Hole 5

March started off as a pretty wet month. Sandpines received 4.4 inches of rain during the first 9 days of the month. However, the last 14 days (March 10th through the 24th) have only yielded about an inch, and 60% of that came in one day (March 16th). Last week, the golf course dried out enough that we had to water a few areas (tees and fairway hot spots). Irrigation in March on the Oregon Coast is rare. It was especially strange considering we were dealing with frost delays for most of the week. It looks like we won't have to worry about either of those issues this week.

Hole 2

We have groomed the greens a couple more times since my last post. Greens mowing frequency has increased and we are starting to get some grass growth in all areas throughout the course. Fairways were mowed and fertilized (lightly). We have spot mowed the rough and surrounds as needed.

As we have time, we have been aerating areas of the rough in order to provide better playing conditions in the long term. In the short term, the cores will remain in the rough. The cores will be mowed up and will break down in the coming weeks. In the mean time, play winter rules in areas where the rough has been recently aerated.

6 green

The tees have been verticut a couple of times recently in order to remove some of the moss that has accumulated. The tees have also been fertilized with a high rate of ferrous sulfate following the verticutting processes. Moss does not like high rates of ferrous sulfate. Hopefully, after a few more applications, the moss will be gone.

We are in the process of top dressing the tees. We should get most of them done today. If the weather holds, we will finish them tomorrow.

The new tee on hole 8 is starting to green up a bit. We still have a ways to go before the tee will be ready for play, but I thought I would include a picture (below)  to show the progress it is making.

New tee on hole 8