We are thinning some of the old, dying pines in the grove between the 3rd and 4th holes. All together, 8 trees were removed from the grove.
The advantage of winter topdressing in Highlands is allowing the rain and wind etc to work the sand into out verticutting grooves and aerification holes. Over time, this can really benefit drainage and firmness by converting the upper couple inches of the soil profile to sand.
We also removed some of the smaller trees in the grove between 14 and 15. This opened up a few more views and makes playing from this area slightly more golfer friendly.
We hauled 2 dump truck loads of soil to #17 in order to reslope the banks along the creek. There were a couple areas along here with really poor drainage. This is an area that collects a lot of golf balls from the tee. To make matters worse, the area was so wet, golfers weren't able to retrieve their ball from the creek without sinking down a few inches. This will no longer be the case.