April Update

I would like to update you on the golf courses and the NE 9 Renovation project. This past winter was a very cold winter and an open winter with very little snow cover. We are seeing some winter desiccation on some high knobs on some fairway areas and around some tee corners. Most of the areas are coming back on their own and there are a couple of spots where we might have to do a little sod work. We did also have some damage to some trees and they have already been removed. I hope as the deciduous trees begin to leaf out, we don’t have any major damage to them.

If you remember back to last November the NE 9 Renovation project did not quite get completed because of the early onset of winter. Leibold Construction and Irrigation is back on site and working very diligently trying to finish up. The bunkers on #9 were competed last week and look fantastic. They have finished the left greenside bunker on #10 and all of the new bunkers on the right side of #10 are currently being worked on. This area is a very complex bunker project that protects the right side of the hole. There is a lot of new irrigation and drainage that has been installed. They are currently working on the drainage in and around the new left side bunkers. If the rain stays away we could be done in this area very soon, but the forecast does not look good. They do have some punch list items to also finish up but that should not take very long. Some of that work can be completed if it is wet out.

Our staff has been working very hard trying to tie up a lot of loose ends. We have been very busy doing some concrete work, working on bridge railings and doing some sodding work. We also have seeded the haul roads and the now mow are on #8. These areas were seeded and fertilized and then mulched or covered with straw netting to protect them from erosion. Our staff is also working on reshaping and replacing the sand on the east range practice bunker. Today we were able to install the drainage in the bunker and we should have liner and sand installed later in the week.

So the big question that I get almost daily is when will this 9 holes open? Right now we cannot answer that at this time. The 2 new greens look good and we have done some reseeding on #8 green. The new tees that were sodded are very slow in growing because it has been so cold. The seeded tees have been covered until this past weekend. They too have been seeded if needed. They look very good and just need some time to grow and knit together. Like last year once we have tees that can take the foot traffic we will try to get our golfers out there. A little rain and some nice warm weather will help us out a lot.

I will leave you with a few photos of the right side of #10 bunker complex.