Golf Course Update and Week 19 Construction Update

The typical spring weather pattern has arrived. It gets warm early and we open up, then we get a dose of reality and the temperatures moderate to the normal. We have seen some cool nights the past 2 weeks, last night's low was 24 degrees, which is not conducive to good turf growth. The open 27 holes have handled the cold temperatures well and we are happy with how the turf looks and how it is performing. We hopefully will start some of our spring maintenance items like aerification, verticutting, topdressing and rolling of putting surfaces. Also this year we are really going to concentrate on producing better approaches to our greens. We have not done a lot of topdressing to these areas in the past, this year we hope to apply regular topdressing, trying to firm up the approaches.

We have most of our pre-emergent applications finished on the golf courses. We use several different items to time some of our applications like growing degree days, soil temperatures, etc. The homeowner can use a very simple one to time their spring crabgrass applications. It is called plant phenological indicators: Basically this is when the flowering of landscape plants can also be used as a good estimate of when crabgrass might be germinating. Many are aware that forsythia is traditionally considered a good plant to indicate that crabgrass will soon start germinating. Forsythia will be in full bloom prior to crabgrass germination and forsythia flowers will wither near crabgrass germination. So once you see the forsythia blooming you really should think about getting your application down on your home yard. What does forsythia look like in full bloom or where do we find it? Very simple, we have some forsythia bushes on the north side of #4 tee North. Here is what they look like this morning. They have been in bloom for about a week so it is time for you to think about putting down that spring pre-emergent application.

Landscapes Unlimited is back on site and working. The bunkers on #3 fairway are all roughed in. Yesterday we started to build the final 2 bunkers on #2 fairway. We should have them roughed in by today or Monday morning. The golf course architect will be back on site on Monday to give his final approval to these bunkers and then LUI will complete that phase of the project.

Another crew is very busy installing drainage basins and tile lines around some of the tees. There are about 5 different areas that are left to tile out and they should be completed and then they will start the sodding around the tees and along cart path edges.

The concrete crew is also very busy. All of the concrete on hole #18 is installed. Today they will be pouring the concrete the tee to the bridge on #17. On Monday they will be pouring the concrete around the South snack shop. Then they will move on to #4 tee and #6 tee to finish up that phase of the project.

The new greens are coming along very nicely. I am very please how good they look and how they are performing at this early point in the season. Here are some photos of #2,#4 and #5 greens. We have covered the 7th and 18th greens to keep the heat in and promote growth on these putting greens.