by Brian Duthu
Pro Shops
Once again this year we will be participating in Patriot Golf Day. Patriot Golf Day was organized, with the help of PGA of America, to raise funds for the Folds of Honor Foundation. The money raised is used to fund scholarships for spouses and children of military service men and women killed or disabled while serving our country. Starters will be collecting donations through the pro shops from August 30th through September 5th. In addition to our normal fundraising efforts, we will be hosting a Skins game on September 2nd, open to all golfers, proceeds from the event will be added to our fundraising efforts. The event will begin at 7:00 a.m., at Lakes West, with a shotgun start.
Courses
By August 2nd, aerification and de-thatching of fairways will be complete. This year we closed longer to allow time for maintenance crews to dethatch fairways. Dethatching removes the winter grasses that held on the longest and took over weaker spots in the fairways. The South course was the first to complete the process and the bare areas of the fairways have nearly all filled in.
The greens on the North course were the hardest by the combination of transition and water issues. The winter over-seeding had taken over many areas of the greens and left no turf when it checked out. The best solution to have prevented this would have been to not overseed the greens for this past season, however this would have led to subpar conditions for the winter season. As poor of condition as the greens at North are in, they will recover without the need of reseeding. The areas that are weak now will be the weakest going into overseeding. We are exploring all options to not repeat this process next year, including overseeding options.
The Lakes East project continues and is on schedule. Irrigation installation was on pace to be finished the week of July 25th. The next phase will be cleanup of disturbed areas and testing of the system before final development of the irrigation program. Landscape installation is nearly completed on the back 9 and has begun on the front 9. The project will finish on time.
The pump station and lake work on Willowbrook has been completed and the pump station is online. It was difficult to manage the installation of the pump station (during the heat of the summer) and maintain course conditions. We appreciate everyone’s patience during the process, having a reliable source of water online during the construction next year, will help ensure the success of the renovation. The new pump station is capable of providing an additional 700 GPM. We are awaiting a breaker for the fountains. Once received the fountains will be brought online. The bare areas of dirt that were removed from the lake are being prepped for sprigging.
Snack Shops
We invite all of our residents to try our snack shops for breakfast or lunch. The snack shops open daily at 6:00 a.m. and are open for lunch through 1:00 p.m. for the summer months.
Lawn Bowl
The Bell Greens have been top dressed and laser leveled by Barkshire Laser Leveling. Prior to the topdressing, areas that were slow to grow in, were sodded. The greens will remain closed until they have grown in. The greens will be heavily watered and fertilized to aid in their growth