Landscaping Refresh

As you enter the Clubhouse parking lot, it’s hard to miss the activity taking place on the main parking island, and you may wonder what’s going on.  The short answer is that the 30+ year old trees in this space have seen better days, and many have outlived their typical lifespan.

For the past several years, the flowering plums have been losing major limbs during storms, leaving them quite asymmetrical.  Suffice it to say that this winter did these trees no favors…

 

On the far end of the island, the Zelkovas have outgrown their space and because of this, have also been in decline.  

These trees are being removed and new landscaped beds will be installed in this area, providing a fresh, cleaner appearance.

Under Cover

 As you may recall, with the greens not being tarped over the winter, we did cover a couple of small test plots for comparison on #9 and 17 greens.  This past Friday we removed the covers from these two areas, and below you can see the covered vs uncovered section of #17:

We will keep an eye on things over the next few weeks to see when the two sides even out.  However, even with the prolonged snow cover this winter, it appears that the tarps still make a difference in how quickly the greens recover from aerification.

Better late than never...

When mowing needs slowed late last fall, the project work started out at a fast pace.  However, with the frigid and snowy winter weather, things quickly came to a grinding halt.  As the soil has finally thawed, and we are able to get back out on the course, it now feels like a race to get things wrapped up before opening day.  

The to-do list includes completing cart path work, as well as regrading some tees.  This past week, the team made quick work of releveling and expanding the lower tee on #17.

The cart path contractor is as eager to get finished as we are to have the work completed. Fingers crossed that we get a spell of dry weather to get the paving done soon... 

Dots?

 As you finally get back out on the course after this long winter, you may notice some white dots on the perimeter of the greens.  "What are these for?" you ask.

These dots are a guide for the mowers, differentiating the collar from the green.  Over time, collars can widen or narrow, based on mowing habits.  With the current cool weather, and the greens still recovering from November's aerification, now is the best time to get the collars back to a uniform width.  Trying to reclaim any lost putting surface in-season typically doesn't work well.