Putting The Greens to Bed

 

Part of our annual ritual is to bury the greens in sand and then aerate on top of them using solid tines.  This is important for helping with drainage, thatch dilution and traffic during the winter months.  This will be the first winter since 2011 that the greens will not be open for play due to the renovation.

This year was a quiet year for aeration on greens, tees and fairways due to the renovation beginning in the fall and shutting the course down in early October.  With 5 new greens and 4 others with XGD drainage installed in October and November, we have had to be careful where and when we aerated.  The XGD greens were fine following the aeration and the new greens received minor aeration two times with 3/8" hollow tines before we covered them and buried them in sand.  Depending on weather, we should be in a good position come late March.

Day of Education and Excitement

 

About 50 members joined us for a tour of the renovation work so far.  Great to see how many members are excited with the transformation of the golf course.  Grant did a great job explaining the thought process behind most of the changes.  Now we  need some good weather this winter so we can turn the course over to the members come spring for golf!

Tree Moved Successfully

 

5 machines to move the tree from new #1 to new #9 fairway.  This tree will now be the aiming point off of 9 tees.  The tree was in perfect shape and condition and the only other option was to cut it down to open up the new tee line off 1 tees.

It finally made it to its final destination in 4 hours.

Sneak Peak at Bunker Work

 Hamish has taken the lead on providing drone footage and narration of the project so far.  While it is still in the juvenile stage, you can start to see the course morphing into Andy's vision.

New Greens Maturing

 

We had our fingers crossed on Wednesday when we aerated the 5 new greens.  Some of the new greens were sodded in late September while 4 and 9 were done in early to mid October.  We were able to pull 3/8" cores this first time and will repeat the process right around Thanksgiving before covering the greens for the winter.  The course will reopen mainly based on the health of the greens, but we must also consider the new tees and fairway sod as well.  

Moving Trees

 

The large Sycamore on the right of the old 9th fairway will now be relocated to the left of the new 9th fairway.  This will create instant framing of the left side of the fairway before it turns up the hill to the new green.  The tree will be hand dug a week or two before its short journey only 200 yards away.  Lets hope for dry weather to be able to drive across the 2 holes.  Stay tuned for progress pictures of the move.

A U.S. Citizen

 

Congratulations to Alberico Gomez for becoming a United States Citizen!  Alberico has been part of our team for the past 7 years.  Every morning he makes sure the tee markers are set properly and all details are just right around the tees.  Way to go Alberico!