Longing for Light

As we've mentioned before, morning sunlight is of utmost importance when trying to grow healthy turf.  The picture below was taken at 9:00 AM, on June 21, the first full day of summer.  Looks like even during the "longest day of the year,"* #18 faces some challenges.

*Doesn't every day of the year have 24 hours?

Better Bermuda

As you may have noticed, we stripped a portion of the lower practice tee two weeks ago, and sodded with Bermudagrass. 

The winter of 2014-2015 took its toll on the original Bermudagrass, and while the tees made it through last summer in decent shape, we felt it best to have a clean stand of this heat-loving turf in place for the summer of 2016.



It's out with the old, as we start to strip and remove the sod on the lower tee.

With only having the range closed for one day, the team kicked it into high gear for this project.  The old sod was stripped, hauled away, the tee surface aerified, raked smoothed, and the new sod was installed--all in under eight  hours.

Even before the Sun hits it, the new Bermudagrass on the back of the tee is looking good, and will be ready for use within a week.


Putting Weevils to Work

As we've said before, over the past several years, the Annual Bluegrass Weevil has become one of the most troublesome pests on the golf course.  Given the high percentage of Annual Bluegrass (Poa) in the greens, we have to remain ever vigilant to guard against damage from weevils on the putting surfaces. 

However, as most of the tees and fairways still have very little Poa, we see this as a potential opportunity to get some biological control by allowing them to kill the small amount of Poa.

Weevils have been munching on the Poa on #17 tee.

Even though Poa is much more susceptible to damage from this insect, Bentgrass can also be damaged by weevils during the stress of the summer, and when weevil populations become high.  So, we will allow them to work on the Poa now, then use control measures to knock back the weevil populations in the Bentgrass beginning in July.

Golf and the Environment

There was a great article about Laurel Creek in the Sunday, May 29, Burlington County Times.  This feature piece gave insight into the Club's environmental efforts, and the requirements to maintain our certification as part of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for golf courses.

Once again this year, Assistant Superintendent, Don Holgersen, led this project, with the help of Assistant, Mike Crane.

A video made by the Times can be viewed here:
Nature is Par for the Course