Seeded Range Tee

     

    Hello again! It has been awhile since the last blog post and we just wanted to give a little update on the range tee! As many of you have noticed already the range tee has been closed now for quite some time. We had reseeded the top section of the range tee a few weeks ago, and we are all thrilled with how it is looking so far!  We planted two different grasses this year a rye grass and a bluegrass blend.  We first aerified the top section of the tee to break up the soil and to make some holes for the seed to be planted into.  We then over seeded the rye grass, and then strip seeded the bluegrass all throughout the whole tee box. Lastly we dragged in the rye grass that we over seeded earlier. With seeding two different ways we can target a much wider area than just strip seeding row after row.  This means more areas will grow in fuller. 

    Here in the next couple weeks or so we will be starting to have people hit from the mats instead of in the front of the range tee.  We usually have the back lower section of the driving range tee open so you can still enjoy hitting from the tee.  But we decided this year to close that area off to save it for next year. 

    We want to thank everyone for staying off the tee so it has a chance to grow.  Once this winter is over and the warmer weather comes back we will be more than happy to open the tee back up so you may enjoy the freshly seeded tee box!  We also want to thank Tony Bertels for taking the time to help us during this whole process.    

     Hunter Hill

    Assistant Superintendent

    Heart of America Golf Course

      

Frost Delays

 Hello! Its been quite a long time since the last time we have posted on here and we are very sorry to everyone that reads these blog posts! We will try to have updates about the course work/projects and some further information regarding the course on here as well. My name is Hunter Hill. and I will be taking over these blog posts! I will try to have a post every two weeks or so, so I hope everyone that wants to learn more about the course reads these and gets a bit more information out of them!!  If you see me out on the course feel free to wave me down to ask questions!! 

    

    As we head into these winter months we are of course going to see a fluctuation of temperatures. Colder nights, chillier afternoons, and frosty mornings.  A big issue that arises during the winter months are those pesky frosty mornings.  Frost is a bigger deal than what people seem to believe.  It is essentially the water inside the grass freezing and becoming ice. That might seem like the grass is becoming stiffer and more solid to walk on but the opposite is in fact happening. Grass is very forgiving most times you walk on it, it bends and springs back like nothing ever happened. But when it freezes from the frost its as fragile as glass and if stepped on could break and possibly die. This leaves brown dead footprints where ever someone has walked. These footprints won't go away over night either. They will persist longer during the winter months because the grass is now shutting down and becoming dormant, cause of the colder weather.  Which means the grass isn't actively growing as much, compared to when it is summer time. This is why we have later tee times in the mornings and have frost delays.  It is to protect the grass and to make sure that golfers are given the best greens possible to play on! 

    

    Thank you for sticking it out and reading this blog post! This is the first time I've made a blog post so it will be a learning process. But I hope this helps people get to understand the maintenance side to the golf course industry.  But lastly from everyone here at Heart of America we wish everyone a Happy Halloween and a Happy Holiday's!!!

    Hunter Hill

    Assistant Superintendent 

    Heart of America Golf Course

      

Native Areas at HOA

Many of you who play at Heart of America have been asking when we would mow the native areas down on the river course. I am happy to say that over the last week of November, we have successfully mowed down all of the native areas on the entire property. We had to wait a little longer this fall to mow all of it because some of the lower areas that hold water were still muddy from rain and snow. We plan to do a better job of keeping the native areas under control next season to create a more enjoyable experience for our patrons. 

The Finished Product

Over the last month, the crew at Heart of America has made big progress on some projects, as well as stared getting the course ready for the coming winter.

As some of you have already seen, we finished the renovation of the cool season tee on hole number 9 on the River Course. It was a big project that we have wanted to do for the last couple of years. Although the tee has been completed we have decided to wait to open it until next spring, this will allow the new sod to knit itself into the soil and establish healthy roots before we open it for play.

This was after shaping the tee and prepping for sod. 

NEW Tee on #9

We have recently started renovating the cool season tee on number 9 on the River course. We attempted to rebuild the tee in the fall of 2018 to help with drainage issues and to re-establish grass on the tee. The tee struggled over the 2019 season and it has come time to give it another shot. Over the last week in September we began clearing the tee top of all unwanted sand and weeds to create the desired surface for the new tee box. The next steps in the process will be to level the tee and lay down bentgrass sod. We believe that bentgrass will survive better in the current location, and it will make for a much better playing surface. Also by using sod instead of seed the tee will be open for play much sooner.

Change of Management

There will be some changes at HOA in the near future. I have taken a new position out of state and will be leaving the course indefinitely.  The transition should be smooth, because in my place will be Sam Marlin taking over.

Sam has been with Orion for nearly three years now and is very familiar with the course. He served as my assistant for two years and has been the equipment manager this past season so he is well rounded in golf maintenance.

I have enjoyed my time here at HOA and I appreciate how great everyone treated me while I was here. I hope that the hard work I put in translated into some form of playability for our faithful patrons.

From myself, my wife Hannah, and my daughter Nicole, I want to say thank you for some great years here at Heart of America Golf Course and I wish the facility, the management, and the patrons well in the future.

River #7 Update

Here is a quick update on Hole #7 of the River Course:

I've had many questions about what are plan is for number 7 on the River side so I'll take this time to outline our plan.

Just a reminder of what #7 looked like a couple months ago and numerous times over the past couple seasons

The majority of our battle has been with the silt that the flooding leaves behind.

 After all of the silt and debris cleanup was done, we started putting together a plan for repairing the lower tee and fairway.

With Zoysia prices as high as they are and knowing that this fairway will go under water again at some point, we do not think it is feasible to resod the entire fairway to Zoysia.

#7 lower tee

 We will however be sodding the lower tee on #7 to make it playable as soon as we can. We will be borrowing sod from the far left side of the front fairway of the same hole to fill in this tee.

As far as the fairway goes, we have opted for a seeded-type bermuda grass variety. This is the reason the lower fairway is still roped off. The germination period for this seed is much longer than other seeds so even though we have had seed down now for a couple weeks we are just now starting to see some seedlings.

Tiny bermuda seedlings starting to find the light

Our goal is to push this seed along with spoon-feeding fertilizer and aerification to close in the bare areas and make the fairway presentable again.

 Much of these areas will fill in on their own when the soil temps are higher and the growing conditions are right for warm season grasses. In the mean time, we are doing everything we can within our budget to bring this hole back to life.