Next sport

Preparations are under way for the next season of recreation at BRCC.
Now, wind stay away.
Need some cold weather,
Turf

Open on temporary greens only

Looks like old man winter finally found his way to Northwest Indiana.
We have put the greens to bed for the season. The photos show the application of sand, a final topdressing for 2012. The grass will now be dormant until spring when we will count growing degree days to predict the return of growth to the plants.
The turf is closed to winter play as frozen root zones could result in damage to the surfaces. Today, we will be shooting a video to examine the reasons why we close the regular greens. Look for this to come out later this week.
The temporaries are located on the original back nine, 1 and 9 white, 1 blue, 4-9 blue.
Seven shopping days left,
Turf

One more week

Forecast is not quite wintertime-like yet.
We will keep greens open one more week.
If the lows dip below freezing, expect long delays as we wait for surfaces to thaw.
No more excuses....get that tree up! We are two weeks and counting.
Turf

Final weekend for regular greens

Looks like winter may finally be here. We will leave the regular greens in-play through the weekend. Come Monday, we will be open on temporaries only.
Expect late starts this weekend, possibly 10:00am.
But get to the club in time for an Irish coffee, perfect in weather like this. I hear they are awesome.
Thanks for a great season!
Turf

The incredible shrinking green

Our greens have shrunk! Not from washing with hot water, but from a few years of the greens mower operator being too careful.
Confused?
When the operator mows the final pass along the outside edge of the green, they must follow the edge perfect. If they veer outside the edge, they will scalp the taller turf that makes up the collar. If the operator stays too far inside the green, some of the turf that should be maintained at green height is not cut, a few days is all it takes for this "new edge" to appear as the correct boundary of the green.
The effort to maintain a "pretty" edge, is more conservative on the operators part. This is all my fault. The boss (me), tends to not like scalped areas.
This is the perfect time of year to "reclaim" these areas. You will notice yellow paint defining the new edge of the green. We will pick up a few awesome pin locations that I am excited about.
Now if I could do something about my shrinking attention span.
Turf

Know what makes these people happy?

Well, they are rocking some sweet Christmas garb for one. They are also celebrating the fact that they can sport their festive-wear while playing golf....on regular greens.
That's right, we will keep eighteen holes open on regular greens through the weekend.
We see the forecast as an opportunity to show the membership our appreciation.
We will remain open as the weather allows and will not close simply based on the calendar. I will keep you updated as we monitor the forecast closely to determine the date we will go to temporary greens.
Just to say you golfed December 1 is pretty cool, come on out!
Christmas sweater golf event anyone?
Turf

Throw out the "anchor"

We knew it was a matter of time, and today the USGA along with the R&A announced proposed rule change 14-1b.  

Sincerely, 

Turf........

Just kidding........ rule 14-1b will "prohibit strokes made with the club or a hand gripping the club intentionally held directly against the player's body, or with a forearm intentionally held against the body to establish an anchor point that indirectly anchors the club."

I personally applaud the governing bodies of golf for this decision, which preserves the nature and tradition of the game.  Now if they will do something about the distance race (guys, are you listening?).

The proposed rule would not make such equipment illegal, just prohibits the anchoring of such a device. Check out this video to see if you will be cheating in 2016, http://usga/anchoring.  

This proposed rule would not take effect until January 01, 2016, so there is plenty of time to take up the practice, win a ton of dough from your friends, then struggle horrifically when you have to give it up in three years.

Anyone want to buy a slightly used long putter?

Turf

Sent from Erwin's phone, please excuse grammar and punctuation.