July 2010
Sunny days have made a world of a difference on the golf course over the past few weeks and from a playability standpoint the golf course is now truly offering a challenge to all players-particularly when the course is firm and fast. This is much different than most of the month of June, when rainfall and gloomy days made the course soft and slow.
Funny how many people say and think that golf courses are easier to manage when rainfall is plentiful. This could not be further from the truth. Wet conditions due to excessive rainfall increase the need for labor inputs such as repairing bunker washouts and mowing with greater frequency. While occasional rainfall is welcome in relief of a long extended dry spell, consistent rainfall on consecutive days only makes us lose control of the playability of the golf course and at times forces the dreaded cart path only ruling. Let us hope that our luck holds with the weather and that summer-like conditions prevail for the rest of the year.
For the remaining newsletters this year, we are going to submit photos dating back to the construction of the golf course. Doing so gives you, our customers, a better idea of just what kind of site the course is built on. While the site is indeed beautiful, the roughness of the site did pose some serious challenges. This month’s picture is of rock blasting near what is now our practice tee. Note the subgrade for what is now the 18th green in the foreground. The specks in the sky are actually rock fragments flying through the air. Next time you are practicing your swing, look behind you and you can get an idea of where the original rock formation was on the site and the work it took to construct it.
See you on the golf course, Vincent Dodge