The golf course has been busy and so has our team. We are in full preparation mode for next week's Men's Member Guest tournament. On top of that, we are excited about our course care walk on Monday and our USGA Agronomist Visit on Tuesday. If you haven't signed up for the event on Monday, it is not too late. Just let me know by Sunday night. We will start on Monday at 5:30
p.m. at the Pro Shop. The walk will be focused on the care and etiquette
of the golf course from the teeing ground, a bunker, and a putting green. Divots
will be filled during the walk but will not be the main focus. Overall
course care will be the focus as well as fellowship and education. The
event will conclude with a tour of the golf course maintenance facility
and dinner on the patio. I am excited to say that over 50 people have already signed up. Details are located here.
Stan Zontek, our USGA agronomist will be on sight Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. We will be meeting with Stan to discuss agronomic practices, turf health, and the golf course as a whole. His wealth of knowledge and over 40 years of experience are certainly a great help. It will be great to have him here during tournament prep as he has set up for dozens of US. Opens and countless USGA events.Those two large events coupled with five shotgun starts next week makes me question my planning but it will all be successful and fun. The project behind and to the left of #11 green will be completed on Tuesday. I know that this is a lot of work right around Member/Guest but we are really pushing to finish up the sod portion of the project. The following Wednesday, June 13, our team will be sprigging the remaining areas between 10 and 12, 11 and 12, and 12 and 14. Sprigging will create a great stand of turf and is very economical but will take 6-8 weeks to establish. For this reason, we are trying to accomplish all of this as early as possible. The longer that the sprigs and sod are on the ground during the growing season (May - September) the healthier stand of turf we will have.
I received a great question concerning the decision to mow our greens in the winter months with a riding greens mower. The decision was made to reduce damage to the bermudagrass collars during dormancy. This is my response to the question. Thank you for the question and I will continue to try and answer them as they come in.
1 (Q) In the below newsletter, you mention going to triplex mowers
during the dormant season. I would think it would be more damaging to the
collars since you have very limited space to turn around. Could you please
elaborate.
(A) The triplex mowers are obviously on tires and these tires will
impact far less of the collar than the roller and drive drum on the walk
mowers. We will have to walk mow the cleanups passes and be very careful
with mowing directions due to limited space. This was never an option in
the past as the triplexes provided an inferior quality of cut. The new
machines have floating cutting units just like the walk mowers and will work
very well. 
I know that you know what the machines look like but the
attached photos show the rear drive roller or drum of the walk mower vs. the
triplex. This drum and the drive unit and the turning of the walk mower
is what causes the damage. The cutting units of the triplex are obviously
raised when the triplex is off of the green so the only thing that is impacting
the collar is the tires. These tires really provide very little
damage. We will have to approach a few greens with great caution (#9)
because of design but it should be a great improvement.*BIG REMINDER: The golf course will be closed on June 11 and 12 for putting green core aeration. This process will greatly help the greens survive the stresses of summer. This will be a disruption to the playing surface but will pay huge dividends for turf health. These two days will also be dedicated to the installation of fans on the golf course. Dominion Power was here today to install a pole to the left of #3 for power. Power will be installed and then an electrician will help us get power to the fans. Fans will be installed on #1 and #15 on those two days. These two closed days will be great for sprig prep and to wrap up a few large fertility and pre-emergent herbicide applications to fairways.
The golf course continues to improve. I am excited that by the end of June, the areas between 10 and 12, 11 and 12, and 12, and 14 tees will be grassed and growing in. Thank you for your patience while we are making these improvements. The final large project of the year will be to grass the area to the left of the cart path on #9. We will be delaying this project until July to give the budget a little break. The weather has allowed us to complete a lot of great work but we need to be mindful of our fiscal responsibilities. I will be excited to maintain the golf course for a while.
Have a great weekend,
Jordan Booth
jbooth@willowoakscc.org
