Frost

It's getting to be that time of year again when we run into frost delays in the morning. I know that it is frustrating for golfers and believe me, it is just as frustrating for the maintenance staff. Typically after a frost delay we need to get all of our equipment out ahead of play and be constantly pressed by those first quick groups.

Instead of trying to explain frost damage and the importance of staying off of frosty turf, I have found a great, short article by the USGA that explains it perfectly. Please take a moment to check out the following article.

USGA Frost Delay

Thanks, and enjoy any good weather days we get this fall at the course.

Fall Seeding at HOA

If you make your way to Heart of America Golf Course you are sure to see hundreds of feet of rope and stake all over the course. We have installed all of this to help direct traffic for our fall seeding.

This year we are trying to replenish all of the rough that we have lost over the past two years. In doing so we have moved carts to fairways and cart-paths only. This is to help the seedlings grow. If carts continually drive over the rough areas where all of this seed has been planted we will lose all of it and have wasted huge amounts of time and money.

This is an example of the small seedlings that can be severely damaged by cart traffic

In conjunction with all of our Fescue rough seeding, we have also completely renovated the range tee with Rye grass. This process involves shutting the main tee completely down. We understand that this is an inconvenience, but we will have a much better stand of grass come next spring if we take care of it now.

This is what we are trying to avoid on the main tee. Please help us out and stay on the mats when using the driving range.

 Overall, I expect to have good seed germination this year and I think we will see a big difference in the rough next spring if we can push this seed this fall. As always, I greatly appreciate all of our patrons and thank you for obeying the ropes and signs all over the course.

Upcoming Projects at HOA

I want to take a moment to update everyone on upcoming projects at Heart of America Golf Course.
On September 4th we will be closing down the top turf portion of the range tee for an extensive renovation. The mats will be open on the 5th going forward as well as the lower tee area like normal.
Weather permitting, we will be aerifying greens September 12th and 13th. This process does disturb the greens as many of you know, but we will expect to be healed two weeks after completion.
The renovation has begun on the back tee on number 9 of the river. We expect to have this completed and reopened by this fall.
We are hearing great things from golfers and love to hear everyones feedback regarding the course. We are always open to ideas and suggestions and welcome anyone to come say hello.

Thanks for playing HOA

Josh Linn,  Golf Course Superintendent

The Rock

As many of you probably know, we held the annual "Truck Cup" on the Rock July 31st. The reason I am mentioning this is because we are very excited about the condition of the rock course and where we are right now over there.

The Rock course was in great shape for the Truck Cup

I just want to take this moment to invite everyone to come play the Rock Par 3 course. We have dedicated many hours to it and are very proud of the condition it is in.

Superintendent's Revenge

The maintenance team is very excited about the Superintendent's Revenge tournament coming up in a couple weeks. Golfers can expect everything from goofy putters to unreasonable pin locations. This event should be a lot of fun and we are excited to see how it goes. I will caution you, i doubt anyone is going to come out and shoot 3 under par.... not if I have anything to say about it. 

There is a sample putter in the proshop of what you can expect to find out on the course for the revenge tournament.

The PLINKO board, also in the clubhouse will select your club for you on one of the tee boxes during the tournament. Drop your ball and cross your fingers because I don't think you are getting there with a Pitching Wedge!

So sign up for your tee time now if you are up to the challenge! I look forward to seeing everyone out there, and your can rest assured I will make my presence known.

New Tee on #9

As many of you have noticed, we are installing a new tee on hole nine on the River Course. There are many things that go into creating a new tee including leveling the ground, establishing healthy turf, running new irrigation, clearing trees, and mowing down new rough areas. We are getting very close to having the tee ready to play, but it remain closed until it is completed. At that point we will be renovating the original back tee in order to have alternate tees available.

Here is the view from what will soon be the new tee on #9.

Bunker Renovation is Done

As everyone has seen, HOA underwent a bunker removal and renovation project this off season. After months of work moving, filling, and rebuilding bunkers, the project is complete. The results look great and play-ability is better than its ever been. A couple holes look completely different than before and will play differently as well.

Hole number 3 has a new fairway/rough line and only one greenside bunker now. The rough juts in significantly from the right side and the bunker is bigger and more protecting of the front of the green.

Hole number 7 underwent the biggest transformation. The original bunker is gone and has been converted to rough and a new greenside bunker has been created to add a risk/reward factor to the approach. The new rough line cuts in significantly from the right now and requires shorter hitters to lay up in the fairway on the left. The hole is reachable in 2, but trouble awaits an errant shot. 

The next installment will be a much more in depth look at the renovation and transformation of these bunkers. Also, keep your eye out for a new tee that will be opened on number 9 in the near future.

2018 goals for HOA

The 2018 golf season is getting underway at HOA and we have high hopes for the future of our facility. We have a list of things that we would like to finish up as well as a few new plans for improving the greens and the overall play-ability of the course.

First and foremost we are going to implement a a couple new cultural practices for the greens to improve both speed, and consistency of our putting surfaces. In addition to our usual verticutting and top dressing, we will be using the verticut reels to very lightly stand the grass up on the greens. This will allow for better cut quality from our primary mowers. It will also reduce the amount of thatch build up throughout the year leading to firmer more consistent playing surfaces.

Here is an example of verticut reels and what they do to the green. A good verticut program can greatly improve green firmness and speed.

Next we plan to use the greens roller on a more consistent basis. Rolling has many positive benefits including smoothing out and firming up the surface of the greens. Rolling can also help reduce our disease pressure in the summer months.

If you have been around the river course in the last two weeks you may have seen the new sod we have put down in the bottom of number 5 fairway. As most of you know the fairway was completely covered is silt that killed most of the grass in that area. the new sod will spread throughout the year and hopefully we will have a full fairway once again.

Looking forward to the 2018 season, we will see you out there.   

HOA Maintenance Update

I want to take a moment to update everyone on the ongoing projects at Heart of America. As I'm sure anyone who has played the course over the last few weeks will have noticed, the bunker project is well under way. Many of the bunkers that are in the flood plane will be removed and the bunkers that will remain have been lined and rebuilt with new angular sand.

This state of the art liner is as good as it gets and will make bunker maintenance much more manageable for our small crew. 

This is where #7 bunker used to be, as well as where it has been moved green-side. The shaper we have had out on the course the last couple weeks has done a great job reshaping and filling bunkers around the course.

The River #3 will be reduced to just one bunker and the other to are being contoured and filled.

During those cold, frosty mornings, Sam and I have also made some new signage and targets for the driving range. 

We built this sign and installed it by the front gate so that right when you pull into the course you can see which areas of our facility are open for play that day. This will be useful when we are performing weekly maintenance on the driving range or if one of the 9 hole courses is closed due to flooding or other conditions. 

The new targets we built with metal frames should hold up much better to golf balls and the elements. We should have these in place on the range shortly. 

The weather is getting much better and prime golfing season is right around the corner. We look forward to seeing everyone out at Heart of America Golf Course this year.

Still Busy in the Winter

Many people ask me what we do all winter long when its way too cold for mowing and there is no golf being played. I'd love to tell you that we take a couple months off and just relax, but that's far from the truth. The winter is a perfect time for us to get many things done we just don't have to for during the season. Everything from equipment maintenance to painting and tree work.

This year we lost many signs due to the flooding so we decided to make new signs from scratch.

These will be our new enter and exit signs for cart traffic on the river course

We will also be building a small sign that lets everyone know which portions of Heart of America are open that day. 

Each portion of this sign will be reversible so we can close areas that may be flooded or closed for maintenance 

While we had the wood and equipment out we decided to make all new tee markers for the River Course as well. These will be solid cedar blocks that we feel will give the place a little nicer feel. 

Each one of these tee markers was hand burned by Sam Marlin the assistant superintendent so when you see him let him know how great of a job he did. We think they turned out great. 

These are just some examples of the projects we complete in the winter as well as all the other mechanical, arboricultural, and horticultural duties. 

Looking forward to a great 2018 at Heart of America! 

**Stay tuned for all new bunkers this season!