Spring is here

Spring is here! The only problem is we had close to white out conditions Thursday morning and possibly more snow coming Sunday. It didn't last long, but it was long enough!



The greens aerification at Westham was scheduled for Mar 25. Because Mother Nature is being difficult and we are possibly getting more snow on Sunday and Monday, we decided to start aerifying  this past Tuesday night. We were able to finish up everything Wednesday afternoon. In the coming days, we will go out and topdress some of the holes that were not filled with our initial sand topdressing. We will also be applying some granular fertilizers and lime. The fertilizer will hopefully get the bentgrass moving and help us have a rapid recovery. The only thing else we need to do is to pray for some warmer weather.

 



None of this could have been done without the help of the great crew at Westham! Thanks to Chad, Luis, Josh, and Andrew!! Also, a special thanks to Wayne Carter for coming over from Hanover Country Club to lend a hand. I know he wishes he hadn't left Westham! We are looking forward to a great season!

Course Etiquette

Course etiquette is a very touchy subject for myself and many other superintendents. Poor etiquette is something that is going to happen, I understand. Some people just have no respect for others and normally they are the first to complain about things.

I don't think there is anything that makes me more mad than the picture above! Not only is there a divot, it is right next to an unfixed ball mark!!! Also, Chad sent me the picture of this bunker last weekend. He mentioned that if we had just one more rake in this bunker the golfer probably would have raked his way out. Not sure if you can see it or not, but there are three rakes within arms length of the area that he or she apparently used an excavator to hit this shot! I do realize that the green rakes are difficult to see up against the dormant Zoysia grass, but come on!!

In case you didn't pick up on it, there is some sarcasm in this post. These are just a few things that bother the staff and myself here at Westham Golf Club. Please do your part and clean up after yourself.



Spring Preperations

I think I have been slacking a little recently. It's been a while since I have posted. For the last week I was in Florida for our annual meeting. I was lucky enough to play a couple of rounds of golf on the way down. The weather was beautiful and I was not excited to get home to a cold rain!

Spring is almost here! Right now we are in the process of spraying out any winter weeds that have popped up in the dormant bermudagrass. We should be done with this process within the next week or so. That is if we aren't under a foot of snow after the storm that is supposed to hit us Wednesday. We are also applying a pre-emergent herbicide to control any new weeds from germinating.

Once we are done spraying out weeds, it will almost be time to aerify. I know this is a touchy subject, but we are going to do everything we can to help this process heal as quick as possible. By the time they heal we will be watching The Masters and not even thinking about what went on two weeks earlier.

I look forward to seeing everyone out on the course!