HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

In Conjunction with your Green Committee and Executive golf, we wish to advise all golf members of our decision to discontinue the "Red Flag" policy previously available for select individuals. Our Green Committee along with our Golf Course Superintendent and Golf Professional staff have reconfigured all GREEN cart exit posts on our golf course to make for easier access to all areas of the golf course. This change will take effect immediately. If you find some areas difficult to navigate, then we ask you to refer to the pro shop who will be readily available to discuss alternatives with you. Please also be aware of the NEW Cart Policy posted on all golf carts. We ask you to strictly adhere to the Cart Rules and ask that all transgressions be reported to the Pro Shop. There are serious repercussions to those who do not wish to follow the Cart Rules, so please read the Cart Rules and be familiar with them. Thank You, The Board of Directors The Cart Rules are as follows Cart pat...

On Saturday and Sunday we dealt with snow, sleet, rain and high winds, but none the less our weekend staff managed to groom our bunkers very nicely (weed, smooth and rake). On Monday we applied a soluble fertilizer to our greens to help the bentgrass compete with the poa annua. We were also able to apply some slow release fertilizer to our tees to help the bluegrass and bentgrass compete with poa annua. Poa thrives in this wet, spring weather, so we try to help the other more desirable grasses along to the best of our ability. We have had frost delays for the past two days, so during these delays we have taken advantage of the time and hauled fill down to the banks of the new cart path on #2 and we have also continued to back fill the pond. Today we began to mow the intermediate rough around the fairways, this will take time to even out and obtain the density that we had last year. Currently, the contractor is completing the ground work around the new eco-flo septic system that we inst...

You can see the decaying Maple on the left and how it has effected the growth of the large Oak, the Maple was removed to allow the Oak to grow naturally. This is one of the trees that we removed by #17 green in the fall. From the outside they looked healthy, but as you can see there was not much left of them. With a close inspection of suspect trees, signs of decay and damage are easier to assess. Therefore trees in this condition are removed. Our tree management program here at HCC is one that will systematically prune, remove (the dead, dying and diseased) and provide care for the trees on our property. Our goal is to highlight the specimen trees and reduce the tree clutter of unwanted species that impede both play and growing conditions (for other trees and turfgrass). As most of our members have noticed over the winter we removed a number of small coniferous trees that were growing under other deciduous trees and negatively effecting their growth. In removing these trees we have ...

We will be topdressing our greens early Wednesday morning (as opposed to today). Last night's rain has softened an already wet golf course to the point were we do not want to drive on or around our greens. We will not be letting out carts this morning, but we will re-evaluate cart use at 12 noon. We are going to focus our work today on continuing some minor clean up, adding topsoil to the new Native planting bed behind #15 tee and sod prepping the stump holes.

This week we hope to make up for some lost ground from (the rain) last week. The Grounds Dept. will be out in full force on Monday atttempting to mow all playable areas of the golf course. The rough has grown significantly as well as the fairways. Typically at this time of year we are mowing fairways three times a week. The wet weather of last week has kept us off of the fairways since Monday. Needless to say the fairway mowers will be "bailing hay" tomorrow. We are constantly working on getting the bunkers into shape and they are coming along. We will begin our Greens Topdressing program on Tuesday (weather permitting) and we will also continue to work on our greens nursery up by the Superintendent residence. We are in need of some dry weather to be able to backfill the sides of the new cart path on #2, if all goes as planned this will happen this week.

Another inch or so of rain today. This much water on an already saturated golf course has over run our subsurface drainage system. As you can see from the pictures, both surface and subsurface systems are running at full capacity.

The spring weather has officially arrived. Last week we were spoiled with the summer like temperatures and conditions for work and golf. This week alone we have received just over 2 inches (50 mm) of rain. The golf course is saturated and this moisture has posed some obstacles to get our work completed on #2. We did manage to get the top coat of gravel on the path yesterday, despite the heavy downpours and occasional lightening. We were also able to apply some fertilizer to our greens and finish up some brush chipping from the winter clean up efforts. At this point, golf carts are improbable for golf this weekend. Currently it is still raining, it looks like we will focus our efforts on some inside work today.

Today at 10am the first group of 2010 goes off the 1st tee! The forecast is perfect for golf. The Grounds Department has been working diligently to prepare the golf course for member play. We hope that everyone enjoys the golf course and the beautiful sunshine! See you out here....