Summer Closures

As the summer heat and humidity return to Copperleaf, many of you will be heading North or planning your summer vacations. As you make those plans, I wanted to remind you of the scheduled course closures for this year.




Hole 1 Green before aerification (morning)

 

Beginning May 15, the course will be closed each Wednesday through to the end of September. Many smaller projects are completed on these days without the need to prepare the golf course for play or impacting golfers. These projects include spiking, verti-cutting and sanding greens and other cultural practices including aerification of tees and roughs as well as golf course enhancements.




Hole 1 during aerification (midday)



July and August the course will be closed for 9 consecutive days each month. During this time, the greens are aggressively aerified to remove organic material and dilute the soil profile with new sand. All fairways are verti-cut and aerified to remove thatch thus providing a high quality surface to play from.


 This amount of time not only allows for the work to be completed but importantly, allows time for recovery. When the course opens for play, it is in excellent condition for our full-time residents and reciprocal players.




Hole 1 Green after aerification (afternoon)

   

September also has a 3 day consecutive closure allowing for end of summer fertilizing and top-dressing of fairways. Applying sand to the fairways is a new practice at Copperleaf and provides improved ball roll, improved drainage and superior turf conditions.




Verticutting Fairways

  


Aerification of Fairways



The end result of these closures is a course that has received the necessary remediation after a busy golfing season. The impact of over 40,000 rounds of golf and golf cart traffic has a dramatic impact on the ability to provide quality playing conditions.

 



Aerifying Appoaches

  Soil compaction that inhibits water, nutrient and root penetration; organic material build up that prevents fertilizer uptake, promotes turf diseases and provides "spongy" conditions and year round turf growth require aggressive cultural practices.

Fortunately, Copperleaf has an extensive Reciprocal Golf Course list that allows our Members to play at local area golf courses at discounted rates during these course closures and the summer months. For an up-to-date list, please visit the Pro Shop.

If you are planning trips either to or from Copperleaf this summer, please be aware of our course closing schedule and plan accordingly.



In summary, the course will be closed on the following dates:

Each Wednesday beginning May 15 ending September 25

July 10 - 18

August 14 - 22

September 17 - 19

Posted by David Dore-Smith

Director of Golf Course and Grounds Maintenance

Copperleaf Golf Club

Location:Copperleaf Golf Club





Golf Course Maintenance

There is constant maintenance, improvements and enhancements carried out throughout the golf course on a daily basis.

Besides the routine course set up practices such as mowing the greens, raking bunkers and installing the cups, our staff remains busy with various improvements to the course including the addition of pine straw in high visible areas, edging grass from cart path edges, bunkers and sprinkler heads and trimming shrubs and trees.

Through the recent member survey and focus group meetings, there was mention of the abundance of the Native grasses throughout the course, in particularly around some of the landing areas and bunkers. The Green Committee, at their January meeting, discussed ways to maintain the integrity of the course but to also be fair for the varying levels of golfers at Copperleaf. It was decided to improve several areas throughout the course including holes 1, 2, 4,9 and 16.

The area to the right of hole 1 was trimmed and fresh pine straw applied

Our staff have been hard at work over the past week "cleaning" these areas by trimming the various shrubs, grasses and trees to improve playability. These revised areas now look fresh and clean and not only allow a golfer to find their errant golf ball, but to also have a chance to advance it toward the green.

The fairway bunker to the left of hole 2 received a welcome make-over as well

The entire maintenance department greatly appreciate all of the positive feedback received during the survey and focus groups and look forward to continuing to improve the golf course for all to enjoy.



Posted by David Dore-Smith
Director of Golf Course and Grounds Maintenance
Copperleaf Golf Club

Location:Copperleaf Golf Course

Waste Bunkers

Copperleaf's Waste Bunkers have always been a topic of discussion since the course opened in 2000. Originally created with crushed concrete, the material was changed many years ago to Coquina (Co-keen-a) to add a contrast between the green fairway grass and the natural orange color.

The Coquina is mined on the east coast of Florida, near Melbourne, and hauled over on large trucks. Without question, the appearance of the orange sand and shell is quite dramatic, however, from a playability point of view, there is much to be desired.
With constant cart traffic, the sand is quickly compacted creating a hard, and difficult, surface to play from.


In recent efforts to "soften" the material, a machine was borrowed from a neighboring course to break up the sand. This method worked for a brief period of time however caused "wash-boarding" on the surface and made it unpleasant for golf cart passengers and maintenance vehicles alike.


An improved solution was researched and piece of equipment was purchased that tows behind a maintenance vehicle. This new "rake", a DR Power Rake, has been extremely successful in smoothing out the surface and providing improved playability.





Even after the Coquina paths have been raked with the DR Power Rake it does not take long for the material to be compacted due to the cart traffic.


The Green and Grounds Committee has developed a plan for the future to reduce the width of the Coquina areas, in particularly on holes 4, 5 and 18. These areas would then be classified as cart paths, thus providing relief for golfers. These ideas will be reviewed once the Long Range Plan has been provided by our Architect, Kipp Schulties, in March 2013.

Posted by David Dore-Smith
Director of Golf Course and Grounds Maintenance
Copperleaf Golf Club

Location:Copperleaf Golf Club