Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Course Conditions Update


Course Conditions

All three courses are doing well and we hope to have a good transition this year starting next month depending on the temperatures. The big negative that we continue to deal with has been the ryegrass and poa annua on the White Wing greens. In particular the practice greens and the first few greens on the back nine. Unfortunately the post emergent, selective herbicides that we have been applying have not been as effective as usual due to the low temperatures and from what we are hearing from the USGA poa annua’s ability to build up a tolerance to certain herbicides. We have made additional applications since the weather has warmed up and we are now starting to see wilting and yellowing of the winter weeds. We have to be careful during this time of year even when using selective herbicides because they can still “sting” the sensitive Bermuda grass greens that are trying to come out of dormancy. As the temperatures start to get warmer and stay warmer over the next couple of months the poa annua will start to go away due to its intolerance of the hotter weather and the Bermuda’s aggressive growth.

White Wing Greenside Bunkers

We have started to fill the bunkers on the front nine and will complete all of the greenside bunkers in the next couple of weeks. Our goal is to have everything done prior to the member-member at the end of the month. Most of the bunkers have been completed on the front nine and we are moving on to the back nine. The best way to decide if the bunker should be played at this time is that if it has SAND and RAKES in the bunker it is open for play.