Frost Delays

This time of year, we often have to delay the first start times of the day due to frost.  This brief video from the USGA explains why we must avoid both walking and driving on frosted turf:

USGA Frost Delays

While the video discusses the potential for damage to the short grass, even at rough height, cart traffic can severely injure the grass:

As always, our goal is to provide the best playing conditions for you.  Protecting the health of the turf is obviously important in achieving this, and your patience is appreciated.

Giving Thanks

While there's no such thing as an easy year on the golf course, 2016 will certainly be remembered as a more challenging one.  Mother Nature threw it all at us this year--from extreme heat and limited rainfall, to weed, insect, and disease activity, the likes of which we've never seen.  Add to this a construction project which started in July, and 2016 won't be forgotten anytime soon.

With cooler temperatures now, we can take the opportunity to step back and reflect on what areas of the operation worked well this year, and where changes can be made going forward.  One thing that is abundantly clear is that we couldn't have succeeded without the support and hard work of those on the front line each and every day.

These guys take great pride in their work, and appreciate being able to enhance our members' golfing experience.  So, at this time of year, when we are grateful for so many things in our lives, we thank the team who worked tirelessly to make 2016 a successful year on the golf course.

Ripping the Rough

As we've said many times, we love all of the wildlife the golf course is home to.  However, over the past couple of months, we continue to see areas of the rough where digging is taking place. 

In late September or early October, it seemed that this might be the work of skunks or raccoons going after grubs, yet the ripping of rough continues even now.  Well, we finally saw who is actually responsible for this damage:

Perhaps someone might want to remind these vandals that we're only a little over a week away from Thanksgiving!

Soil or dirt?

What's the difference between soil and dirt?  Soil is what you grow crops in, while dirt is what you get under your fingernails.

This may be a somewhat lighthearted answer to this question, however, when we stick a shovel in the ground of the golf course, we are quickly reminded of what much of the property used to be--a quarry.  Often times, we find that we're growing turf on something that many people would refer to as dirt, not soil.  The picture below of an old clay pit on site shows the very sandy material on top of an incredibly impermeable clay.


The natural stratification of soils can easily be seen in the old quarry.

With over one million cubic yards of material moved during the original construction of the golf course, what's beneath the surface often resembles a marble cake, as these two different  soils were used as fill material.

These days, what's under the ground may not be seen very often, but this fall's construction brought the issue back to the forefront of our thoughts.  Once again, you can clearly see why some areas never seem to dry out, and others are always droughty.


Drain line crossing #1 fairway.

Bunker drainage on #16.

Upon closer inspection, both of these "soils" look like they might have come from somewhere other than Earth.

"Moon pottery" from #1 on the left and "Martian coffee grounds" from #16 on the right.

Certainly neither of these resemble a potting soil or bagged topsoil that you'll find in the nursery section of the local home improvement store.  So what might be dirt by some folks' standards, is soil for us.  Of course, if Matt Damon can grow crops with this stuff, who are we to complain: