Golf Course Conditions – December 2023

During the month of December out on the course, we will be working on several different things. Some of these include spraying a color package on Greens, Fairways and Tees, hand watering Greens and newly sodded areas, and cutting and trimming some trees that need to be removed. Spraying a color package with green pigment and fertilizer is and has been a common practice for us over the past couple of years. These health/color packages help with improving the Greens overall health, plus add a good green color on our dormant Bermuda Greens through the winter months. On Fairways and Tees however, this has not been in our maintenance plan until this year. It is the same idea as on Greens, but with less frequent applications and not quite as good of color. It will still highlight the Fairways with a green color that will easily be seen from the Tee box to differentiate the Fairway from the rough.

This time of year, with the cold nights, moisture management is one of the most important factors on greens. To balance the moisture, we will be doing more hand watering on Greens and newly sodded areas. On Greens, if there is too much moisture/water from just running our irrigation, the wettest areas of the soil will develop disease. If the high areas get too dry from winds drying them out or not enough irrigation on an area, these areas will get desiccation or winter kill. This is why we use a moisture meter to measure the soil moisture and hand water the dryer areas, while not over watering the low or wetter areas. Please alternate traffic patterns to prevent wear & tear on the fairways & roughs.

One of our long-term goals is to cut down trees that are causing shade or water issues on the course. During the winter months, we will get started on removing several trees from the course that are creating problems or have been struck by lightning. Also several trees will be limbed up for a cleaner look all throughout the course. Lastly, if you have been out to the course, you have seen that the stream bank restoration is complete, and the first part of our bunker renovation has also been completed. The bunkers that were done first include the practice bunker, #9 bunkers and #14 bunkers. If you have not seen these, I encourage you to come out to the course and check them out. In the spring of 2024, we will continue to renovate the remaining bunkers.

Thank you for choosing to be members at The Brickyard and as always please remember to use the sand buckets on par 3