The Other Nine

This past week some work in the other nine has started. Not much, but it's a move in the right direction. So the architects can see things a little better, we have started bush hogging the corridors that were previously cleared. There is a lot of tall grass, weeds and even a few rogue pine trees that have started to come up. We need to cut them down so that they don't get too out of hand. The next step is to start clearing the wetland crossings. This had not been done before because of the fear of erosion. Once all of this is done, the architects will really be able to see what they have to work with on each hole. I have taken a few pictures to give you an idea of what everything looks like once it's mowed down.

As for the exsiting ten holes, we are looking very good. It's a great time to come and play. I will keep everyone up to date on everything as we move along. Have a great week!

 Here is a view from what will be the white tee on 3, a 232 yard par 3. 

 

This is a view from the black tee on 4, a 490 yard par 4.

 Here is your approach into the green on 4.

 

Your tee shot on 5, a 600 yard par 5.

 

Busy week and congrats!

We have had a very busy week this week. On Monday, we started removing some dead and unsafe trees from behind #7 green. This will also help us get quite a bit more sunlight on that green as well. There were five trees removed from #7 tee as well. These trees all hung over the tee boxes and were killing the turf on them. This should be a much better year for those tee boxes.

There were also two pallets of bentgrass sod put down on three greens. We repaired areas on #5 and #7. Also, the back of what will be #1 has been repaired. All of the areas on that green that have had plugs removed in the past have now been fixed and there is 100% coverage on #1.

 

 

Finally, the most exciting part of the week! I would like to welcome Holden Levi into the world. Congratulations to Chad and his wife Cari! They had a very handsome little boy on Wednesday, May 1, 2013!!! Everybody is happy, healthy and should be going home today. I am sure Lucas and Easton are both very excited to have their new little brother home to play with! If you see Chad when he gets back to work, make sure you congratulate him. He also could use another Monster energy drink!!

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Come play some golf!



 







Big news for Westham!!!

On Saturday April 20, it was officially announced that Westham Golf Club will begin construction on the unfinished nine holes!! Construction will begin in March/April of 2014 and we will be set for a Grand Opening in May of 2015. Late this year we will begin the expansion of the existing pond to ensure that we have enough water to make it through the grow-in. Bermudagrass will probably start going down in June. This will give us plenty of time to grow in the bermudagrass before it goes dormant. The greens will be seeded around August 15 and will be ready for play the following spring. 

This is very exciting news for all that are involved and we have been eagerly awaiting this day. I hope everyone has a great week!

Aerification recovery

We have almost completely healed from aerification. This picture was taken on Apr 9, 2013. Once the weather warmed up a little, we finally started to see some grass growing. The greens have grown through all of the sand that was put on them and we have started lowering the height of cut. Within a week or so we should be mowing daily at our normal height of cut.

Also, along with this warm weather we have started seeing a green up in the bermudagrass. This year we did a little experiment. We used a turf paint on #1 fairway. The true reason we did this was to add a little color as you drove down Magnolia Green's main entry. What we found is that the paint has helped that fairway green up much more quickly than the other fairways. This happens because the dark paint helps keep the soil temperature a little warmer than the dormant bermuda normally would. The pictures below were taken on April 15. The difference is pretty drastic. I think we are going to have to figure out how to come up with money for the other nine fairways this year!

We are gearing up for a great season and hope you are too! Enjoy the rest of your Spring!



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!