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Golf Course Update

The end of the 2011 golf season has come...our staff has been working away at preparing the golf course for the long winter months. We are currently deep slicing the fairways and will then move into the rough. The weather has cooperated nicely for our winter protection/snow mould preventative fungicide application. Greens, Tees and Fairways were all sprayed this week. It is important for us to complete this in perfect conditions, as we require the product to dry completely into the plant for long term efficacy. We also have begun our dormant/late fall fertilizer applications to Greens, Tees and Rough. This application will aid in carbohydrate storage for winter, also helping with spring green up. We have one more Vertidrain aeration to perform on our Greens next week. More holes = More drainage.
The crew has been continuing to work away at bunker edging. Using a pitchfork, we have been ripping back the overgrown, sandy edges (mostly on the backs).The edges are then tamped down by hand to roll the edge to the sand. This practice returns the bunkers to the original size and shape. As mentioned before, the look of our bunkers is more natural with this technique. No longer do we have a sharp, defined soil lip at the edge. This task will be completed by the week's end. As the temperatures slowly drop we will schedule the permeable cover installation on our Greens. Historically we have the covers down by American thanksgiving...it is a benchmark for us, although it is all weather dependent.

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The Practice Range Tee

Last fall we utilized a “new to us” method of revitilization for our practice tee. Our contractor TDS,  fraize mowed the surface of the tee to remove organic matter as well at to aid in leveling. The tee was then aerified and seeded to a new variety of creeping rye grass. We chose this type of turf grass as research  shows rapid recovery and a low growth habit. We were able to get some great growth in the fall, but the tee is still not ready for traffic and full use. The plan is to utilize the mats until growth has filled in some of the voids etc. We will then begin to slowly set up hitting areas on the grass tee. For a while we will alternate between grass and the mats with a 50/50 ratio of use. Once the grass tee is established and is in adequate recovery mode, the practice areas will be back to normal. As always our membership’s patience is appreciated as we try to improve these areas for use.

Cultural Greens Maintenance...

With the cooler temperatures this week, we will be performing some all important greens maintenance procedures. Monday evening (after the outside event) we will be doing a light grooming on both our greens and collars. This task will help to reduce the amount of lateral growth, therefore standing up the plants (for a better cut) and smoothing out the surfaces. Following the grooming we will be dry mowing all areas tonight to help clean up the debris. Tuesday morning we will be applying our biweekly light topdressing prior to play. Once the sand has dried, we will use our cocoa matt to drag the sand into both the canopy and the shallow grooming channels created by tonight's procedure. These practices in conjunction help to create a smooth, firm and healthy surface to putt on.

Greens Cultural Management Practices Schedule

The fall is a great time to perform a number of necessary cultural practices. Our goal is to amend the upper portion of the greens surface with enough sand to help insulate the crown through the winter as well as removing and diluting organic matter. Below you will find a schedule of cultural practices that we aim to complete before the covers go on and the snow flies!!! Wednesday, Sept. 30th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt Tuesday, Wednesday October 13/14-Course Closure full core aeration with heavy topdressing. October 19th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt October 26th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 2nd- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 9th- Deep Verticut, followed by a sufficient topdressing. November 16th- Post Course Closure, Heavy topdressing followed by Deep tine aeration. Of course this is all in hope that the weather cooperates...happy fall!