Course Update 2/28/22

 We had another productive month of winter projects and we're trying to finish up in the next two weeks.  It feels like the weather is starting to improve, so that means course maintenance activities aren't too far off.

This view is from Lakes #8 white tee and you can see where trees were removed near the front of the tee and right of the cart path.  The trees had become too large and were limiting the amount of usable hitting area.

Another group of trees on Lakes #8 just past the ones near the white tee were in decline and removed for safety reasons.  They were along the right side of the cart path short of the dogleg and had no impact on playability.

Here's the damaged base of one tree removed on Lakes #8.  Anytime an old wound is visible with bark missing is a sign that the tree is dying and should be removed ASAP.

Pruning on Lakes #5 on the hill along the right side of the fairway.  Several smaller trees were removed in this area to let the larger trees flourish while still protecting the right side of the hole.

Further down the right side on Lakes #5 near the last house, several trees were removed for safety reasons.  This double-trunk Maple was separating at the base and the left trunk with the orange dot would have fallen across the cart path.

The staff spent a full week on Lakes #2 removing vegetation along the right side of the tees to allow for more sunlight and air circulation.  Turf health and quality were diminished compared to other tees throughout the course, but we expect to see a noticeable improvement with a more favorable growing environment.

Here's a closeup view on Lakes #2 right of the tees with the snow gone.

Staying on Lakes #2, we removed the Oak tree on the hill left of the green for safety reasons.  Last season we noticed a significant number of dead branches in the upper portion of the canopy that signaled the tree was dying.

The White Pine trees behind Grove #5 green were damaged during the recent ice storms but we were able to prune back the broken branches and save all the trees except one.

The staff is cleaning up a large tree near the mirror as you come up the path to Grove #4 tees.

In December we started investigating the sunken area in the middle of Orchard #9 green.  The depression had become so bad the mowers were scalping the turf and we couldn't set a cup there anymore.  We dug down over 2' but didn't find anything unusual.

We proceeded to fill in the hole and added sand to level the area.

The 2"x4" seen here and in the previous photo were used as a screed to evenly spread the sand while filling in the low areas.  The pencil was used as a reference to illustrate the 1" gap in the center of the depression where we added sand.

Unfortunately, the weather changed quickly at the end of December and didn't allow us to finish the project.  Just last week we were able to resume work once the snow melted and the ground thawed.  We finished spreading the sand and leveling the area, then began laying sod.

Working with greens sod is always a delicate process. We needed to work off plywood to prevent leaving footprints in the sand or depressions in the sod from our knees.

All the sod has been laid and we're tamping or hand rolling the pieces to eliminate uneven areas.

A light topdressing of green sand was applied using a drop spreader to help fill in the seams and hide any imperfections.  The sod should heal quickly once the weather improves and the turf starts growing, but we'll also give the area some extra attention with frequent, light topdressings.