Tuesday

 

Today, greens are receiving two soil amendments, an 0-0-12 Potassium fertilizer and Calcium Sulfate, better known as gypsum.  We have rain in the forecast for Thursday, which will help irrigate these amendments into the rootzone.  Given the fact that our irrigation water and rainfall are so clean, we're constantly having to add these to nutrients to the soil, on an every 14 day interval from March-November. Right now, our goal is to build up the supply of these elements in the soil, headed into the season.  

Rainbow

 

Beautiful rainbow this morning on this rainy day!  This shot was captured by John Branson.

More from Monday...

Dredging is an ongoing process!  Sitting on the barge all day pumping sediment is a laborious process but one that allows you to solve many of the world problems.  When the dredge is operating, someone is always manning the vessel!

As you can see, the sediment pumped from the lake is costing comprised of leaf debris.

I'm proud of John Branson, Cross and Raul who are setting stepping stones in the new landscape at the entrance of the Clubhouse.  My hope is, this area blows you away come June 1st!

On #6, we are removing sod around the stream to better define the fairway!

Monday

 

Beautiful morning today and fairways are receiving their second cut of the year.  We received 1.6" of rain this weekend, which really greened this up even farther.  Above, you can see how heavy the dew was this morning. 

With dredging underway, I am testing Club Lake water on an every other week basis.  There are two concerns I have about our lake water because after all, this is the source of our golf course irrigation water.

1.   My first concern is the water quality itself.  Sometimes during dredging projects, nutrients that settled in the sediment can be stirred up, impacting the water.  I want to be sure I have a complete understanding of what the water quality is, that is going to be applied to our putting greens. 

2.  My second area of concern is the water turbidity and what kinds of solids are suspended in the water. This is really important because these solids can clog valuable pore space between the sand particles in the rootzone of our greens.  

We are planning to use irrigation water only when absolutely necessary this spring.  For comparison, I am pulling water samples near the irrigation intake and then another sample on #10, where water enters the property, before the section of lake that is being dredged.  By quantifying these samples, we'll know exactly what the impact dredging is having on water quality.  

USGA Green Section Record

 CLICK HERE! for the latest edition of the USGA Green Section Record!

Highlands CC Taco Day!

 

I can say with certainty, that you haven't lived until you experience HCC Greenkeeping Taco Day, happening now!  I always said we have a talented team but maintaining a golf course is only the tip of the iceberg!  These guys are amazing! Lyn, Raul and Jesus are at ground zero, making it all come together! 

More from Thursday...

Dredging Update: This is a couple hours of dredging this morning!  It's not an Easter egg hunt!  These are the handful of golf balls the machine sifted through in one morning.  Now, just imagine how many golf balls there would be if we were dredging the lake in front of #18 green!!     

Some more photos of the Rhododendron pruning and new sod on #8 along the cart path.

Hap says, "Throw me another ball, Pop! I wanna take a mulligan!"

Thursday

We received our first load of sod this morning and we'll spend the day installing it on #8 and some other areas we have prepped for new sod.

Chad is spending some time on the tractor with a box blade hooked behind it, spreading the piles of soil around #11 tees.  This area will have been raised up two feet or more which will dramatically help improve the drainage in this area.  Again, we were able to accomplish this, using the spoils from the drainage ditches on holes #1, 6, 9 and 11.

Drainage on #11 is ongoing.  You can see all the drain lines across the fairway... spaced out at 8' between lines, starting at the base of the hill, going back to the start of the fairway.

Wednesday

Pretty exciting day!  First greens mowing of 2026.  This mowing just gets the "fuzz" off the top.  The greens always look greener because we removed the brown tip the leaf blades develop after a cold winter.

 I love what I'm seeing in the forecast in terms of temperatures!

Tuesday

Today was the first day of the fresh cut grass smell!  Fairways were mowed for the first time this spring.

This machine has fascinated me for the past couple days, seeing it in action.  The material is sifted into three different particle sizes before being led to a container that is hauled away when full.  This process is impressive in that we are able to accomplish the dredging without using acres of land to lay out geotextile bags like we've done in the past.  We are setup on a small footprint and it's a very clean process as well.  I am certainly glad I was able meet the owners of this business because our options were very limited in terms of how we'd accomplish this project.

At least 90% of the material removed from the lake looks like this.  It's mostly leaf litter and organic material.  Below, you can see how it accumulates into the steel container.  It almost looks like mulch although it would not be a suitable product for that.  As the project continues, I am going to be doing extensive water testing to be sure we aren't stirring up any nutrients that may have settled in the sediment over the years that might be detrimental to our turf once the irrigation system is back in use.  It would also be interesting to send a sample of this material off for a nutrient analysis.  

They are also getting their fair share of golf balls! You would be amazed at how many golf balls are being sucked up during this project!

On #8, we are preparing for our first load of sod that will cover this area that was raised up next to #8 green.  Below, there will be a 10-25' strip of grass on the outer edge of the cart path on #8.

Concrete was poured today to enlarge the stone pavilion surfacing at the croquet pavilion.  This will allow the Stikers more room for tables and chairs.

In other news, our H2B Visa workers are planning to be back on March 18th.  Hopefully this schedule works out to give us a couple weeks to get the golf course ready before we open on April 10th.  Right now, there is a lot to do for a small team of people.  More help will be welcomed!

Drainage on #11

 

Drainage work is continuing on the 11th hole.  In addition to the fairway, the Club's Board of Governors approved the additional expense of installing drainage in the rough between the cart path and the fairway.  As you know, this area stays wet and can impact carts accessing the fairway on certain days.

Monday

John Branson has your courtyard looking like progress in underway!  He's doing a great job with it and it's fun to see the passion he has for these projects.  The entrance to the Clubhouse will be much improved for the coming season!

 

This drone shot shows more of the thinning and mulching done behind the 8th green.

Finally, dredging is underway and these photos give you an idea of how that process works.

This is the machine that de-waters the sediment, returning the water to the lake and the sediment to a pile that can be loaded and hauled off site.

If you look closely in the water, you can clearly see a pass the machine made along the bottom of the lake.  The dredging pontoon is guided on cables that keep it working in straight lines.

The yellow line you see is the top turbidity curtain that is stretched across the pond to that helps prevent the lake from becoming entirely brown-looking.

Friday

 

On Friday, we applied a fungicide for snow mold prevention.  This time of year, snow mold can become a issue but it's easily preventable.

Major landscape enhancements are coming to the front entrance of the Clubhouse this spring.  Club Landscape Tech, John Branson and I are working with Landscape Architect, Mary Palmer Dargan, to improve this area of the landscape.  The first step was improve the soil by tilling in 2 truck loads of compost mix.  Stay tuned to more photos as this work progresses!

Severe Drought

It's hard to believe that Western NC and Upstate SC are in severe-extreme drought.  Last year we finished the year about 20" below normal.  you can see by year-to-date rain total, we've had 8.7" of rain since January 1st.  For Highlands to hit its average mark, we need about 8" of rain every month.  We're half that in 2026.