being frequent, these are necessary measures to protect the golf course from the damage that would take place. We have already seen some damage from carts veering off the path. I was walking some fairways during Tuesday’s rain and was bringing up mud just from my footsteps. Imagine what a cart could do! We brought in extra staff this past weekend to get fairways and rough mowed. Turned out to be a good decision as we have very little ability to mow for the remainder of the week.

The crew has been moving through the course getting a fresh edge on the bunkers. We are aiming to prevent in between lies that we have witnessed the last couple of seasons with the traps that have been renovated in the first two phases of the Master Plan. With the design of grass faces and sand only in the bottoms we want the ball to fall all the way down the face and into the sand. We noticed that there were times the ball would hang up on the bottom of the face. With increased inputs in mowing down the faces to keep the turf cut short and an edge being cut in before the face starts flattening out we will be able to achieve that goal. We have had to take an edge upwards of 12” in some cases which has made for a lot of work for the crew. We are replenishing sand depths as this process takes place from our stockpile. I am very encouraged with the process to this point.

You will notice there is a lot of stakes and rope throughout the course. Coming out of the winter we have areas that we want to keep traffic out of. Some spots are areas in the rough still weak from the drought last year. Others are against cart paths that tend to get beat up from foot and cart traffic. With how wet is has been this spring these areas will remain worn and slow to fill in as we progress through spring. When things dry up, we will be aerating and overseeding in the rough, with a keen focus to these areas. As we move into the peak of the season, we will be removing the rope where

applicable.

You don't have to stray far to damage certain areas. 4 wheels on the path!