Native Maintenance

As many of you have noticed, the golf course maintenance crew has been busy cutting down all of the native areas at Old Town Club.  The crew is almost finished cutting and the process of spraying out any unwanted weeds began today.  The reason our staff takes the time to do these jobs is to make our native areas more healthy and aesthetically pleasing in the coming months.  We will post the pictures of the finished product this fall.  Thank you for your patience while we try to improve Old Town Club.

Cecilio Ruiz cutting the native area behind 12 green

Monday Maintenance Days

Recently I was asked by a member, "What is done on Monday maintenance days while the course is closed until 3 p.m.?"  The answer is that every Monday is different based on the needs of the golf course.  This Monday I decided to take some pictures of the tasks we accomplished.

The top left image is of our crew member Neil Mounce spreading calcitic lime on all of the greens at OTC.  Cecilio is pictured in the top right image aerating greens with needle tines.  Needle tine aeration is used to allow air and gas exchange in the soil, as well as relieving compaction from traffic and allowing water to permeate through the soil profile.  The picture in the bottom left is of Gypsum what was also applied to greens to help flush high sodium levels in the soil.  The photo on the bottom right was taken at the putting green where some of our crew members replaced an area of sod that had become worn out by heavy traffic and shade issues.

As you can see, Mondays are a busy day for our crew, and it gives us a chance to perform specialized jobs that are necessary to Old Town Club in good playing condition.  Thank you for your patience while we strive to give you the best playing conditions possible. 

Golfweek's Top 100 Classic Courses Ranking

Recently, Golfweek Magazine released their top 100 classic courses in the United States.  The criteria for being labeled a classic course is any course built before 1960.  We are pleased to announce that Old Town Club came in 23rd on this list.  If you get a chance please check out Golfweek's list by clicking the link provided below.


http://golfweek.com/2017/04/18/top-100-classic-golf-courses-you-can-play-in-usa/

Fall Is here, I think.

With the onset of cooler temperatures, most of our maintenance practices shift from mowing to leaf blowing.  We are still mowing greens, and this will continue well in to winter or until greens freeze, but again the majority of what we will be doing the next several weeks will be blowing and collecting leaves.  Another detail you may have noticed is that we raise the heigh of cut on our fairways and surrounds, this is done to give the plant a little extra energy to make it through winter.  Height of cut plays a key role in bermuda grass survival rate during fall and winter, so we raise the height as much is tolerable to still allow adequate playing conditions.  The increased height will not be as noticeable once we get some heavy frost, which will "knock down" the tips a little. 

Video of machine row planting bermuda sprigs

Winter Kill article from CGA

Winter Kill Article from the C.G.A