HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

We have had a great stretch of weather recently and the grass is really starting to grow. The golf course is beginning to resemble summer conditions and aesthetics. Along with summer conditions comes summer cultural practices. These tasks are required to continue optimal playing conditions while keeping the turf happy and healthy. Next Monday, June 30th we will be topdressing and venting our greens before play. This is a very non-disruptive practice that reaps huge benefits for our greens. Venting and sand incorporation helps to keep our greens breathing and smooth for play. Following this process the greens will be rolled and the 1/8" holes will be virtually unnoticeable to the eye and golf ball! As you can see from this picture, the tines are half of the size of a pen.

It finally feels like the golf season is upon us. The poor weather this spring has delayed a lot of routine practices. I truly feel that we are still a few weeks behind in our typical routine. Below is an update on our most recent projects and tasks: Sodding and repair work: As most will notice we have completed a lot of sod work on our tees. The winter injury that we experienced was not recovering as we had hoped, so we decided to force mother nature's hand and sod the affected areas. We are fortunate to have a decent sized turf nursery to strip the sod from. We will now begin the process of growing in a new T1 Creeping bent grass nursery for future use. We have also completed the sodding of the area adjacent to the 11th green. Previously this area was thin and spotty due the pine/spruce trees that were once there. Capital Drainage: Phase 2 of our Capital drainage project was also completed in early June. Once again TDS Drainage did an outstanding job  on site. One woul...

Now that the weather is beginning to cooperate, we will be continuing our regular topdressing program on greens, tees and approaches. We will be lightly dusting our greens tomorrow (Thursday) morning and once the sand dries, we will drag it in with our cocoa matt. Next week we will be topdressing tees and approaches, followed by a brushing in as well. This is a crucial cultural practice utilized to achieve our goal of controlling/diluting the amount of organic matter that can be detrimental to both turf grass health and playability. As always the entire golf course remains open and playable during these practices.