Week 10 Recap

          Hole 4 new fairway approach                                                  Hole 6 new expanded approach

We are very pleased with where we are in the re-grassing project, especially in light of the extreme amount of rain we've had over the course of the last 4-5 weeks.  The course is really starting to grow in nicely and it's exciting to see our bent grass turf become a reality.  

How is our bent grass growing to date, generally ?

Generally speaking, everything looks to be progressing very nicely.  In particular, our fairways, tees and our blue grass rough are doing very well – largely because they were planted first. 

As we have stated in previous posts there are some areas on our green approaches and our greens (mainly, 1, 10, 11, 13) where we’ve had some seed displacement due to the significant and heavy rainfall we’ve received and due to our absolute commitment to maintaining the slopes and original contours (as nearly as possible) of those approaches and green surfaces.   All of these areas have been seeded, reseeded and/or, in select portions of those greens and approaches, we have used some bent grass sod as well.  We’re confident that all of those areas are on track and in good shape -they just need some time to continue to grow-in and mature.  Please note, and anticipating the question, the bent grass sod we’ve used is sod grown from the same bent grass seed varieties / cultivars as we’ve used on the rest of the course.    Additionally, there are a few small areas across select fairways (such as 11 and 5) where we’ve experienced some more minor seed displacement, again due to the heavy rains in the last 4-5 weeks.  These areas have also been either seeded, reseeded or sodded and we’re confident they will continue to grow-in and increase in turf density both this fall and in the spring.  

How do the greens look, in particular?

Since we seeded our greens on 8/17 we have had almost a foot of rain in the last 4 weeks.  Growing intervals between weather systems have been less than ideal for 100% of the seed to take hold and germinate.   Not all greens grow in at the same rate, especially when impacted by heavy rains and the seed displacement mentioned above.  Now that we are able to mow them, we can see which of these greens have less turf density than others.   This is just part of the process and the continuous evaluation and re-evaluation that we manage throughout the process – there will continue to be areas that require slightly different approaches and strategies and we’re prepared for those efforts.  We simply add seed to any areas of the course / greens that aren’t yet as dense as necessary – we just went through that exercise and selectively planted some additional seed last Monday.  We will also carry out a dormant seeding or overseeding in late October which will aid in turf density next spring.  

We remain on budget and on schedule.