We are really excited about opening day this coming Friday, April 11th! Highlands CC is one of, if not the first, Club to open on the mountains. It's been a cold winter and we've had about two weeks worth of growing weather to date. So what can you expect of the course this Friday?
- Overall, the golf course looks better right now, than any other April I can recall in 25 years.
- The rain over the last two weeks has us slightly behind. Specifically with the paving of the cart path on the tenth hole. I'm hopeful this is a done this week, making this a moot point. It looks like it will be dry for the most part this week, but temperatures are really supposed to cool with low temperatures in the upper 20's and low 30's.
- Sod: We still lack laying one truckload worth of Kentucky Bluegrass sod. The reason is, we've been holding out until after the paving is complete on #10. The edges of the new path will require sod and it's more economical to get all the sod at once, rather than broken up into 2 loads. Areas that still need to be sodded are on holes #14-#18.
- The greens, while still slightly slow, are in great shape. We did a small aeration this spring based on recommendations from organic matter testing over the winter. Therefore, the greens are just about healed and don't have a lot of sand on them.
- The new greens on holes #12 and #14, will be in play this weekend. Those greens are being maintained like all the other greens on the golf course at this point. However, you will be able to see the sod seams, which will fade over the next few weeks.
- For cool season turf like Bentgrass, active growth doesn't resume until the sum of the average day temperature and average night temperature add up to 115. I always used to say that highs in the 60's and night temperatures no less than 50*F will drive grass growth. This year at the Board Retreat, a member told me about their Superintendent at their home course, Cherokee T& CC, who portrays this as the sum of both temperatures. I immediately thought that is a really clever way of expressing what I've been trying to say all along. If the day temperature is 70 but at night, it falls down to 30, the sum is only 100, meaning growth is minimal. Using this system, it gives you an idea how critical the night temperature (or low temp) is for turf growth. So, thank you to my friends at Cherokee T&CC for teaching me something new!
If you have any other questions about what to expect, please give me a call or shoot me an email and I'll tell you about anything you're interested in. My email is: bstiehler@highlandscountryclub.com