News from the Course Superintendent

The success of Founders Day is allowing us to move forward with some of the projects I have talked about in previous articles.  We’re grateful to the members for their generosity.

The first thing we’ll tackle will be installing a new fountain in the lake in front of the clubhouse next to No. 18. We’ll have to do some electrical work first, before adding the fountain. A second fountain will be added there next spring. The current fountain will be moved to the lake next to No. 6. That could happen this month or next spring

We’re also going to begin our internal drainage projects which will make a big difference during rainy periods such as the ones we suffered through this spring and in late summer. We’ll start at the No. 2 green and landing area in front of that green. This will be handled by an outside contractor.  Other clubs in the area have had great success with this type of drainage system. We’ll also work on the drainage on other holes ourselves, replacing tiles and so forth. This will be a temporary measure but will give us an idea of where we’ll need to do more permanent drainage work as we get more funds.

As weather permits, aeration of the greens and tees will begin early this month. As you no doubt noticed, greens at No. 2 and No. 15 have already been done.  This year we’ll be doing something different with the fairways. On Oct. 7, we’re going to verticut the fairways rather than have them aerated. This is a less invasive procedure but effective, and we won’t have to deal with the usual cores and mud that are scattered all over the fairways.

As we move toward winter, we still have around 30 to 50 dead ash trees that need to come down. And we’ll do some planting of trees in the area between Nos. 11 and 16.

Although it was a difficult summer for the course, the good weather in September has left things in good shape. So the course should be in great condition for October golf.