Seeding and sod prep

Most of the stump holes and tree damage areas have been filled and leveled with soil. (160 tons of topsoil so far). Some of the seed we put out has germinated and is starting to fill in nice even with the cooler weather. As it warms up it will look even better. We are fertilizing and spraying wetting agent on these areas to aid in the process. You'll notice some areas on Devlin 1,4,5 that have been prepped for sod and will instantly give us cover either late next week or the following when a truckload of sod is delivered. A future post will go more into detail of the renovation area we will do between 4/5 Devlin.

Sod prepped area on #1 Devlin

Area right of #8 Devlin green prepped, leveled and seeded

Tilling up area right of #5 Devlin Fairway that will be sodded

Stump holes leveled and seeded on #7 Weiskopf

Driving range grass tees

We will be opening the grass range tees next Saturday morning, April 30th. Once open, we will be on the same schedule as last year. Grass at the cart barn end on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and grass at the hotel end on Monday through Thursday. This way, weather dependent, there is always an option of grass to hit on rather than mats. In the meantime please use the mats for the next week as the grass continues to grow and fill in the divots from last year. When we do start hitting on the grass, please hit in a line to minimize damage to the tee. DO NOT HIT IN A SQUARE like shown below. This takes all season to recover and sometimes needs sodded.

Please use a line divot pattern or scatter so the divot can grow in from different sides

Do not take divots like this!!! It will not heal.  Also, notice the MATS Only sign right in front of the divots.  This was taken this week on the range tee. The grass tee has not been opened yet.

Weiskopf 3 and 7 bunkers

We added sand to the bunkers on number 3 and 7 Weiskopf today. Some of the faces were shallow with the Better Billy Bunker stone just beneath the sand. We now have 3-4" compacted on the faces. We don't want anymore sand than that or there will get fried egg lies up on the face. We used about 8-10 tons of sand to those bunkers.

Danny and Charles spreading out new sand in #7 Weiskopf green side bunker

Charles spreading it out after it was dumped

#7 Bunker finished

Weather and course update

"How is this weather affecting the golf course?" Many members have asked me this question over the past few weeks. First thing, Mother Nature always seems to have a way of evening things out. We mowed greens 24 days earlier this year than in 2015. Since then, they have been cut four more times. Fairways and tees have been cut twice this year, but not at all in the past ten days and we cut them for the first time in 2015 on April 12th. By the time we get to the weekend, I feel the turf will be in about the same state as last year at the same time. With that being said, the cold wet weather has made the course a swamp. Most of the tree work has been cleaned up, soiled and seeded, but with bare ground until the seed germinates it is very muddy. We need warm weather and sunshine to get these areas to germinate and produce grass. The next 8 days will be huge if the forecast holds true and we get some sunlight along with dry conditions. Our goals over the next week once we dry out are to mow the entire course, spray both greens, tees, and fairways with fertilizer, fungicide, and growth regulator and continue to do spring cleanup around the course. Next Monday through Thursday the Weiskopf course will be closed so we can aerate the greens and tees and slice the fairways. The greens will get a 1/4" core pulled, which is half the size time we used in the fall. They should heal very quick. We usually do not pull a core on tees in the spring, but with the extra play this past fall, winter and this spring, we need to to help get the tees growing and smooth out all the extra divots. As always if you have any questions please feel free to call, email or stop me around the course. Here's to good weather!

Good look from the putting green before the snow on Wednesday

Same view on Friday