The golf course held up very well despite the dry conditions. The bent grass on our property loved the sunshine, in some cases we may have even shifted populations in our fairway areas.
The aeration of the golf course recovered quickly, we look forward to some great fall conditions for golf.
A small note on the Maple trees right side of 6 fairway. All of the trees, removed and still living were part of one rather large stump, therefore the removal of these stumps would be catastrophic to the two remaining maple stems. We have trimmed these stems as low as we could without damaging the maples currently there, these stumps will remain as they are to preserve the health of the current stand.
While we have been doing everything, we can keeping your golf course alive through this stretch of dry weather, we have been busy with some minor improvements throughout the property, these include:
- Continuing to add sand to bunkers where required
- The new white tee at #2 has now been sodded, should be in play later this fall.
- We have been busy installing new cart path material at 4 green/ 5tee, 5 green, 6tee, 7, these areas will soon be treated with our binding agent
- We have installed a new bridge at 2 fairway, accessible by our larger equipment
- The new white tee at 9 has now been completed, it too, should be in play later this season
- Poa removal on select greens
- Treated and Interseeded fescue at 15 and 17
- Replaced the old roof and shingles at the 16th hole rain shelter
- Installed Mirror at 18 – safety
Small Projects on the golf course to look for in the coming weeks:
- Cart path improvements at 16, 12, 10
- Topdressing our fairways and tees
- Moving the fairway left at #2, sod to be taken from start of existing fairway
- Poa removal greens
- Continuing to add sand to bunkers where required
We have been noticing some less than desirable etiquette around our golf course this season. We have had 5 separate occasions where divots were taken on our green surfaces, this is completely unacceptable for public golf let alone a private golf club. Unfortunately, this is not the only concern, we are finding fairway divots, 3 or 4 side by side with absolutely no attempt to replace or repair. When possible replace your divots, if not possible please fill with sand and seed provided. If you run out of divot mix you can use containers located at our par threes or re-fill stations at 6 and 15 bathrooms. Divots taken in the rough should only be replaced, never fill with divot mix.
We have recently undertaken the adopt a hole program with the hope that our members will take pride in their property, filling divots and fixing extra ball marks on assigned holes, we’ve done this in the hope that members will pay extra attention to their hole but not forget to continue to address all areas of the course.
We have also noticed that golf carts are not following signage on the property, driving over or through ropes and are often too close to green sites. All carts, medical or otherwise are to remain on pathways around greens and tees. At absolutely no time is it OK to drive through our fescue areas, please use our cart paths where possible.
The golf course maintenance team work very hard to deliver you a great product, please do your part in protecting the golf course and leaving it in better condition than you found it.
We look forward to some great fall golf here at Mad, the calendar is packed with events for the month of September and we look forward to preparing your golf course for all of them. Fall golf can be some of the best golfing weather we receive all year, as always, we look forward to seeing you on the course.
Respectfully Submitted,
Chad Vibert
Golf Course Superintendent