The End is Here

As of this morning the 2013 golf season has officially come to an end. The flags were pulled from the greens so we are now closed to any golfing traffic for the year. The weather is turning cold very quickly now and the golf course is getting ready to go to sleep for the winter. This is the time of year now that if traffic is allowed on the course it can really hurt us for the start of next year. Any traffic or wear will not recover since the turf is no longer actively growing. 

We have begun work on adding cartpaths to the course but this has been a slow process due to low staff numbers. We will get as much done as we can the rest of this fall but there will still be a lot left for next season.

Sod removed from cartpath area and placed in fairway

Last week we began and completed aerating the fairways. The process went quite smoothly and was completed quickly. Removing the cores will open up the rootzone for better water and air infiltration, reduce the compaction from all the traffic this season, and promote new growth for next spring. This will really help us to continue to improve the overall condition of our fairways.

18 fairway after aeration

We cut the grow-in holes 4,5,6 and 7 for the final time last week. Overall I am very happy with the progress of the grow-in and I think we will be in a great position to have them in very good shape for next season and to be able to have them open part way through the season next year.

Hole #6

We will be shutting the irrigation off today and will begin blowing out the system on Monday. We will be opening all drains over the weekend to allow as much water to drain from the system before we actually begin blowing out. The blowout process should take about two days for us to complete. It is probably the most important thing we do in the year because the irrigation system is such an important part of a golf course. If it is not blown out properly, it will bring on a lot of problems the following season, which in turn will negatively affect the overall conditioning of the golf course.

We are completing our final winter disease protection fungicide application today. It helps to protect us from disease the can develop over the course of the winter. The most common thing that can develop over the winter is snow mould. Other than disease protection the products that we are applying can also aid in helping against dessication (drying out the surface from extreme cold winter winds that can result in death) and help promote early spring green-up the following year. We will also be spraying the tee boxes and fairways next week for winter disease protection.

Final fungicide application on greens

We will also plan to tarp greens sometime during the week of the 28th depending on weather. We will then be putting up snow fence on all greens and tee boxes and some fairways after that. This helps us to trap snow which helps to form a layer of insulation for the turf that will protect the course from the extreme colds of winter. 

So in closing I would like to thank everyone for a great and successful 2013 golf season and I hope to see you all next year for another great year!

Hole 13 in fall