9.22.25 Update

I really like these pictures of #3 taken 90 days apart. The first picture on the top is from May 10th and the picture on the bottom is from September 10th. It's hard to imagine when you're in the thick of a grow in of how the course will turn out in the future but having these reference points and memories to look back on and compare against the present shows just how far we've come.

Here's a rundown of where we stand out on the course:

Fairways are being attacked a couple of different ways currently. On areas we are confident we can grow all the turf in before we open, we've top dressed with a soil mix that will help hold moisture and nutrients. Frequent granular and foliar applications of fertilizer on these spots will promote more growth and we will see these spots knit together.

On areas that are too large to heal in, we've started to aerify and are currently prepping to lay sod into these voids. Our machine in the video is our fairway aerifier that has 1" solid tines attached.

Aerification tines create holes that go down about 3" into the soil. (See the white tee in the middle, that tee is about 3" in length and is now just sticking above the ground) Creating these channels will allow for the sod to send it's roots down into these voids and help establish the turf more quickly.

Once we finish with our aerifier machine, we run our sod cutter over the turf / soil material. This material will be removed, we will add our soil amendments, and sod will be laid into these newly created voids.

On greens we've made a lot of progress growing in the new turf but some spots did have to be plugged. These plugs are taken from our nursery and have the same grass and soil mix as our greens on the course. We will continue to topdress and fertilize these spots so they blend in nice before we open. You can see the progression two weeks apart in the photos above.

The 1 ton roller was used on all the greens and helped smooth out little bumps and imperfections.

After using the 1 ton roller, we've transitioned back to using our Salsco Roller to continue to smooth out the putting surfaces. Now that we have a nice dense canopy on most of the putting surfaces, we will start to monitor ball roll and look to get all the putting greens rolling the same.

Clubhouse grounds got their Fall spray application. We use a special machine called a "Spray Hawk" to make our applications to our zoysia grass areas around the clubhouse. Jake and his team have done a great job with all the grounds on property this summer and we are going into Fall looking really strong and detailed out.

We had a tree crew come out last week to work on holes 12 through 17. They lifted up canopies and trimmed suckers off of the trees. Now with the canopies lifted up we plan on using a specialized aerifier machine to help break up compaction and promote better growth in the roughs underneath the trees. We'll focus on areas that come into play first (like the right side of #16 for example). Overall, with the limited traffic and good weather this summer, roughs are really strong and healthy.

Tee are now being mowed .350. The goal with tees will be to increase mowing frequencies now at this height to continue to tighten up the surfaces and promote a better stance. I'm really happy with all the hard work we put into these this summer. I think they will really perform well this Fall.

On #1, we contracted out a land clearing company to expose the corridor between our property line and lakes. Our plan here is to remove all the overgrowth, trim up the trees, and overseed annual ryegrass to create a meadow look on that side of the lake. We've also been trying out lake dyes to find the combination we like to enhance the aesthetics of that opening tee shot.

Thank you for reading and being a member.

Willie