Spring Projects

After the coldest February in 32 years, the tide has now turned and we are officially into spring. The forecast looks promising for an above average April and hopefully any major cold outbreaks are a thing of the past. The daffodils, tulips and hyacinths are springing up out of the ground and the turfgrass is changing colors from a dull brown to green. The Horticulture team is busy cleaning out landscape beds and adding a fresh layer of mulch before the bulbs begin blooming and-even more evidence that spring is here-the fountain has been cleaned out and turned on for the first time this year. After cleaning, pruning, and mulching around the clubhouse grounds we will start on the beds on the course and begin installing new landscape areas that were approved during the winter.

Tulips emerging

First daffodils starting to bloom

Meanwhile, the Agronomy team is busy finishing up winter projects and beginning spring maintenance. The stump holes, from removed trees over the winter, have been cleaned out and filled with topsoil. We will start seeding some of these areas that are further out in the rough and the holes closer to fairways will be sodded later this month or early April.  Bunker work has been completed and now we are beginning to add sand to bunkers that need it. #17 fairway bunker, #2 green, #9 green, #14 green, #10 green, and #12 green bunkers have all had new drainage added and should drain well this season. Also, the thick February snow pack produced some pink snow mold on a few fairway areas and they should grow out of it once warmer temperatures prevail.

Snow mold on #9 fairway

#12 green bunkers after old sand was removed, drain tile cleaned, and new sand added.

In early March dormant seeding was completed in many rough areas. The abundant amount of trees that call WHCC home thin out many locations from shade and competing roots. This spring we overseeded to fill in these areas with a shade seed mixture. Thin rough spots in sunny locations received a turf-type tall fescue and perennial rye grass mixture.  Over 1,000 lbs of dormant seed were applied to the rough this spring and should help to make a thicker stand once germination begins in April.

Dormant seeding between #13 tee and fairway

Mowing has begun on fairways, tees and greens. The greens came out of the winter looking very healthy and rolling/mowing combined with low clipping yield has produced fast greens to begin the 2021 golf season. The fairways and tees are greening up and the rough will need its first mow around the start of April. The new tee on #13 and the back of #18 have been topdressed and are rooting in well. They should be ready to open up in April.

First green's mowing of the season

Topdressing the new area on the back of #18 tee

This spring, verticutting has been completed on all the fairways. As I have written about in a previous post (click here to read) the fairways have accumulated a decent amount of thatch. Verticutting these fairways will decrease the organic matter at the surface leading to healthier and firmer fairways. In addition, vertical turfgrass growth will encouraged the grass to stand up making for better lies. It will take a few verticutting applications for the thatch to noticeably decrease; however, I am sure in a couple of years it will be much appreciated.

Verticutting #1 fairway

Picking up debris from verticutting with the John Deere TC-125 harvester.

Overseeding of burmuda grass areas that was done last fall looks promising. #11 fairway was overseeded with HGT bluegrass and #15 fairway was overseeded with intermediate ryegrass. So far the ryegrass is the winner, but the bluegrass usually starts out patchy and fills in during the season. The downside with intermediate rye is that it needs to be reseeded every year where the bluegrass does not. We will continue to monitor and come up with a game plan for this fall at a later time.

Dormant Bermuda grass (back right corner on top of hill in this picture) on #15 fairway hillside in 2019

The same area overseeded with intermediate rye in March 2021. We only overseeded the top of the hill and the left side of the hill before the valley for this experiment. We had some skips and should use more seed in the future but the results still look good. 

HGT bluegrass and annual bluegrass filling in Bermuda patch on #11 fairway. Patchy for now, we will see how it progresses.

In the next few weeks, the Grounds Crew will start our greens maintenance program-topdressing, spraying, fertilizing, verticutting along with increasing the daily maintenance jobs. Spring has sprung and we will continue to accomplish tasks that will help the golf course play and look well heading into the summer months. Happy spring!

Brad Piecuch

Grounds Superintendent