Its been a busy couple of weeks out here on the golf course. When the weather is nice, a few of you have taken advantage of it and gotten out to get some fresh air. Its been nice to see different activity on the course other than the deer and our staff running around. Below are a few bullet points of what we have been up to and what the next couple of weeks will bring.
Given the unpredictability of Indiana Spring weather, the availability of the golf course continues to be on a day by day basis. Zach and I look at forecasted lows to set first tee times each week to give you an idea on frost delays and how to best plan your tee times. If a monsoonal rain comes, it may close the course for a few hours or even a day given the slower drainage properties the soil has when it is colder. If you haven’t yet, please download the Clubhouse Online app, which will allow you to receive push notifications instantly if course availability changes.
Starting Tuesday, the Practice Facility will be open for you to hone your game on. Elcona is blessed to have a wonderful Practice Facility, including a second to none Short Game area. It has many areas that provide creative lies for you to hone your game on. This is a club amenity that few, if any, have in our area and is a tremendous asset to your membership here at Elcona, and saves the golf course from excessive wear from practicing on it. The new bunker north of the small short game green was completed last year and gives you a third distinct bunker shot to practice. The Practice Tee will be set up on the very front tee for the first couple of weeks to allow the main tee a little extra time to warm up and begin growing.
All playing surfaces have received their first mowing as of yesterday, and the fairways especially needed it! This time of year, the turf is not growing as it would normally in the meat of the golf season, so these areas get mowed on an as needed basis, including putting surfaces. Each year coming out of winter we begin mowing these at a much higher height and work our way down to in season height, usually reaching it a couple weeks after aerification. I am pleased with how everything looks coming out of winter so far!
This year we have added brushes to all of our fairway mowers. These brushes are mounted in front of the mower blades and stand the grass up before getting mown, resulting in a better, cleaner cut and allowing the ball to sit up a little better in the fairway. I look forward to seeing the results of using these year round on the course.
Work continues on the large practice green and 9. We will be renting a one ton roller to further smooth these greens out post aerification, with the goal of opening the last week of April still in mind. The pond on 3 has been hampered by wet weather, but we started this week repairing the washouts from winter’s rain and snow. The goal is to install the liner next week and have the hole open for play before the end of April.
There are a couple other changes you will see on the course this year. One major one is how we are maintaining bunkers for daily play. To try and increase playability, we are rolling bunker edges instead of raking them. You may remember us doing this “Aussie method” before the bunker renovation in 2020, in an attempt to get the ball to roll farther down to the base of the bunker. After discussing the performance of the bunkers with the Golf/Greens Committee and many of you, we are going back to this style of maintenance. Also, we are asking that bunker rakes be placed inside the bunker when you are using them this year, to allow our staff to complete mowing around them quicker, save on the wear and tear of driving around the bunker to retrieve them before mowing, and to allow our raking team to create a more consistent presentation daily. As more staff return, we will begin cleaning up the edges and checking sand depth more frequently.
There are also some new roping areas to control cart traffic too, like the left side of 13. This area would get severely worn from cart traffic over the course of the year. We are also replacing the rope on 1 with signage in the fairway only. Even with the rope gone, we are asking everyone to heed the signs in the fairway and take their cart to the path before reaching the fairway bunker. Carts are to be on the path from the fairway bunker through the green. Your cooperation in helping us manage cart traffic is appreciated by our staff, as well as your fellow member. As much as we all dislike rope, there’s no denying it allows us better playability of shots around the green complexes. Please remember that carts should be 30 feet (10 paces) away from greens and 15 feet away from tees, and on paths where available. Thank you!
While many of you will be enjoying next week on a beach, we will be starting aerification on all playing surfaces. We will be doing aerification on greens Monday (Front 9) and Tuesday (Back 9). The solid tines I am using this year are 1/2″ in diameter, which are slightly larger than in previous springs, by a 1/4″. The reasoning is to better incorporate a higher amount of sand into the soil profile and reduce organic matter. This will better firm up the surfaces over time and maintain a healthy soil profile for proper root growth and surface drainage. While we are closed entirely Monday, the Front 9 will be open and available for play on Tuesday. If the weather cooperates, all 18 holes will be open on Wednesday. The video above is from 2019 and is similar to the process we are using this week.
Fairways will be aerified using solid 5/8″ tines the rest of the week while the course is open. If you encounter our staff while you are playing on the course, PLEASE give them a couple minutes to acknowledge you are playing the hole and move out of your way. Sometimes they will have their back to you and will not see you while they are concentrating on performing the job assigned to them. My staff and their families thank you for looking out for their safety. We will be core aerifying tees Monday, April 10th. All of these dates are weather permitting, and any changes to this schedule will be communicated to you via push notification.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out at ryan@elconacc.com. Have a safe and enjoyable Spring Break and I hope to see you out on the course soon!
Ryan
Rub of the Green 