Spring 2021 Course Conditions Update
4 Dunes with green mulch on the side of the green.
April 15, 2021 —
Aside from one bitter cold stretch in February, the winter of 2020-2021 was one of the mildest we’ve experienced in recent memory here in north central Nebraska.
It was such a nice reprieve.
Early April’s roller coaster — high 80s one day, low 30s the next — make for confused grasses, though.
All in all, the golf courses are looking fantastic heading into the spring. We were thankful for a winter with snow cover and bearable temperatures.
Spring kicks off in about 28 days (Opening Day is Thursday, May 13).
16 Dunes getting a first mow with mulch still on the edges of our greens. We remove the mulch by hand once we spray it off.
The entire property — leave for a small snow mold spot — is in really encouraging shape. (No pictures of snow mold, sorry!)
The fairways and greens have already had a few mows and are already starting to green up.
That first stretch of extended weather in the 60s and 70s and this property will be green in a hurry.
In early April, we were aerating.
Every hole on the Pines was punched and sanded, giving the soil and grass roots plenty of air and moisture as the season officially changes over.
We like aerating as early as possible so the property is completely healed come Opening Day.
Right on track!
Pines 4 getting punched…
The greens throughout the property should deliver on the same conditions we’ve seen the last few years, thankfully.
We were able to get the protective layer of mulch off in a timely manner, along with a lot of sand deposited during the 70 MPH winds we endured last fall. Even though the sand was blown throughout the course, we actually think it may have helped aid the turf, somewhat.
While the grass has stopped growing in recent weeks with the cooler weather, the turf’s health is really strong.
Firm and fast again in 2021!
6 Pines green, facing the canyon.
Aside from the golf courses, we actually have more good news that just arrived in the early part of the week — our H2B friends have safely arrived on property!
In total, we’re hoping to have a maintenance team of 25, one of our strongest fleets in years.
We are so thankful to have some strong numbers on the maintenance side for 2021.
This, along with recent financial success had by the club — allows us to start to place focus on some capital expenditures we’ve been waiting to execute.
Here are a few projects of note:
- 6 Pines: The teeing area has needed to be expanded for a few years. With grass that is shaded the majority of the day and faces the assault of a thousand wedges, we plan to add more teeing area for 2022 and beyond. This is a project we’re excited to initiate in 2021.
- 11 Dunes: To the right of the cart path, we’re hoping to build a new tee box that will serve as our green / red tee box.
- 2 Dunes: On the tee box closest to 1 green, we’re going to do some re-leveling. When this tee box was initially planted 10 years ago, strong winds during seeding caused for an ever-so-gentle slope. We have the man power to fix that this year.
- Cart Path work: We’re hoping to build up areas of our cart paths that have been abused the last few seasons. One of the chief offenders is actually the rain all we receive. Washouts are all too common.
- Bunker edging: It’s time to take back lost ground! We’re going to do edging to reestablish some of the initial intentions of our designers on the bunkering.
- Drainage: We mentioned it briefly above, but rainfall makes for catch up every time it happens. We’re hoping that some strategic drainage installation will help us out.
That’s about all we have to share for now. We’re extremely excited for the season ahead and cannot wait to start seeing carts (& walkers) buzzing around the property.
11 Pines is looking so pure…