Pine Straw Installation

 Today we have pine straw being spread on both golf courses.  The straw serves two purposes.  It acts as a weed barrier and has an outstanding presentation on the courses.

Palmetto Maintenance

In order to increase the playability of our golf courses, the golf course maintenance crews on the Bear and Bobcat spent about six weeks trimming, and in some places removing palmettos.  Below you can see the before, during and after of one of the beds on hole 14 of the Bobcat.

The process of removing the stumps in this one bed took these three workers almost a whole day.

 

Storm Clean-up

Mother Nature decided to throw the GCM department a curve ball this week.  Winds reached 40 mph on Tuesday morning.   

This was the view from #1 Bear first thing in the morning. 

 The Clean up effort accumulated a large pile of debris 

A large Carrotwood Tree was snapped in half by the high winds.

Beach Renourishment Program

 For the last couple of weeks Jake and the Bobcat Crew have been working on some Beach Renourishment on Bobcat 6 for Goliath, Henry and Ally, our resident alligators.  The gators have been complaining about their sunning area so we made them a nice new beach.  

I think this is Henry.  As you can see there is a golf ball that belongs to TFCC member Bob McKay, on his back.  I'm going to say that is a HAZARD and take my penalty and move on!!!

Monday Maintenance on the Bobcat

On Monday, the Bobcat Course had its morning closure.  During that time numerous tasks were completed.  Greens were vented with needle tines then rolled and mowed.  A soil amendment was made after that.

The needle tining, as shown above, is nothing more than a very light aeration.  It allows bad gases in the soil to escape and water to penetrate the canopy better.  In other words, it just makes everything we do more efficient and the greens healhier.

After aerating the greens they are then rolled.  There is practically no disruption to play after this process is completed.

 The last thing we do to prep the greens for the days play is mowing them as you see in the background here.

Tee Reopening on the Bear

The newly renovated tees on holes 6, 7, and 13 of the Bear reopened today.  The tees were leveled, enlarged and planted with Bimini bermudagrass.

 

Bear Monday Maintenance Closure

We had our morning closure on the Bear Course yesterday.  During that time we were able to get a couple of light cultural practices done.   Greens were lightly topdressed and a soil amendment was made, as well.  The sand will help smooth any imperfections and the soil amendment will feed the soil to help grow a healthy turf.

Here you can see the application of the sand topdressing.  After the sand dries it is lightly dragged into the canopy with a carpet like dragmat.

Jeff is making the soil amendment here.

 The last part of the process is watering everything in.