Coharie CC Members,

We are six weeks from the drainage project on sixteen green, and it is going well. The moisture levels are as expected across the green surface, with no more standing water or saturated green surface, making growing grass so hard to do. We will continue to monitor moisture levels and adjust as necessary with granular wetting agents.

The sod cutter has been purchased and is serving us well. We have already cut out sod from the practice range and replanted hole sixteen ingress located on the bottom of the fairway and that will reopen next week. It will be imperative that the roped off areas remain in place so we can direct cart traffic to ensure the grass survives the traffic compaction. We will from time to time move the ropes to direct traffic more efficiently. I am sure the golfing members have noticed several areas off cart path ends and cart path beginnings being filled with a sand/soil mixture. These areas have been intentionally filled to determine the compaction level thus allowing us the ability to know what depth to cut the sod when we replace it. It is my goal to move from the back nine to the front nine within two weeks after the Club Championship, June 1st and 2nd .

We started on Monday the 20th of May with green verticutting/grooming and will continue throughout the growing season to improve/speed the roll of the ball and overall health of the grass. This is a time-consuming process that requires an assembly line of processes. We begin by mowing the green, then vertigrooming the green in at least two directions, sometimes more, then we mow again to remove the standing blades of grass, then we top-dress with sand, smooth with a drag machine, and then roll them. Each nine holes takes approximately four hours. We may be forced to do nine holes a day but is a very important process considering the type of grass that we have on our greens (thick and coarse blades).

Also, we will core aerate the greens after the Club Championship before the middle of the month weather depending. We will close nine holes daily to accomplish this task. Richard will communicate those days to you when we narrow down the exact 2 days.

Additionally, I am sure some have noticed “brown areas” that appear dead. I assure you those areas are not dead, they are the result of late season preemergent herbicide treatment and are coming back as they should be relative to when they were sprayed, such as the front entrance area, which will be treated earlier next year and with a granular product. The front entrance has weeds growing for color; however, I cannot treat them with a post emergent herbicide, or it will keep the Bermuda grass from greening up even longer. Bear with me until I get the Bermuda grass growing again and then I will kill the weeds.

Until July………

Fairways and Greens

Mike,