5.16.25 Update

Our first week of closure we focused on prepping the course for the contractors to arrive and we tackled some projects around the property.

Monday we went around picking up golf accessories to make maintenance simpler over the span of the closure. All rakes, cups, pins, flags, tee markers, and other supplies were removed and brought to the maintenance shop.

A big focus for us over the summer will be to enhance and improve the tee surfaces. The tees have really responded to our fertility and nutrient applications, leading to a healthy playing surface. This will help us as we work additional sand and other amendments into the grass to firm up the tees and smooth them out.

After applying a broadcast application of sand, team members walk each individual tee locating low spots and adding additional sand to true up and make the surface flat.

We're also looking to get more definition between the zoysia tees and bermuda grass rough. Making frequent applications of fertilizer to the rough just outside of the tee surface will help achieve this and really help differentiate the two areas.

Improving our opening and closing experience on Shadow Hawk is also a big goal of ours. We tackled spraying out aquatic weeds first here on #1.

On #18, we raised up the canopies on all the trees next to the lake and are currently removing all the trees that had fallen into the water.

Our bunkers will receive a lot of attention as we can really focus and audit them to ensure we have sand in the areas where we need it. Over the years, a lot of sand has shifted around and we don't have uniform depth from spot to spot. We are checking depths and moving sand from where it's accumulated to depths greater than 4" to the parts of the bunker where it's less than 4". On the bunker slopes, we'll look to keep around 1.5" of sand to avoid any ball plugging issues.

Even though we're closed, bunkers still need to be fully raked frequently to keep the surfaces performing correctly and to help with algae control on the slopes of the bunkers.

We've recently installed new jet attachments to our sprayers to allow us to better apply chemicals to areas like bunker tongues and slopes. Joel can be seen here on #2 using this feature. We should see a lot better control of weeds in these areas and better turf health overall.

Our irrigation technicians are also making progress on raising and leveling sprinkler heads in our fairways and approaches. We'll wait for the contractors to finish the construction on the greens before we level those heads as slopes and contours on those areas might shift slightly during the construction process. Level heads will help distribute irrigation water better.

The contractors have been sod cutting the putting greens and will begin picking up the material. After the grass is removed, they will put their excavators on the putting surface and will start digging down, coring out the greens an additional 6" or so. Again, the goal is to get past the layer of soil that has been giving us issues over the years and make it all the way to the sand layer. This process will take place over the next two weeks or so, after they finish, we will begin adding the new sand back into the openings they made.

Thanks for reading and being a member,

Willie Hoppe

Director of Agronomy, GCSAA Class A