GolfCourseMaintenaceCommunicationNewsletter

WINTER GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE HIGHLIGHTS

Wishing you all a very happy New Year from the Golf Course Maintenance Department! As we enter 2024, I would like to provide an update on some of the things happening behind the scenes on our golf courses. WEATHER We are in the grips of an El Nino weather pattern, which traditionally means cool, wet winters in South Florida. Wet and cloudy conditions prevailed in December, with fewer than ten sunny days during the month. The sun intensity has been so low that our solar powered osprey camera on 9 South has had intermittent outages as there hasn’t been enough sunlight to fully charge the backup batteries. Additionally, we had 250% (or three inches) more rainfall than average, which creates challenges for our warm season grasses that thrive on warm temperatures and abundant sunlight. We must manage our moisture levels as best we can through the use of wetting agents to move water through the soil and take multiple moisture measurements each day to help guide our irrigation decisions. MAINTENANCE We have been very active in managing our turf grasses to provide as much help as we can to combat the weather challenges. Specific practices being employed include:

1) solid tine venting of the greens to allow air to reach the root zone to promote gas exchange and aid in water infiltration, 2) vigilant monitoring for disease issues on the turf and appropriate treatment, 3) increased hand watering to ensure water is applied only in areas where it is needed (according to hand-held moisture meters), and 4) the use of black sand to topdress the greens (pictured).