Willows to Open Friday, April 6th

The Willows will open this Friday for the 2012 season.  The remainder of our staff will be joining us on Monday and we will begin prepping the Willows.  The Bunkers and new sod on the 11th hole will be roped off and we will be asking everyone to take a drop if their ball comes to rest in the bunker or new sod.  The sod on this hole was laid in early November and needs a few more weeks to properly root.  We will keep you posted on when the bunker will be playable.  Please do not walk down any of the steep faces of the bunker to recover your ball.  Please enter the bunkers from the lower side of the bunker.  

Great Spring Photos

New Chipping area around #6 Green

Green Expansions

 Many of you may have noticed some blue paint around some of the greens.  We are in the process of expanding several of our greens.  We have begun the expansion process on #1, #6, #7, #12, #13, #14.  We will take these areas down slowly.  You may notice some extra topdressing and aerification in these areas as well. 

We took the opportunity today to aerify the approaches and the newly added chipping areas around the greens.  We will continue to aerify all the holes where we have completed the renovation project on.  We still may need to strip turf on the remaining holes and the aerification holes make if very difficult to move the sod.  These aggressive aerification procedures on the newly sodded areas will result in excellent rooting as well as making these surfaces much firmer and smoother.   

Several question have been brought to my attention on the condition of the new rough sod around the new bunkers.  This type of Bluegrass is know for a late Spring green up, but performs outstanding when holding up to the stresses of summer.  The sod has just recently started to grow and is starting to green up throughout the property. 

Along the bunker banks we topdressed with a material that
contains organic materiial to help hold some moisture in
the soil. We topressed the remainder of the approaches
and chipping areas with
straight sand to keep these areas firm. 

A Year of Firsts

The crazy weather this Spring continues with some cooler temperatures and extremely dry conditions.  Today we had to pressurize the irrigation system.  This is a first for the month of March.  The greens were becoming very dry and some of the newly laid sod was in need of water.  With no substantial rain in the extended forecast we felt it necessary to charge the irrigation system. 



Venting Greens

Today we took advantage of the good Spring weather to do some solid tine aerification to the greens.  Spring is the ideal time to promote root developement and this process allows oxygen into the soil which will help promote root growth.  This process is perfomed many times throughout the year without any disruption to the putting surfaces.  The process was actually performed at Oakmont Country Club five days before the USGA held the Women's Open there in 2010.

Ball Marks

Unrepaired ball marks continue to be a problem early in the season. With the lack of growth so far this season it is critical the we take some extra time repairing pitch marks. The topdressing that was applied before Winter is working its way into the canopy of the turf and we will soon be mowing greens on regular basis. The greens are not growing at this point like the rest of the golf course.