Saturday, October 3, 2015

What a great season!!!


It's been a while since I've update the blog..thanks for your patience.  August and September turned out to be great months for the club.  The recent stretch of weather has been fantastic and somewhat unexpected.  Golf play was up, weddings went off without a hitch and restaurant has been serving up some amazing food.  The golf course has been in fantastic shape..tight, hard and fast.  We had the greens rolling 11 consistently throughout the period and pushed 13 on a couple of occasions for the Member-Guest and other high profile tournaments.  I have been getting great feedback on the consistency of the bunkers these last couple of months.  I believe we have found that perfect technique that works for majority of golfers and makes for the highest level of playability...out of a hazard...that is.

We are definitely winding down after the busiest September in my 8 years at the course, the whole valley seemed to not drop off after Labor Day like we used to see.  I think it's a trend that will stick with us in the valley moving forward.  Our "shoulder" seasons are shrinking :-( .   We are all but finished with aerification: tees, approaches, fairways and greens which we finished on Thursday.  We only have the driving range, tee deck and high traffic areas around the clubhouse left to complete.  We will be working hard moving forward getting ready for the snow...pruning up around the clubhouse, wrapping trees with deer barrier, removing leaves from the course in preparation of our fall snow mold mitigation, and all those little things that have to happen before we get buried with snow.  We certainly won't be waiting on the leaves to come down like we have had to do the last couple of years, something about all the rain and moderate summer temperatures had them turning and coming down more quickly this year.

We plan to close the course on Sunday, October 11th so get out and enjoy it while it lasts.  The greens aerification turned out great and they are putting surprisingly well.  After the 11th we have 20 days to "put the course to bed" and tarp the greens.  It's always a mad dash to get everything done so we can come out looking good in the spring.

A reminder to members and homeowners around the course.  Once we close for the season we would ask that you refrain from walking on the course, especially with dogs, as we will begin spraying for snow mold, doing tree work and will have large equipment in random spots at random times.  It really is a point of safety for the club and foot traffic can affect the viability of the spray we put out, affecting quality later down the road.  Once the we get our first significant snowfall and the cross country track is groomed the property will be back open to members and paying guests to access the track.

As part of our new member initiative members only will have free access to the track, homeowners and guests will need to purchase an armband at the clubhouse in order to access the CC Track.  You can do so Monday-Friday 9AM-4PM starting November 1st.  Thanks in advance for adhering to our winter property rules:  access to the course is limited to the track only, setting your own trail or boot pack is strictly prohibited; dogs must be physically leashed at all times (electronic leashes are not an acceptable form of restraint); please access the property at designated road crossings and/or the clubhouse (do not access through native areas or from homeowner lots);  the south side of Spring Gulch Rd (holes #9-10-11) along the river is off limits from November 1st to April first as it is designated NRO, critical moose winter range.   We are looking forward to a great winter season and we are already excited about what next year will bring. 

Have a great week and stay tuned, I will update this more often from here on out.

Below is part of the crew on #13 "working" the sand into the green as a final touch on aerification..they did a great job this year!!