Golf course news and notes

By Todd Mathews / Signals contributor

April 24, 2008 07:31 am

— The golf course has been very wet this spring, which has made maintenance difficult. We have been behind on mowing, and during this time of the year it is hard to catch up, as the grass is growing quickly.
Although the course is wet, it is hard to believe we are already 4” below normal on rainfall. We received 4.13” in January, 3.53” in February, and 4.89” in March. March rainfall amounts were near normal, while January and February left us with a deficit.
Aerification went rather well this spring. The maintenance staff did an incredible job and left the course in neat condition. The holes on the greens are taking forever to heal, due to cool temperatures and lack of sunshine. If the aerification process was completed a little later in the spring, the greens would heal significantly faster.
We used the plugs from aerification to level some humps and bumps in the fairways. We will continue this practice yearly, in order to improve the smoothness of the fairways and to provide better lies for the players.
Some of the projects we are currently working on include:
•An irrigation connection under Dunbar Road to link the front-nine system with the back-nine system. This will allow us to irrigate the entire course during emergencies, such as pump malfunctions and drought;
•An irrigation addition in the rough between #2 and #4;
•Drainage on the front left of #4 green;
•Drainage in front of #7 yellow tee;
•Septic system repairs at the restroom on #14.
Project completion this spring and summer will be difficult, as a significant amount of our time will be spent with the transition to our new maintenance facility.
Project ideas that are up for debate and further discussion include: rebuilding the #3 and #5 greens; redesigning #7 (building a large new green to the right of the original green