Course Update 10/22/21

 We took advantage of the beautiful weather this week to aerify and topdress tees on all three courses.  The frost delay on Tuesday slowed our productivity, but the staff worked late and got us back on schedule.

Topdressing sand is applied first.  We used 80 tons (4 truck loads) to do all 3 courses.

After topdressing, the tees were aerified on a 2" x 2" square spacing using a 3/4" diameter solid tine.  Our goal was to create a lot of large holes for the sand to fill up.

The final step was brushing the sand to fill all the holes and level out any imperfections on the surface.  You can see the tight hole spacing in this picture.

This is the gold tee on Grove #1 after brushing the sand yesterday afternoon.

Here's the same tee after .52" of rain last night that helped wash in the topdressing sand.

Frost Delays

Frosted turf around Lakes 1 tees

 We experienced our first frost delay of the fall season this morning after the temperature dropped to 34 degrees last night.  Frost delays are very common this time of year and can still occur when the air temperature is above freezing.  Frost will usually be evident at sunrise, as the air at ground level is warmed it becomes lighter and rises.  Colder, denser air takes the place of the warm air and can be 5-10 degrees cooler, thus creating frozen turf.  Frost usually "burns off" quickly in direct sunlight, but certain areas of the property are heavily shaded and take longer to thaw, such as Orchard 1, Lakes 2, and Grove 2 & 3.  Our winter tree removal program has focused on these specific holes to allow for increased sunlight penetration, but we still have more work to do.  On cold mornings, the maintenance staff monitors these specific holes to determine whether frost is present.  The decision to allow play is then based on when those areas will be frost-free and the courses can be prepared for play.  Once the frost lifts, the maintenance staff requires a 30-60 minute head start to stay ahead of play depending on the maintenance activities that day.  Looking at weather records from last fall, our first frost delay occurred on September 19, so a full month earlier than this year.

Click Here To Watch A Short Video From The USGA On Frost