Deer Trace Golf News & Gallery

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March Golf News

Deer Trace Golf Course

From Your Golf Course Superintendent

What happened to our winter and what is in store for us come springtime?

This winter has been a real strange time – from a dry fall to a wet November and then above average temps and no snow. What that means is more golf and more stress on the grass. Usually, winter is the time for grass to heal itself and get ready for spring. This winter the golfers have been out almost everyday. Due to this, the course needs help from the golfers to insure healthy grass and great playing conditions come late spring! This includes proper ball mark repair on greens, filling and replacing of divots on tees and fairways, and using the 90 degree rule when driving your cart.

I have noticed the wear of cart traffic on the far sides of the rough, just off the fairways. Most golfers are using this as a grass cart path and this leads to compaction and loss of turf come summer. Please use the cart path until you reach your ball and then proceed across the fairway 90 degrees from the path. After you hit your ball, please return to the cart path and proceed until you reach your ball again. Please follow cart path signs when you approach the greens and exit to the green and white stakes along the path. These will be put out soon and will help with cart traffic. Make sure you are filling divots on par 3 tees and smoothing them out. The white tee boxes are really getting beat up and not getting filled in. Each tee has its own sand and seed box and needs to be used before leaving the tee box. This will insure grass is being grown in the divot rather than weeds.

During the last few weeks, we have been burning off native areas, and cutting down some trees. The main trees that were taken down were left of #2 green and left of #6 fairway. We will be grinding the stumps and chipping up the limbs in the next few weeks. We also will be trimming up the creek areas along 8, 15, 16 and 17. This will help with finding lost golf balls and more air movement.

Projects this spring include leveling and drainage of low areas, edging and drainage of bunkers, seeding of the chipping green, installing a practice bunker, and sod work of some of the collars to insure better conditions during the hot months. We will be aerifying April 2nd and 3rd and would appreciate anyone volunteering to help. Please leave your name at the Pro Shop if you can volunteer!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to stop by the golf maintenance shop and say hi. If you can’t find us there, most likely we are out somewhere on the course making everything perfect for the golfers.

Ethan Shamet

Your Golf Course Superintendent