4 West Fairway

Members will notice a white line painted in front of 4 West green and will wonder what it's for.  This area is not GUR or a drop zone.  Brain Huntley, our Architect, painted this line to indicate the new fairway section that will be added according to his master enhancement plan for the courses.  This  fairway area will be constructed using the bentgrass sod removed from the tee squaring project going on right now on the North and West.  After this area is complete it will offer a bit of relief for a short shot for both the men and ladies on an already difficult par 3. The work on this area will begin following the 2013 Brassie tournament.

Prepping, Seeding, and Watering Fescue Areas

The staff has been doing a great job preparing our new fescue areas on the North and West courses and we are now seeding.  Here are a few pictures of the process involved with seeding them.

Frances, one of our Chinese interns, is mowing the dead turf down to 1" to prepare for seeding.  Leaving a little bit of dead grass on top is a good thing as it serves as a germination mulch or straw which helps retain moisture and heat for germination.

After the old turf has been cut down to 1", a tractor seeder is used to distribute the new fescue seed.  The seeder cuts thin groves in the ground and drops seed at the correct rate directly into them.  

Finally, we use portable "roller basin"sprinklers for establishment because the rain all fell in June and July this year instead of August!

Fescue Seeding

The large area to the right that was once maintained rough is now being converted to Marco Polo and Ecostar fine fescues.  The seeding of these areas will begin this week.  Total between the North and West there is about 10.5 acres that will now be fescue.  These new natural areas will offer outstanding definition across the property and also reduce labor costs associated with maintaining unused rough.

North Fescue and Tee Update

A non-selective herbicide application was made to the North course future fescue areas today. These areas will be turning brown within 7-10 days.  After these areas die, they will then me mowed down very low to prepare for seeding.
Fescue will germinate in these areas this fall but will not get very tall this season.  

#8 North tees are shown here.  Last week we completed #1, 2, and 3 North and they have already germinated and are growing nicely.  Early progress this week got slowed down after we received 1.3 inches of rain but we've made up for it today.  #8 tee was soiled, seeded, and fertilized today and will be sprayed and covered tomorrow.  #5 tee surround was completely stripped today and will be top soiled tomorrow as well as seeded and fertilized.  #6 tee surrounds are scheduled to be stripped tomorrow.  As of now we are still on track for completing three holes of tees per week.  If we can continue this pace, North and West tees will be completed by the middle of September.

#5 North tees are completely prepped and ready to be top soiled tomorrow.

North Tee Project Started