The Season Has Officially Begun

April 10th and the golf course is beginning to shape up. Our crew has been working hard to clean all the debris left over from the fall and winter, as well as get our playing surfaces up to snuff. The past couple weeks have been extremely busy for us, however we have made tremendous strides in the past 5 days alone.

The course was officially open for its first weekend and while the weather was not stellar, there were plenty of golfers.  We moved the tee markers out on to the course as well as moved the flags from the temporary greens to the regulation greens. Ball washers, benches, garbage cans and other course accessories have been placed out on the course.

Cutting the first hole of the season on number 9

We kicked off this week with greens aeration. While this generally receives moans from the golfing community, aeration is one of the most important practices we use on the course. By removing organic matter and less desirable soil from the putting greens we help to alleviate compaction and improve the root zone mix. This does slightly disrupt the putting surface, but it is only temporary and if we were to skip aerification we could run into more severe problems with our greens.

Aerating on the 17th green

There has also been a lot of progress made on number 7. The right bunker has been shaped out completely with just minor adjustments before its ready for sand. The left hand bunker has had a drain added to the furthest section and the faces are shaped nicely. Grading the floor of the bunker remains to be done. In the new section of fairway we have begun to lay down topsoil and grade the area for proper surface drainage.

Installing filter fabric for the drain in the left hand bunker

Left hand bunker with drain visible in the back

Left hand bunker with projected sand line painted on bunker face