Green Committee Update

Golf Course Update

MGC Members,

The calendar is about to turn to October and the earlier sunsets are making it harder to sneak in a late-afternoon 18. The sad reality is that this means that we will begin talking about how and when we will wind down the golf season.

Because of that, we wanted to provide a few updates.

Short Range to Close October 2nd

The last day the short range will be open will be Sunday, October 2nd.

While the upcoming forecast looks good, soil temperatures are reaching a level where grass stops germinating, grass doesn’t grow and divots don’t grow back.

Because the short range sees a lot of traffic in a relatively small amount of space, we will close it now so that it will be in good shape in the spring. This is consistent with what we have done each of the past two seasons.

Divots

The membership has collectively done a good job replacing and filling divots this season. Despite the volume of play this season, the fairways have remained in good condition and that’s something we should all be proud of.

As we reach the end of the season, sand bottles will be removed from the course in the next week to 10 days. That combined with the lower soil temperature means that it is critical to REPLACE divots whenever possible. If your divot breaks into multiple pieces, please try to replace even the larger pieces.

This is critical not only for the condition of the course over the final weeks of the season, but it is an investment in the condition of the course for when we open next spring.

It is always important to repair your divot, but even more important this late in the season.

Newly Sodded Areas

The next time you play, you will see that there are a number of areas on the golf course that have been resodded, including short and right of No. 13 green, short right of No. 17 green, in front of No. 12 tee just beyond the end of the cart path and near the greenside cart path on No. 5.

Please do not drive carts on these areas until the turf becomes mature and use good judgement about whether you should hit off of the new turf.

Regular Course Maintenance

Now that we are past Labor Day, the grounds crew is without much of its seasonal help. As a result, we are cutting back on some course maintenance.

For example, we are no longer painting the inside of cups on a daily basis. And while we still mow or roll greens daily, we are only moving hole locations every other day or so.

When will the course close?

This is a question we begin getting as get into October. We do not have a date set at this point as it is partially weather dependent. We will balance the weather forecast while keeping in mind the time it takes to properly shut down the course. It takes the team close to 10 days to put the course to bed (blowing out the irrigation, sanding/top dressing greens, etc.).

We will do our best to provide as much advance notice as possible before sending one of the worst emails of the year.

It has been another wonderful golf season at MGC. Enjoy the last several weeks of the golf season.

Matt Gibb – Chair, Green Committee

Jared Keller – Superintendent