Repair & Restoration

It has been another very busy week at Rockville Links.  The crew is still working very hard to get the course clean.  The Links is usually prepped for the season in March, but with this long winter there is still work.  Most years we are full staff the week of St. Patrick's  Day, but this was only the second week with everyone back to work.  

Filling new bunkers with sand.

Most years the only focus is cleaning the course, but this year we also have to finish up the Restoration.  Everything is moving along very well.  If the weather cooperates, everything turf related will be finished up on these holes next week. There will still be some irrigation additions to finish up.  Then, it is just getting the turf to mature enough for daily play.  The plan is to have the newly restored holes ready for Opening Shotgun.

Winter Damage on 17 green.  Area has improved a lot over the last 2 weeks.  This area received the extra aeration and seeding. Please stay off these areas to speed recovery.

Winter injury has been getting better in many areas.  Areas still showing damage were aerated again pulling plugs followed by a solid seeding tine that does not pull a plug.  A mixture of bentgrass seed was then applied with soil amendments and fertilizer.  Many areas have shown more recovery in the last few weeks, but some areas will require us to plug out bad/dead turf and replace with plugs from the nursery established last year.

9, 5, and 10 still have the worst injury and remain covered to help recovery and seed to germinate.    There are isolated spots on many greens that look like the picture above.  Please treat these spots as ground under repair and keep foot traffic off as much as possible.  Less traffic and stress will help these areas heal quicker.

Pressurizing and testing the irrigation system.  So far only a few expected issues. 

The weather was great this week, and the weekend looks amazing.  Higher temps, plenty of sunshine, and high winds over  the last week have finally dried the course out.  

Over the next few weeks, you will see some irrigation running during the day.  This is to make sure there are no major issues and the system is working properly before full overnight irrigation cycles.