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Golf Course Opening 2014....

The golf course and practice areas will be opening this Saturday, April 26th. This opening date is a little bit behind our usual dates, but I think that after the winter we experienced we are fortunate to be opening before May!
For the first time in my Highland career we will be opening the golf course with some temporary greens. As mentioned previously on this blog we suffered a fair bit of winter injury to our greens. Holes #1, #4, #8, #10 and #12 will have temporary greens mowed into the approaches for an undetermined period of time. Restricting play and traffic on these greens will allow full recovery in a reduced amount of time. We have instituted a plan of recovery including weekly fertilizer applications, constant moisture monitoring, plugging and minor sod replacement as well as light topdressing to fill in any gaps. We are scheduled to core aerify our greens on Sunday, May 3rd and Monday, May 4th. During that process we will be incorporating a healthy rate of Creeping Bentgrass seed. Ideally warmer spring temperatures would aid in full recovery, but this season has brought near record setting lows and difficult weather patterns for growing turfgrass. Our Golf Course and Grounds staff is utilizing every resource available to get our members back onto the golf course with all greens in play. At this point the schedule (as always), will be set my Mother Nature. Patience is key in these situations. Rushing or jumping the gun to get back onto these fragile greens will only set them back well into the summer.
The rest of the golf course weathered the winter very well. Our drainage contractor is scheduled to be on site shortly to install drainage on holes 1, 4 and 18. This project will help with both access and the playability of these areas.
As a reminder please refrain from playing, walking or cutting across any of the greens that are out of play.

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