The sun is shining, the pollen is flying and we have 350 golfers out on the course today so it must be spring. And if it’s spring at Gold Mountain, that means one thing: new projects!
The dry weather could not have come at a better time; everyone needs to feel a little sunshine after the long and wet winter we’ve all endured this year, and the grounds crew is chomping at the bit to get out there make the courses at Gold Mountain even more feature-rich than last year.
The first order of business is always taking care of the greens. We completed greens aerification on both courses last week on schedule even though the weather was, shall we say, less than ideal.
Greens aerification: good for the course, and good for our lungs!
A little-known fact about golf courses is that not only do we aerify them, they purify our air as well. Golf courses in the United States alone filtered an estimated 13 million tons of dust from the atmosphere (source). To breathe cleaner air, we’ll be cutting the greens next week so that they’ll be all good to go for the start of the season. I’ve called in all our seasonal team members to start next week so we are ready to roll into the season.
Our next project is to build a new tee area for Cascade #5. We have wanted to return the Cascade Course back to a Par 72 for some time. With the addition of the new tee’s on #5 we will convert it to a par 5 from a par 4, making it the same Par 72 as The Masters’ course at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
The start of a beautiful forest wedding grotto. It may not look like much now, but stay tuned.
Spring is the start of wedding season, and I would be remiss if I didn’t give an update from the weddings team as well. We’re currently building a massive outdoor wedding venue and have cleared an area on the left side of Cascade #1 big enough to seat 200 guests. The next step is to build an altar for ceremonies, then spread fine crushed rock over the entire area. Trista tells me she has two potential weddings already interested for next year, so book well in advance!
My role has changed a bit since last year as I am now the Superintendent at McCormick Woods as well as Gold Mountain. I’m very lucky to have Paul DeVinney in charge at McCormick Woods as he provides me with insight into the course at McCormick Woods as well as running the crew on a daily basis.
Learning a golf course is a lot like learning about a new person you’ve just met; each has their own quirks, characteristics, and temperaments that require time to learn. When you do learn them though, you’re all the better for it.
This season will be an interesting one both for me with my new role and with all the exciting new features coming down the pipeline. Change is a good thing though, right?
Happy spring and happy golfing,
Ed Faulk
Superintendent, Gold Mountain Golf Club
