Fairway Aerification update

We will be starting to aerify fairways today on holes # 1,9, and 18. We will be using a solid tine this go around. The solid tines will not leave a plug and will recover much faster. Sanding the fairways will commence tomorrow and into Friday.  A sanding contractor will be here on Monday to finish off the rest of the fairway sanding. This should be finished by Tuesday sometime. We'll do our best to allow play through and we are sorry for any inconvenience. We were unable to sand the fairways on our first aerification for a variety of reasons, most of which were weather related.

Fairway aerification and sanding update

Once again the weather has thrown us a curve ball.We also recently had one of our tractors go down with a steering problem. We will attempt to aerify and sand when we get a break in the weather and our tractor gets back up and running. Looking at the weather for the rest of this week it may not happen until after the holiday the week of May 29. We will keep you posted as we proceed.

Fairway aerification Update

We have rescheduled the fairway aerification and sanding to the week of May 21.

Golf Course Maint. Update

Our plan to dethatch the approaches failed to materialize as we had equipment problems. Once fixed we intend to continue to dethatch all of the approaches and then topdress with sand as well. We were however, able to verticut the greens on Tuesday and sanded 1 - 9 in the afternoon. We intend to finish the back nine today ( Wednesday). This practice will continue throughout the spring to try and reduce the organic matter and help smooth out the greens.

Aerification and sanding the fairways is still planned for next week starting on Monday. This could change if the weather changes.

Next weeks maintenance projects

We are going to start dethatching and sanding the approaches on Monday. We will of course take the necessary steps to minimize disruption to play during this process.  This agronomic process will help get the approaches to firm up and make for better playing conditions. We will move to the side when play approaches and make every attempt to keep the area playable during the process. The weather is predicted to be quite nice and we need to take advantage of this while we can. 

We will be verticutting and mowing the greens ahead of play on Tuesday. We will then sand in the afternoon. Verticutting and mowing the greens will help smooth things out more and the sanding in the afternoon will also make the conditions better. The sanding will not be heavy, but may take a day or two to work its way into the putting surface. This is needed as we are still fighting to catch up with getting enough sand down to get the greens back into good putting condition. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but it's absolutely necessary we get this process done while we have a window of good weather predicted for this time frame.

If you have any questions regarding the process and timing please contact me directly and I can explain our plan more fully.  John Hicks   805-433-4643 

Post Aerification Update

The greens are continuing to get better and we will be treating them with some light sanding over the next few weeks. Due to the problem with the weather during our aerification, some of the greens did not get enough sand making for some uneven and bumpy conditions. We have verticut them and applied a moderate sanding, but we need to do more to get them where they need to be. Please be patient as we will try to do this during the week on days with less play.

The crew has recently finished edging all of the greenside bunkers and we will be going back in some places to put more sand down. We try and make sure we have at least 4 inches of sand in the entire bunker, but we do miss places and sand can move around, so if you experience an area that needs more sand please let me know and we can jump on it right away. Our next chore is to get all of the fairways bunkers edged in the next week or so.


Due to the wet conditions we were not able to put down any sand in the fairways when we aerified. We will do another aerification on the fairways when it drys to a point we can get the heavy spreader out without making any ruts. We're hoping this month if possible. We will keep you posted.

We have targeted some trees for removal and will be getting some bids to do the work very soon. We have targeted a select number of trees next to the restrooms on #14 which will allow more light for #15 tee and help us solve some drainage issues as well. In addition to trees in this location, we have identified a number of trees around the course to be removed that will help us with shade issues and frost in the fall and winter. We also will be removing some trees in a couple of locations that will enhance playability. Weather may play a role in removal so lets keep our hopes up for some good weather.

Finally, we are close to opening the turfgrass levels of the range and will coordinate this with the pro-shop soon. We are very close to getting our new dividers and want to coordinate opening the range when they arrive.