Every year you anticipate having a cold winter which could possibly devastate warm seasons grasses like bermuda grass. To protect our grasses, all bermuda grass height of cuts have been raised to allow more leaf tissue to generate and more carbohydrates be stored for the winter. This year there are a few changes we are looking into to further protect areas where winter rains and cart traffic cause bermuda to loss its leaves and provide a thin area to play from. For example, hole #2, after the trees lose their leaves cart traffic will be restricted to the path on this hole. During the winter months, excessive water from rains channel down #2 fairway leaving a very thin playing surface just before spring. This area receives a lot of run off from #1 and other areas that are above the hole #2 making this one of the worst susceptible fairways to thinning.
Also, we are approaching our seeding date for ryegrass on the driving range tee. Typically, around the last week of September to first week of October we look to overseed the driving range tee. This year we will overseed the range the week of October 1st. During that time hitting off the mats will be mandatory for about 2 weeks while the seed germinates and becomes ready to withstand play. After the tee is open for play we will allow hitting off the grass on a limited schedule during the week, very similar to last year. We will post a schedule for hitting off the grass as we approach the seeding date.