Playing Catch Up at the Bay

With all the work being done on the golf course this summer, mostly on the greens, there have been some areas of the course which have unfortunately had to take a backseat on the priority list.  One of those has been the native grass areas around the course and with over 50 acres of native grass areas that has begun to become an eyesore and an added obstacle to many golfers' enjoyment of the game.

This past week Mitch used a Bobcat brushcat equipped with rubber tracks to go through and clean up all the native grass areas and lake banks around the course.  Many of these areas had become overgrown with weeds and tree saplings becoming unsightly and in some cases blocking golfers view or even ability to play properly off of certain tee boxes.  We do apologize for that and believe we have remedied that issue.

View from the tee box on #2 before maintenance.

View from #2 after maintenance.

#5 tee box before maintenance

#5 tee box after maintenance

Another area on the course that we have neglected has been the faces, or turf surrounding, the bunkers.  These have become overgrown and were extremely difficult to play out of but several members of the agronomy team led by Bill Greene have put forth tremendous effort mowing the grass back down, reestablishing a nice clean edge on the bunkers and getting them back in shape for play.

Our agronomy staff is working very hard to catch up on several of the important areas on our course and we ask that you do your part in improving the course by repairing your ball marks, filling divots, raking bunkers, and obeying golf cart directional signs.

Harrison Bay will have the honor of hosting the Tennessee Golf Association Match Play and Senior Match Play Championships July 28-31 and we are working to have the course in championship condition by then.  In preparation for that we will be adding sand to the bunkers, aerifying selected tees and other areas on the course, landscape work around the course, and a lot of prep on the greens to get them smoother and faster.

It has been an interesting summer so far and we are excited about where the course is headed.  I have to thank our agronomy staff, some of which have only been with the course for a month or two, for jumping in with both feet and putting in long, hard hours to rebuild the course to the level that you, and I, expect.  We are not done, not by a long shot, and will continue working hard.