Course Update

Winter wonderland!

Covers coming off for hopefully the last time

    Spring is in the air and a lot is happening around the golf course!  Last week, we hopefully had our last greens covering event and winter storm.  The course received 2-3 inches of snow last Friday that helped insulate the greens from the 14 degree low Saturday morning.  Thankfully after Saturday, we quickly warmed up and uncovered Sunday.  From there, we jumped right into tournament preparations for the Rogers State University Hillcat Invitational last Monday and Tuesday.  We hosted numerous division II teams and by all accounts, the course played well and feedback was positive. 

Regarding the greens, anyone that has played in the last few weeks can see that they look kinda funny.  While at first glance it may be concerning, our team has thoroughly inspected all the greens and although some areas of greens look void of any green grass, there are viable stolons and other plant parts under the surface.  This means that these brownish areas, are just more dormant that other parts of the green and we fully expect these areas to quickly green up once the temperatures warm up consistently and we get further into spring.

Over the past few weeks, the team has been working hard to not only prepare the golf course for play, but finishing our winter to-do list so we can begin all the spring tasks that will set the turf up for a successful growing season.  The team has been busy working on irrigation repairs, painting equipment parking spaces in the shop, removing/pruning trees, repairing cart path sections on #9 and #11 and installed a new stone path at clubhouse. 

Spring is not only a transition for the turf, but for our staff.  This week we welcomed back several seasonal greenskeepers from last year.  We are grateful for them returning this year and already our department feels more productive.  We still have a long way to go before we are fully staffed, but we feel that we are off to a positive start.  Over the coming weeks, we will be interviewing candidates and on-boarding new hires.  This is always an exciting time as we get to know all these new faces and get them trained and ready for the demands of another golf season.