Glen Eagle Maintenance (10/22/25)

Riding around Glen Eagle as much as we do we spot all kinds of interesting things. Some expected and some not.

Something unexpected in the Northeast sky

Something expected near hole #1

And plenty of green grass.

The Glen Eagle Osprey couple is back as expected to their southern home for the winter. They will be rebuilding their nest and preparing for new offspring . A fact I learned recently is Ospreys are unique in that they are the sole living species of animals that occurs nearly worldwide.

Like the Osprey, our turf is preparing for winter and has already started to slow down top growth. When this happens, the plant uses most of its energy to build reserves in its root system. This allows the plant to draw from those reserves as weather and shorter days reduce the production of food during the winter months. When this process starts, the leaf and shoot growth slows down and allows us to mange the turf more consistently. The slowdown results a more uniform playability and look to the course.

A quick heads up, now that the course is open 7 days a week, you will see us trying to “work in” some of the tasks we would normally accomplish on closed Mondays. Mondays during the summer are used for many different maintenance tasks, for example, fertilizing and topdressing greens. Those tasks will now have to happen prior to play in the mornings or during play in the afternoons. We will do our best  to avoid interruptions to play as we move closer to season and the course gets busier, however there may be times where maintenance has to be done during your round. Please be patient with the maintenance staff. Most tasks are quick and we will be out of your way as quickly as possible.

Projects update - All of the golf course projects have been completed and our contractors have left the property. Late this week installation of Copperleaf will take place on the exterior side of the gates at the Radio Road entrance. This landscaping will provide color and privacy with relatively low maintenance. The gates and remaining fencing are scheduled to be replaced on October 30th which will complete the project.

An update on the fountain between Sterling and Saratoga that has been down for way too long. Finally after many hurdles we have a contractor out working to replace the pump and motor. If everything goes as planned that fountain should be up and running this week. I apologize for the delay.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf! 

Glen Eagle Maintenance (10/14/25)

Kind of messy last week with 6.39” of rain and mostly overcast skies. The additional rain topped off the lakes and this weeks sunshine has the course looking good and green.

Monday was our last closed day (except Christmas) until the middle of May. We used it to topdress and fertilize greens, topdress wet fairways, and spray tees/fairways while the contractor worked to finish up the fairway drain project.

 We have been heavy topdressing fairways for two years. The sand lines in the sod that was cut around the fairway drains shows the topdressing is working. It also highlights the organic material (area between the sand lines) that is created naturally by the turf and thus the reason why we want to make heavy sand applications. If we didn’t topdress, the organics in the soil profile would build until the course eventually becomes one big sloppy mess. The topdressing firms up the soil and keeps the course from becoming so soft that carts create excessive ruts and balls frequently plug in the fairways. Good to see the process working.

The recharge well stopped working recently so we had it pulled and are waiting on a replacement. Even though all the records indicated it is a shallow well, I was hoping the well would be deeper. It appears to be about 25 feet and in the Surficial Aquifer. That means there is no hard rock layer between the water in the lake and the water in the ground, only sand. So a portion of what we pump is likely being drawn from our own lakes reducing the net gain of what the well produces. Projects like this do provide a better picture of our systems and every time we replace parts of the GE infrastructure we learn something from it. 

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (10/8/25)

With the change in format for club communication, the blog updates will be Wednesdays instead of Fridays and will go out with the golf communication weekly.

That said, it has only been a few days since my last update so not as much to report but here are the highlights.

Course is looking good in part due to almost 4” of rain that fell on Sunday and Monday. Unfortunately the rain forced us into cart path only (CPO) conditions Tuesday but we needed the rain so hard to complain too much.

Here is a picture of the course on Tuesday and you can see how green the turf is.

The 4 inches of rain helped get the lakes closer to their normal capacity for this time of year and just in time as the weather forecast is calling for drier air and slightly cooler temperatures starting Sunday.

We only have one Monday closure left…where did the time go? So we made this past Monday count by spiking, spraying, topdressing and fertilizing greens. 

Pictures of the light topdressing done on Monday

Our projects are moving along steadily. Raising of irrigation heads around the greens should wrap up this week with drains left to complete next week.

I received a date for the gate installation at Radio Road. It is October 30th. Further out than I would have liked but glad to know we will get that project wrapped up this month.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (10/3/25)

 Happy Friday Glen Eagle. The weather in Naples continues to be warm but pleasant compared to the extremely hot weather in July and August. The golf course and common grounds have been enjoying the sunshine and are really starting to look great after the disruption of summer cultural practices.

I am becoming increasingly concerned about our lack of rainfall this summer. We have had 37.26” of rain this year. That puts us 20.15” behind our average rainfall totals for the last 4 years over the same period (1/1 - 10/2). Our lakes which are normally full right up to the bottom of the bridges this time of year are currently 3 to 4 feet below them.

The picture above is the outfall structure on hole #1 that allows water to flow off the Glen Eagle property when the lakes are too full. Normally this time of year the water level would be up to the top of the notch and running into the canal on Davis Blvd. You can see we are 1 to 2 feet below the bottom of the notch and levels receding.

Another example, is the amount of lake banks showing in this picture of 11 green. Normally water would be all the way up to or on top of the grass.

We have a few weeks left of “rainy” season so hopefully we will get the levels up before heading into the dryness of most SW Florida winters.

With October here, we only have 2 more closed Mondays and will soon be open 7 days a week until the middle of May. Our staff is working hard to finish up preparations for the upcoming golf season and look forward to seeing many of our members back and enjoying Glen Eagle very soon.

We are also working on wrapping up projects like raising heads and drains on the course, replacing the recharge well near the Divot, completing the installation of the Radio Road gates and landscaping along the new fencing.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!