December 2011 Newsletter - Golf Fusion

Volume 11
TURF TALK
Ch
B1048
Page 3
Looks like 2011 is about to come to an end! It has been a rough year for the golf course. Following what
was one of the worst winters in history, was a summer packed full of heat and almost completely absent
of rain! As you may remember our greens took a pretty big hit from the extremely cold temperatures early
in the year. We had several large areas of winterkill that we have since fully recovered from. Due to the
Brianne Langdon
Membership Director
Maybe she will be a little more forgiving in the year to come!
Harbor Lakes Golf Club
e) blangdon@harborlakesgc.com
with the sodium rich waters of Lake Granbury.
p) 817-578-8600
Our little
spring.
high temperatures that came early in the summer, this recovery process took a little longer than expected,
but the greens are healthy and in great shape going into fall. For the most part, the rest of the course has
remained in fairly good shape considering the battles we have fought with Mother Nature this year.
Most of you have probably noticed already the work we are doing on hole #14. Our goal is to have all of
the bare spots we have lost resodded and completely playable by spring. Now with the effluent water
available for irrigation purposes, we should start to see an increase in turf quality around the course. The
effluent will also aid in our efforts to maintain healthy turf in areas that have since died due to irrigating
I would like to personally thank you as members for taking such great care of the course while you are
playing. Your help raking sand traps, filling divots, and repairing ball marks goes a long way enabling our
crew to focus on other aspects of course maintenance. I would like to ask for your continued help with
traffic patterns around the golf course. Trying to avoid high traffic areas while driving around the course
will help us in reducing the wear that the course experiences throughout the winter months and into
I would also like to announce the addition of Darren Hazel to our golf course maintenance team. He will
be serving as Assistant Golf Course Superintendent. He has been here for a few weeks now and has been
doing an amazing job. He will be a great asset for Harbor Lakes and I encourage you as members to stop
and meet Darren if you have an opportunity!
As winter draws near many people have asked me why I water the greens immediately before a freeze.
This is because the water will freeze and act as an insulator to the more severe temperatures and wind
that can cause winter desiccation of the grass around the course. So as homeowners, it is just as important
to protect your lawn when there are extreme cold temperatures in the forecast.
As always feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have about the golf course or even your
home lawn!
Josh Thompson
Superintendent