Roundup Application

Finally, the cold weather broke last week. Now we can go out and start spraying roundup on all of the dormant Bermuda grass on the course. We do this every winter to kill any existing weeds from last year. We started spraying out around the Tees late last week when the temperatures broke the freezing mark. Today we will begin cutting in around the Greens. We will have to divert traffic on the course for about an hour or so to allow the chemical time to dry on the plant. If we have premature traffic, we could see transfer of the roundup onto the Greens surface. This should only take us one or two afternoons to complete.

Driving Range

On Monday, Dec 21st, we will begin the process of raising the height of the Driving Range nets. We are going to do this in stages. We are going to start on the left side of the netting. If you are planning on using the range and we are out there working, please use irons only off the practice mats. It will be really hard for us to do our job if we are dodging golf balls the whole time.

We are extending the netting because our range area is too small to fully accommodate our golfers. We loose a ton of golf balls to the river. Right now the tallest points of the netting are 9 to 12 feet tall. Through this process we should reach heights of 23 to 25 feet. This is a new project for my staff and I, but we have thought long and hard about it and think we have come up with the best possible solution for an in house project.

Hopefully this first part of the netting will only take us 2-3 days to complete. I apologize for any inconvenience.

UPDATE:

Unfortunately, the net that we installed on the range did not hold up to the 40 mph winds that we received over the Christmas holiday. The winds snapped all of the posts about 5 feet above ground, just above the rear supports that we put on every vertical member. We are currently looking into other methods of support for the nets. Hopefully we will have something in place soon. Until then we will be irons only on the range.

Frost Delay

We are at that time of year where the temperatures will reach below the freezing mark frequently overnight. When this happens we will typically have a frost on the ground, or a frozen playing surface as a result. On these days we will have to delay play for a few hours to allow the frost to burn off or the playing surface to thaw.

We do this for one reason, to protect the turf. When the plant is in a thawed state traffic will cause the leaf blade to lay over. When the plant is in a frozen state traffic will injure of break the frozen leaf blade causing death to the plant. This is the reason that we have to restrict play from the Greens and Over seeded areas during frost or freeze conditions.

Also to the homeowners on the course, we are close to the Christmas break for schools and I know that a lot of the children like to play on the course during the day, especially in the snow. Please remember that these delays apply to everyone not just the golfers. If you have children that want to play on the course, please remind them to stay away from the greens complexes.