Golf Course Report

July 2015

The “Dogs Days of Summer” are upon us.  Heat, Humidity and the continuous likelihood of afternoon thunderstorms are more than enough to keep us on our toes.  The aggressive cultural practices and tight schedule make for a planning nightmare.  Our team has bought into the goal of completing all the necessary work and presenting a playable course on a day to day basis.  With the increased demand for our course this reciprocal season, we have treated every day like opening day.  Details are what define a golf course and typically during the summer months a private club will allow some concessions, this is not true at Stonebridge.  We take pride in hosting outside events and golfers that are new to SBCC; this requires a keen eye for detail and a proper plan.  Jeff Ratthe our Golf Course Superintendent, has been instrumental in forging this culture throughout our staff. 

The golf course continues to improve from an agronomic standpoint.  Last month we received two new Fairway mowers equipped with Groomers.  The ability to groom the fairways will promote a stronger more dense turf.  During the summer the Height of Cut (HOC) is lowered to reduce grain, shorten internodes and assist the Celebration to out compete the “off-type” grasses.  As we raise the HOC for Season, the groomers will allow us to stand the turf up for a better quality of cut and a finer playing surface. 

An aggressive herbicide program is being employed to clean up the golf course.  Some of our most noxious weeds (Crabgrass, Signal grass, Goose grass, Torpedo grass) are being spot treated.  This tends to discolor the surrounding turf as the target weed is eliminated.  We will push the recovery to ensure no re-germination of the weeds.

July and August is usually high season for Lake Algae.  An algae bloom tends to follow a stretch of weather that includes high heat and humidity and little to no rainfall.  Most of the surface algae that we see are the result of dead or dying submersed Niad.  Rest assured that it is all being treated on a weekly basis and will dissipate shortly.

Summer time is project time.  Sod work was completed on all the effected cart path wear areas.  We have experimented with an erosion type matting under the sod that is designed to reduce compaction and extend the life of wear areas.  We are also in the midst a few landscape projects.  The hedge along the III tee on #15 was removed and will be replaced with a less obtrusive planting.  This will improve the turf on the tee and provide better sight lines.  We are also planning to re-landscape the area behind #16 green to enhance the backdrop with consistent color. 

We do stay busy during the “Dog Days”, with our eye on providing a vastly improved golf course for the coming season.  I want to thank all of our members for their patience while we complete some of this disruptive work.