HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

On Tuesday, May 27th we opened all of our greens to play. The amount of work and effort put in by our staff has been insurmountable. A great number of plugs, numerous topdressings with hand sweeping, fertilizer applications, tarp installations and removals, over seeding, the list goes on and on. Fortunately, we have reached a point where we feel comfortable opening the remaining 4 greens to play. Please come out and enjoy the beautiful weather...it has finally arrived!

As part of our tree management plan we will be relocating a few trees on the golf course. The main component in our tree management plan is to utilize appropriate species of trees when either planting or transplanting. During the winter months we removed some of the smaller coniferous trees on the 5th hole. In an effort to provide a challenge in shot making and strategy we will be transplanting a few Sugar Maples into the rough on the left side of the 5th fairway (on the corner). These trees will be moved from the far right side of the 3rd hole. Once planted, the trees will be staked to allow relief from the immediate area in order to protect the trees while establishment takes place.

The 2014 phase of our capital drainage project will begin today. TDS Drainage will be moving in to start the mainline, collector and slit drainage of 18,1 and 4 fairways and rough. This is the second phase of the project (phase 1 included 9, 3 and 13 fairways). As we all know maintaining a clay based property can be challenging at the best of times, but when you couple wet spring and fall weather with aging drainage systems, complications and frustrations mount. The overall purpose of the capital drainage project is to increase access to the golf course and elevate the playability of the property throughout the entire season. We will be sure keep the lines of communication flowing with project updates, ground under repair areas and potential hole closings to allow for completion of work.

Today we were able to finish up our spring aeration on our greens. As most of our members know we began the process on Thursday on the greens that suffered the most winter injury, as they were already out of play. We continued Sunday night and into Monday. With the looming forecast of rain, rain and more rain, we opted to Deep-tine and Deep Verticut our greens this spring instead of coring (coring in the rain is a messy process that rarely accomplishes the original goals). Switching to this process allows us to properly prepare a good seedbed for our yearly Creeping Bentgrass inter-seeding program, while still removing a decent amount of organic matter. The process was as follows: 1. Straight sand topdressing 2. Deep-Tine aerify to a depth of 8 inches 3. Deep Verticut with our Sissis 4. Blow to remove organic matter 5. Dropseed T1 Creeping Bentgrass 6. Straight sand topdress (again) 7. Hand broom the sand into the canopy 8. Roll to smooth 9. Fertilize with an Ammonium Sulpha