Flintrock Overseed Transition

The recent warm weather has burned out most of our remaining winter overseed.  Fairways are transitioning fine.  #16 Fairway is currently our weakest.  

Tee boxes have been hit harder.  All tee boxes have been have been fertilized to help the bermudagrass recover.  Tee markers will be positioned to avoid the weakest areas.  Over the next 30 days I expect to see good recovery.    

Golf Course Update June 7th, 2017

Hills Country Club Golf Members:

The Hills Signature Course was aerated last week, Tuesday through Friday. All greens, collars, approaches and tee boxes were aerated. The weather cooperated and all went well. The maintenance team also did a nice job of topdressing the greens post-aeration. Consistent rolling of the greens and the recent rains have helped the aeration holes to recover quickly. Please expect a couple weeks of recovery before they get back to where they were prior to aeration.

Last week we also started a tee box project on The Hills Signature Course. In this project we selected several tees to be leveled and resurfaced with zoysia grass. This is the first of a two-part project to resurface all of the tees in the next two years. We started with tees most affected by shade, as the zoysia grass has a thicker blade and is more susceptible to growth in the shade. Some tees have been stripped and are currently being leveled. We hope to have the zoysia grass in place by the middle of next week. Temporary tees have been established, as we will have to stay off of these tees to allow the zoysia to take root. Here are the holes that have been affected:

• Hole #1 (Gold, Blue & White Tees) – Temporary Tee in place
• Hole #2 (Blue Tee) – Temporary Tee in place
• Hole #7 (Right Gold Tee)
• Hole #8 (Black, Gold, Blue & White) – Temporary Tee in place
• Hole #9 (Blue, White & Red) – Temporary Tee in place
• Hole #11(Black Tee)
• Hole #13 (Black, Gold, Blue & White) Temporary Tee in place
• Hole #17 (Black, Gold, Blue & White) *All play from Red Tees
• Hole #18 (Blue & White) Temporary Tee in place

We appreciate your patience as we progress with this project. If weather cooperates, we feel as though the project will be complete and we will be back on the tees in approximately 30 days.

A New Blog:

In an effort to keep our Members more informed of what is happening on the courses, Flintrock Falls Golf Course Superintendent, Aaron Clary, is taking the lead on a Blog focused on the maintenance of the Signature and Falls courses. You may reach the blog by logging into the Member Portal on the Club's Website and clicking on "Blog" on the left-side toolbar or simply bookmark this website into your browser: http://hgcm3.blogspot.com/

USGA Videos: 

Here are a couple great videos put out by the USGA demonstrating proper divot and ball mark repair. Please take a quick look so we may keep our courses looking the best we can! As always, we appreciate your help! These videos are also available on the Blog!

USGA Video on Proper Divot Repair

USGA Video on Proper Ball Mark Repair

I look forward to seeing you all at the Club!

Play well, play fast!

Aaron Chilek, PGA

Director of Golf 

aaron.chilek@clubcorp.com

Bug Spray and Grass Dont Mix!

Flintrock Greens Cleanup Scalping

You will notice some scalping on the outside edges of Flintrock greens.  These areas are mowed with the walking mower picture below.

Reason-  We typically mow this area of the green 3 times/week.  The grass is now becoming too thick and causing the scalping.   

Solution-  Mowing this same area 5 times/week.  This will eventually thin out the grass and the scalping will soon go away.        

Rough is Thick!

The much needed rain has really got everything growing!  We see the following trend most years.

Spring- Rain and ideal temperatures cause a surge in growth.  The rough thickens.

Summer- Little rain, golf cart traffic, and hot temperatures.  Rough will thin out.

Fall- Rain and cooler temperatures allows the grass to recover from Summer.  The rough thickens.

Winter-  Grass is dormant and not growing.  Golf cart traffic beats down the turf and becomes thin.

We are now mowing rough every opportunity possible.  As we move towards July you should see a slow down in growth.  The grass that we have now will allow us to get through the hot summer months.

Ant Mounds

With the week of rain we are seeing many more ant mounds around the courses.  Ant bait is being applied to fix this problem.

New Hills Assistant Golf Course Superintendent!

Please welcome Matt Cowan aboard.  His first day will be June 5th.

Hills Aerification

The Hills aerification is almost complete and will open back up for play on Saturday!  Greens, Tees, and Approaches were aerified.  Greens 1-5,13,14, and 17 also received an additional procedure called Dryjecting.  This involves special machines that inject sand/amendments 4-6 inches into the root zone.  Here is a link to their website-

www.dryject.com

The goal for this aerification was to remove as much organic material as possible and back fill the holes with fresh sand.  This will allow for proper drainage during wet periods and help to develop a healthy root system.  Recovery will take approximately 3 weeks.

Flintrock Bunker Edging

We have started to weedeat our grass bunker faces at Flintrock.  Its a time consuming process and will take several weeks to complete.  But the finished product looks outstanding!