Course Status and Recent Changes

A few recent changes and seasonal adjustments to mention...

Practice Putting Green

To alleviate wear and tear and save some manpower we've removed 4 of the 6 holes on the practice green.  We've added 4 cupless targets that can be moved with ease as often as we like.  There are still 2 traditional cups to putt to, and we will move those a couple of times per week.  The green is small and gets a lot of use so trying to preserve turf that is growing much slower in the fall is the goal.  We also face increasing pressure with labor and this strategy saves us significant time over having 6 cups in the green.  

Golf shoe damage adds up after a day or two.  This is actually a few hours after the hole was cut.

The cupless targets are super easy to move around

8 Tees

The Green Committee and I have decided to keep the new bermuda closed on the middle and back tee boxes on 8.  We have opened up the forward tee and will monitor its use and condition daily.  The tees are still a little too lumpy to mow at our normal height.  Core aerating and rolling would be the best way to smooth them out, but it's not an ideal time to do that now.  We'll do this in the spring and open them up after Easter.  We've added mats on the far right side of the tees to go along with the mats on the left side.  When the tee goes fully dormant in the winter we'll put the mats directly on the tee box.  

Sod on 8 tee is doing well

New Seed

We've planted tall fescue seed in worn areas of the rough.  It's starting to germinate, but will be under intensive care for a few weeks.  There are some wet areas from irrigation that has been running on the new seed.  It's impossible to avoid this given the location and spacing of the sprinkler heads.  We are trending towards 30 days with no rain based on the forecast.  Inadequacies in our irrigation system become obvious in this situation.  

Practice Tee

The zoysia has almost stopped growing for this season.  We'll be switching all practice to the mats very soon.  This will ensure that we have grass to play from next spring.  

Tees on 7 and 9

Some of the tee boxes on these holes took a hit this summer and are in the process of recovering.  For the time being we've adjusted the placement of some tee markers to allow for new seed to grow.  

Green Speeds

Cooler weather has helped to slow down the turf growth on greens.  This results in quicker green speeds.  We are not mowing daily anymore, but speeds are hovering in the 11-12 range with little to no effort.  They'd be 12-13 or more if we tried.  Pin placements have to be very carefully selected to avoid causing too much frustration.  We are not trying to make anyone miserable I promise.  Ryan and I held a "conference" on Monday to discuss this with everyone.  

Ryan covering some details about course set up