Trees on 1

Number 1 and 4 greens are taking much longer to recover from aerification and the overall health of these two greens are consistently lower than the rest. Both are smaller greens as far as pin positions to spread out traffic. They are also located in the worst growing environments on the property. Air movement and morning sun are very scarce throughout the entire season, causing much weaker turf during stressful periods. We dodged many bullets and proceeded with caution to get us through another tough summer, but any little change in weather would have broken our thin ice. Unfortunately, there is not much more we can do on 4 as last winter we thinned out some trees on the right and cleaned up the underbrush between it and 16. We were going to wait until the winter to remove the grove on 1, but with the effects it had on slowing the healing and delays it would have caused with frost, we decided to move forward and strengthen the turf for next season. Below are some of the pictures taken at 9:00 before the removal and if the sun shines in the next 2 weeks, I will add some updated pictures. We will be adding some smaller plant material this fall to fill in the void we created, but in the meantime we are just letting the green breathe.

Range Tee

I was not pleased with the range tee during the 2010 season and the quality of turf we provided for you to practice on during the summer months. I knew the heat and drought stress contributed to the thinner turf in July and August, but we also made other adjustments over the winter to improve this season's playing surface. We enlarged the tee with hopes of allowing members to use the grass portion from Thursday to Sunday. We also heavily seeded with the fastest germinating turf (ryegrass) and continued to add divot mix and additional seed every Tuesday. We encountered another tough summer with a lack of rainfall and some steady stretches of above average heat and once again the grass did not fare very well on the tee.

Excuses don't go very far in our industry and you just play the hand you are dealt by the often relentless Mother Nature. With that being said, we are making another adjustment to the tee and switching the turf over to bermudagrass. It is a southern turf which aggressively grows laterally and is better suited for drought conditions. This "Patriot" variety was established for athletic fields to handle the wear and tear of football and soccer in the Mid-Atlantic climates. The one challenge we will tackle with overseeding is dormancy. Bermudagrass goes dormant in October and does not green up until May. We will utilize ryegrass to maintain the surface in the shoulder seasons.

I did not want to rip up the tee again this fall to make the transition so we came up with a clever way to switch it over without any disruption to play. We swapped out 600 cup size plugs throughout the tee with the new Patriot bermudagrass. It will establish itself this fall, but we probably will not see much lateral movement with cooler temperatures late in the year. In May we will switch some of our practices to favor the lateral growth of the new turf are hoping by season's end the tee will be almost completely transitioned (it will actually choke out the rye as it pushes to the side). I will keep you updated with progress as we move through next season and hopefully we can utilize the turf portion of the tee on a consistent basis in the future.