TURF TALK FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT
Dear Members,
August is our typically hottest month of the year in North Carolina, and I do not foresee that changing this year. There are times of the year to be more aggressive and there are times to be less aggressive and August is the time to be less aggressive, especially when it comes to green heights of cut. We will manage the greens to minimize heat stress and fungus potential while simultaneously pushing the grass to cover some weaker areas of the course as well as the greens. As it stands today, our greens are disease free and very healthy. We will not be as aggressive with verticutting in the heat however, topdressing/rolling the greens will be on our relative normal Monday morning schedule. As we covered the greens with almost twelve tons of sand last week, we will not be applying sand this week but will alternate with rolling the greens three times up to the Member-Guest tournament.
Be on the lookout when playing in the next couple of weeks for bucket trucks and tree cutting personnel that will be cutting/trimming trees around the course to make it more playable from the tee box but also from the fairways. There are at least two dead trees that will be brought down on the left side of #17 fairway and many other trees limbed back to enhance your playing pleasure. The following holes will have tree work completed on them, one, two, three, seven, ten, twelve, fourteen, seventeen.
The course will be receiving new tee markers for our tee boxes very soon and rakes for our bunkers donated by a very generous member. These rakes will come with a label sticker on it that will be a reminder where to leave the rake when you are finished raking the bunkers. It is very important to follow the guidelines as it will save our crew a lot of time when mowing around those bunker areas. Talking about bunkers, I will be adding bunker sand to the following bunkers in the month of August, left bunker on #9, #10, #15, #18 both bunkers. Two faces are very low, 9 and left bunker on 18 and those will be the priority.
As always, please keep in mind traffic/parking patterns while playing golf that will relieve compaction, repair divots and ball marks, also, please hit balls on the range from the roped areas, this will allow us time to regrow the grass, so every time you hit balls it is from a very nice teeing area, we will do the rest.
Thank you all for your support and understanding, our three-man maintenance staff is working hard and smartly to maximize our time and minimize play disruptions.
Fairways and greens
Mike,