FYI 3-13-20

Golf Course Maintenance FYI 3/13/2020

·         David Dore-Smith is the manager on duty this weekend

·         With the concern over the Corona virus, golf maintenance is following all the recommended protocols and educating and reminding staff members on personal hygiene both at home and around the Club. 

·         The entire golf course was fertilized with a granular fertilizer this week as scheduled.

·         All greens were verticut, topdressed with sand, aerified and fertilized this week in preparation for the now cancelled one-day Men’s Member/Guest.

·         All Tees were topdressed with sand to maintain their excellent condition and help dilute organic material in the thatch layer.

·         New sand was added to the green side bunker on Hole 7 this week to improve playability and aesthetics.

·         Moles continue to be an ever-increasing problem on the golf course. Hole 18 green was impacted as well as substantial damage on Hole 7 and 17. Over the past 2 nights, 5 moles have been trapped and killed. All kinds of methods have been implemented from poison bait; spring loaded traps to Juicy Fruit chewing gum. Walking through homeowner properties, there is an extraordinary amount of mole activity in their yards that goes mostly unnoticed due to the higher height of cut. I firmly believe the Mole problem on the golf course is coming from the homeowner yards. Unfortunately, I do not have an answer to control the issue…yet.

·         Tree trimming continues throughout the property. Ricardo Gomez has overseen this arduous task and is to be complimented on his efforts. Many members have complimented their work.

·         Trimming of shrubs throughout the Common Grounds was completed this week. Thanks to Carlos Martinez for overseeing this project.

·         The golf course had pine straw applied to all garden beds last week and it looks great. Our next pine straw application is scheduled for December.

·         I have received two quotes for the pump station replacement and will be presenting this to the Green Committee for approval on Monday followed by a presentation to the Finance Committee and Board of Directors the following week. There is a slight cost difference between the two quotes, however, there are significant advantages to spending a little more now for a 30-year investment and that is what I will be requesting to do.

·         I will be presenting the bunker sand replenishment proposal to the Green Committee this week and Finance Committee and Board of Directors the following week. The proposal consists of spending up to $40,000 to add much needed sand to our existing bunkers using in-house resources and temporary labor over the summer months.

·         Overall, the golf course continues to receive many compliments. The next two months will be very interesting to see what happens with the weather regarding rainfall. With no rain in over the past two weeks, I am already seeing signs of dry turf due to the limitations of our irrigation design. Lake levels have dropped by 12 inches over the past 2 weeks and will continue to drop more rapidly as higher temperatures and windier days increase.