Spessard Holland Re-Opens July 2nd

To All Golfers:

 Good news from Spessard Holland!  Regular tee times will start up on Tuesday, July 2nd. On July 4th, regular tee times will start at 7:00 am, no special events are scheduled. Everyone who wants to play and celebrate our Nation's birthday at the course can do so any time during the day.  

 A special "thank you" goes out to all of you, our patrons, for being patient with us during the renovation of Spessard Holland.  I am very happy to report the greens are doing great and should putt pretty well for only being in for a short time.  The first week of July is coming up fast so we are looking forward to you all returning and seeing all the improvements.

During the closure we were able to do a lot of extra work on the course.  Tee boxes were leveled.  Some of the tees were sodded and others were sprigged.  The sprigging process takes a little longer than putting down sod, so some of the tees will be moved around until they are fully grown in.  The 18th fairway has been raised anywhere from 6 inches to two feet to allow for proper drainage.  The fairway will be closed until further notice so we will play 18 as a par three for a few weeks.  Staff will let you know the areas to avoid.  If your ball does stay in the fairway, you may walk out to retrieve it with no issues and drop on the left side of the fairway.  Weather and the grass will determine when we can open it completely. 

 Expectations:  The greens will roll well but not at the speed we would like for at least a few months.  During the next few months, we will roll, top dress and verticut the greens.  This will be a weekly occurrence until we get into August.  At some point, more than likely, we will need to aerify the greens to help with continued growth and will allow us to get the greens to a nice playing speed going into the fall.  After spelling this all out, I think everyone will be surprised how well they are rolling now.  The 9th green was the first to be planted, it was sodded on May 21st.  The last green was our big putting green which was planted on May 24th.  So less than a month down, we are mowing at 200.  The greens were plated at 250, which is a quarter of an inch.  We are about 10 days ahead of my projected timeline.  Our goal was to the have the greens planted on or right at June 1st so we were able to beat our goal.

Thank you to all the staff at Spessard Holland who pitched in to help get the additional projects finished.  A special thanks to Jeff Brewster of Total Golf Construction from Vero Beach.  They did a great job with all the construction work!

To our crew on the maintenance staff at Spessard Holland, thank you!  Dan Loveridge for his extra hours at the course during the grow in and Jamie Baker for covering time when Dan needed a rest.  Jamie and Dan are doing a great job!  Jamie and the crew at the Habitat during the drought have done an over-the-top job keeping the course in incredible shape.  The only problem they have is dealing with me every day, so hats off to both crews.

Finally, as we move into the next phase of the two golf courses, we will continue to improve and make more changes to enhance your golfing experience.  When we started back in September of 2018, I wanted to make sure we had a vision and goals that we could implement.  As of now, we have completed half of what I would like to do.  All of this is not possible without all of you and your support.  From, all the staff at both courses a "Big Thank you" to each and every one of you for playing and spending time with us.

Best Regards,

Mike Yurigan