As long as we avoid excessive rainfall, the course will remain nice and playable. It is the humidity that controls the playing quality of most course elements now. The greens are healthy and vigorous, easy to care for so we expect lots of good rounds of golf on our greens.
Gradually, however, our entire facility is being prepared for winter. We don't have a fixed cut-off date for when we say "no thanks" to normal summer behavior, but let the weather gods decide.
These winter measures have been implemented or are underway:
- Starting Monday, October 29, a mat requirement has been introduced on the driving range.
- The season for using scooters on the track is not over yet. More information to follow.
- Our beautiful wooden poles on the greens are being taken in for the winter for maintenance. Instead, our old fiberglass poles will be put on the course.
- The par 3 course quickly becomes waterlogged during the off-season, so it will close completely at some point.
- The same applies to our practice greens. The putting green by the terrace is closed for play and later it will be the turn of our new beautiful putting green by the driving range. It has served us well in its first season, but a little extra care over the winter will do us good.
Course maintenance in November and December
In week 46 we will start aerating our fairways. Two large construction machines will be working across our fairways during this week. They will be working on one hole at a time, but this hole will then be closed to play until they move on to the next hole. So be prepared to play 17 holes and if unlucky, 16 holes.
A main task for the rest of the year (and into the new year) will be to renovate the bunkers. Almost all of the course's 56 bunkers have been damaged by the summer and this damage has been exacerbated by the daily activity of the deer. 2 to 3 men will be busy working with the bunkers daily. All bunkers that are prepared will be marked in blue and will therefore be out of play until spring.
We have completed the major tasks of fertilizing, dressing and reseeding all the finer grass areas: greens, foregreens, surroundings, tees and driving range. Now it's just a matter of following the emergence of the grass and keeping the surfaces clean of leaves and worm castings.
The fairways are still damaged after the long dry summer and despite two thorough reseedings in September and October and the addition of fertilizer, we have not achieved adequate re-establishment and healing. The seeds will therefore be “in storage” until spring when we expect them to germinate. And we will follow up with several rounds of reseeding next year.
What can you do to keep the track in good condition throughout the winter:
We have a beautiful course that is fine for play in the off-season. But consider that there are now 5 months until the grass starts to grow back and repair the damage we do to it during winter play. Here are some good winter rules to take care of your course:
- Put your turf back in the tee box on fairways and semiroughs
- Keep your distance with your cart and walking route around the greens complexes
- And now straighten out those impact marks
Enjoy!