1.8.26 Update

Happy New Year to everyone at Shadow Hawk and welcome to 2026!

2025 was truly a year of transformation on our property and we are excited to carry this momentum into 2026 and beyond.

I had the pleasure of joining Bob McHugh (GM at Black Hawk), Justin Engel, and Mike Shoelen for a round of golf at Shadow Hawk back in December. It was my first time playing the course since the regrassing project and it was a really special experience for me.

All the hours of hard work the construction and agronomy team put into the project really stood out to me. My golf game suffered during the project (understandably...) but I thoroughly enjoyed being out on the ground as a golfer and playing Shadow Hawk. It always was and always will be one of my favorite courses to play.

The new greens are hanging in there during their first winter and I've been so encouraged to see more and more root development as the plants have matured. All across the property as I've been probing root depths, I've been finding great established roots in the 4" to 5" zone. The density has been the real encouraging thing these past months. We've had depths but the mass of roots now is what has me excited the most. This will set us up for success as we transition into Spring and start to drop the heights down on our greens mowers.

A few weeks ago we made the decision to remove some trees nears the practice green by #1 Tee. As I pointed out during my last posting, this green wouldn't receive much sunlight until almost 11:30am during the Fall / Winter months while the sun angle is at its lowest.

Now, we are getting sunlight as soon as the sun rises over the cart barn and we are starting to improve the turf quality on this green.

It's really responded well to the extra sunlight. We will continue to scout and communicate any other tree removals over the winter months, all with the same goal of improving the health and playing conditions of our putting surfaces.

Our most recent topdressing, spiking, and roll we executed on January 5th was a success and we are already seeing the benefits. We went with a heavier rate of sand than we normally would this time of year based on what were seeing with the canopy of the grass and the unseasonably warm weather.

The picture on the left is after the topdressing and the picture on the right was before. Ball roll, speeds, and smoothness have all improved because the sand was able to work it's way down into those gaps between the grass blades, creating a smoother surface and better ball roll.

You can see a nice jump in greens speeds since the topdressing, spike, and roll. We gained almost a full foot on the stimp meter since the 1st of the year. The sand allows for a firmer and smoother surface, which will result in better greens speeds.

Our Monday maintenance days are critical for executing these practices while the course is closed. These hours where we can accomplish these tasks go a long way in improving our playing surfaces.

All our trees finally dropped their leaves in December creating a 3 week stretch of what felt like non stop blowing and mulching. It's crazy the amount of hours we spend blowing with our backpack blowers and larger pull behind blowers during this time of year. Morning set up is really slowed down when this happens because we have to spend extra effort and care to clear the playing surfaces. Job well done by the agronomy team doing their best to make the course playable each and everyday during this time of year.

When we got a strong weather system out of the north, the winds were so strong they blew all the cypress tree needles about 50 yards into our fairway bunker on #1. Again, mother nature is always up to something.

New bunker sand has now been added to and distributed on holes 1,2,4,13,14,17, & 18, bringing our winter total up to 50 tons of sand added to the traps. We have our next 25 tons of bunker sand on its way to the club and will continue to work closely with the golf professional staff about where to add it next.

To protect the edges of the bunkers as we drive heavy equipment in and out, we use giant pieces of plywood to absorb the weight and help protect the integrity of the bunker edge.

We mow our annual ryegrass between the pecan trees along Shadow Hawk Drive and #10 bi-weekly this time of year. Missing it to the right on #10 is a popular spot and we've noticed some groups taking extra time looking for golf balls in this area. To help speed up play and help find your golf ball easier, we will be trying out a mower with a lower height on this grass to make it easier to identify and find golf balls in this part of the course.

We've been playing around with locations and areas where to utilize our new traffic boards. I like the look of them and they've been easier to manage then our typical rope and stake system.

Here on #16 green is a great example of them doing their job to the fullest. A lot of our players walking from the cart path hug that edge of the bunker, creating a "goat" trail that is unsightly and produces a difficult golf shot if your ball ends up short of the bunker.

After having the boards here for a few weeks forcing foot traffic further out, we've seen better turf quality return.

Thanks for reading and being a member.

Willie