There is not much "new" to report at Wild Horse as far as the course is concerned, but the announcement of our plans to build on-course lodging has obviously attracted a lot of attention. We are excited to see this new venture break ground and can't wait to share it with the many travelling guests that find their way to Wild Horse.
Summertime can get to be a bit monotonous for the crew. They have been mowing greens and fairways daily now for almost 4 months. But I have to commend them for always showing up ready to give their best to make Wild Horse as good as possible for you. Thanks to these crew members: Todd Bubak, George Dillon, Tom Shoemaker, Ed Fruit, Steve Rodhouse, Riley Ostendorf, Drake Langley, Taylor Walker, and Cody Bebensee.
Most days we will have 7 guys including myself working. About half of that crew will mow in the morning and be done. The rest will finish the rest of the day collecting trash, fixing irrigation, trimming bunkers, spraying weeds, raking traps, scraping cart paths, servicing equipment, and any other tasks we might need to do. It is a pretty modest sized crew but we try to get as much done in a day as we can to keep up with everything.
We will be breaking up the monotony of the summer by aerating fairways starting August 2. We will do as much as we can each day and hope to be done on the 5th. Many people are surprised at how early we do this practice rather than waiting until the more traditional fall aeration period. We do this for a couple of reasons. One is that is does break up the grind of the summer but that is not the main reason. Our primary reason is that the fairways during late summer look like they need some fresh air. The bluegrass starts to get chlorotic and the ryegrass thins due to the moist warm soils so we figure it a great time to try to give them some breathing room. Also as we head into the middle of August the recovery time is very quick with holes disappearing within a week. Another reason for aerating early is we can limit Poa annua germination by spraying preemergent right after aeration. Pulling cores and busting them up spreads plenty of Poa seeds around just in time for their favorite germination period of late summer/early fall. But by aerating early in that window we can apply a preemergent barrier that won't be compromised by a later aeration. And the final good reason to do an early fairway aeration is that the full crew is still aboard and we can finish this process in 3 or 4 days rather than over a period of a couple weeks.
I will post the rest of the fall aeration schedule shortly. There are a couple of tweaks that will be different from years past so stay tuned.
Good Golfing!
