New Greens Mowers

This season we will be using the newest technology in greens mowing. The Jacobsen Eclipse Greens Mower has been on the market for several years and as with all new technology some problems existed with the design and operating system. After tweaking the design and operating system the newest model of Eclipse mowers have been very successful and well received in the turf industry. The mower has an combustion engine that runs at a very low speed to power the generator system that runs the electric components which include a computer that is set by our Equipment Manager to provide consistent reel clip rate and operating speed. This ensures that all operators get the same results when mowing. By setting a constant clip rate and speed it is possible to mow a fraction higher than our present mowers with better results.

Groundsman Chris Haro mowing the practice green with  the new Eclipse mower

This is Better

 May 3

 April 16th

Monday Maintenance

Cutting rough

Just a few of the work projects being performed today.
Our trusted rough mower Nick Gaeta is back smoothing the rough to a managable 2.5 inches and our annual sand injection into the green surfaces,"dryject", are in progress today.
Mowing of tees, colllars and approaches; green and tee bank mowing as well as tennis court maintenance are also on the schedule.
All the areas of new construction are now open and there were 2 birdies on the new 14th hole on Saturday during the men's golf opening tournament.

Dryjecting Greens

Winter Please GO AWAY!!

Here are the conditions that we awoke to this morning. The cold temperatures turned the end of yesterdays rain event to a mini snow storm. Over an inch of snow has covered all our playing surfaces and with the cold weather predicted to be around for the next two days, it might be a few days before we see grass again.

APRIL 16, 2014

Bent vs Poa

This picture shows the rear section of the rebuilt 14th green. During the rebuild the original green sod was lifted and re-installed on the newly graded surface. The configuration of the new green was slightly larger than the old green and some sod from our greens nursery was used on the rear section of the green.
The new sod,( planted in 2009), has a higher population of bent grass than the 85 year old sod that was on the original green. The green was covered for the winter to try and protect and accelerate the establishment of the new putting surface. When the cover was removed it was clear that the bent grass wintered much better than the Poa on the right side of this picture. Once the warmer weather arrives the color difference between the two species of grasses will blend together and will not be as noticeable.

Spring Prep

First cut on 3 black tee

 It's hard to believe that when the temperatures reach 45 it's considered warm, but with the weather we have had this spring we'll take it.
This week we will be making our first cuts on greens, tees and fairways. Our goal is to open greens and tees later in the week. The new tees constructed last fall will remain closed to allow for some better rooting to help the turf mature to the point that can withstand play.

Keeping the cut lines straight

Brushing 16 green

View from 3 Blue tee

April 1 Update

The combination of the heavy rains over the weekend and the snow on Monday morning has left the golf course extremely wet and soft.The golf course and all practice facilities will remain closed this week. The weather forecast is for improving, with warm and drier weather predicted for this week .We hope to be open for play on temporary greens and tees this weekend. That decision will be made Thursday.
Our goal is to open for play on regulars greens and tees by mid to late next week,( week of April 8th).
All areas of construction including the entire 14th hole will remain closed for play until further notice.
Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.