Glen Eagle Maintenance (7/29/26)

 Dry and hot once again here in Naples. Heat advisories from 11am to 7pm today with little to no rain in the forecast. Seems to be the theme this summer.

We completed our 2nd summer maintenance closure on Monday and while it was hot, the drier weather allowed us to get all the scheduled tasks accomplished. We still have some healing to do as we open for play this week but that should go quickly as we return to normal course maintenance.

Tee Project Update

I am still impressed by growth we are seeing from the Bimini Bermuda we put out on July 1st. In just 28 days, we are seeing greater than 60% coverage on most tees. I can't wait to see where they are in the next 28.

In common grounds news, we started the removal of the Ficus along the interior portion of the Radio Road wall along the Addison Reserve side. The contractor is cutting down existing Ficus, will stump grind the root balls, add dripline irrigation and plant Calusia. This is the 3rd year of our Ficus removal/replacement program, once this area is complete, the bulk of the Ficus withing Glen Eagle will be replaced. This project was approved by the BOD to improve the look of the Glen Eagle property by reducing the impacts of White Fly, which was having detrimental effects on the Ficus.

Before Removal

During Removal

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 (7/22/26)

We had some very nice rain last weekend, 2.16" in total. That helped the new sprigs, the course in general and the lakes levels.

Even with the recent rain, we are still 3+ inches below our historical rainfall average for the year and our lakes, while better, are still not near the normal high water mark for this time of year. You can see in this picture of the weir on hole #1 that we are well below the point where water would be flowing off the property. Normally water would be above the top of the notch this time of year but we are still waiting for the water to reach that point for the first time in 2026.

 

Regardless, we have plenty of water to irrigate with and the we are receiving enough rain to help us without causing damage to the newly sprigged tees or washing out our work during the current course closure.

Speaking of the current closure, all tasks have been or will be completed this week and we will be ready for play next Tuesday. There will still be some recovery happening as we open but I expect the course to be in reasonable playing condition.

The tee project continues to go very well. 21 days after planting I am very pleased with the amount of coverage we are seeing. Watering, fertilizing, soil amending and topdressing will continue as needed until the tees reopen on October 1st. We are working on a short punch list of items with the contractor but for the most part construction is over and nothing but green grass in our future.

Hard to believe this was what they looked like 21 days ago...

While the course is closed we are working on a few other projects…

The bridge decking on #4 was replaced…

For 2026 that leaves us with only the bridge on 3 tee to finish during our last closure in September.

We have been repairing lake bank washouts in house this summer and it is going very well. Our tee contractor also does lake bank erosion control, so once the tees were completed, we asked him to repair the erosion on hole #7. This will serve as a test location for the method he uses and allow us to assess the viability of using his process for other areas moving forward. So far it looks great.

Here is the basic process…

Original eroded lake bank

Lake bank reshaped and covered with thick mat

Mat is tucked in the soil at the top to prevent water from getting underneath

Geogrid is laid on top of the mat

Opening up the rolled Geogrid

Cody posing for the camera

Geogrid laid out

Geogrid is staked along the top and seams

Geogrid is filled with stone and is covered with fill dirt

Fill dirt is covered with Coco Mat

Coco mat will stabilize the fill dirt and provide a medium to plant sod or littoral plants into.

The next step is to sod and/or plant littoral plants along the bank to help with stabilization. We expect this to provide many years of stabilization and beauty along this lake bank.

Also happening is the painting of the Davis Entrance fence and Gates. This will be a big improvement to the look of our property as members and guests enter the community. Big thanks to Cody for getting this done this summer.

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 (7/15/26)

Summer weather continues to be hit and miss. Last Friday, we had a strong storm move through that created a significant amount of debris and dropped 1.8 inches of rain. Most of that rainfall occurred in about an hour, making for a very intense storm.

The golf course loves any rain we get. Here is a picture from late last week before we shut down for maintenance…

We are currently in the middle of our second summer closure and have been making the most of the downtime to complete several important agronomic practices. Over the past week, we have verticut the greens, deep core aerified the greens, aerified wall-to-wall, deep sliced the fairways, circle cut fairways, root pruned trees, and many other tasks.

This week, we also completed the first cut and topdressing of the tees. We are starting with a height of cut (HOC) of 0.75 inches and will gradually lower it until we reach our standard tee height of 0.5 inches.

To encourage lateral growth, the tees will be mowed twice each week and will receive weekly topdressing and fertilizer applications until they are completely grown in.

In addition, a contractor is currently redecking the bridges on holes 3 and 4. We found some extremely rotten wood under the decking on #4 bridge so we have to do some extra repairs but our goal is to have both bridges completed and ready for play when the course reopens on July 28.

We appreciate your patience during this closure and look forward to welcoming everyone back to the course soon.

Here is this week’s video of maintenance activities during this Summer Closure #2. Look at the size of the root that the root pruning machine cut near the Putting Green…

Glen Eagle Maintenance (7/8/26)

Going to focus a little more on the tees this week, mostly in the video below which shows the process of sprigging.

Overall, the course is good condition, and we have had just enough rain to be help but not to hurt over the last week. We are still below normal rainfall for the month and year but hoping that will change later in the summer. Going to be hot this week with feels like temps of 109 some days. Staying hydrated is the name of the game in Naples this time of year.

Hole #1

Next week we start our 2nd maintenance closure of the year, repeating many of the cultural practices from our 1st closure. We will focus on course aerification, specifically greens and fairways as we bring in our contractor to deep (7-8") aerify.

Tee Project Update

Sprigging starts with harvesting vegetative parts of the plant (roots/stems/etc.), packaging them in boxes for shipping, then hand spreading them on the ground. After spreading, they are "cut" into the soil with a cutting machine, basically a vertical disk. Once cut in they are rolled to promote maximum contact with the soil. The final step in the sprigging process is frequent watering. The sprigs are watered for 4 to 6 minutes 8 times a day. The key is to keep the sprigs moist to prevent them from drying out and dying. We will water this way for 2 to 3 weeks, until the sprigs have enough root system to cut back the water. We will also be frequently fertilizing (weekly) to promote growth and coverage. In about 2 weeks we will start mowing them. This will promote lateral growth over vertical growth. Everything we do from here on out will be to promote filling in and smoothing of the tee surfaces. It may not look like it at this point but sprigging will give us the smoothest surface post project. I am glad to have finished the construction portion of the project and have grass on the ground.

Here is a video of the sprigging process...

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 (7/1/26)

We finally had one of those typical afternoon thunderstorms on Saturday, receiving 2.1" of rain in that one event. In addition to that, we had another 1.73" for a total of 3.39" since last Wednesday. We are still lagging behind our normal June rainfall by 8" but very thankful for the rain that we did receive. The golf course is better because of it.

This past week we continued sodding the tee slopes and today we are planning on sprigging the front 9 tee tops.

The basic process of sprigging is to hand shake the sprigs on the tee top, and cut them into the soil with a vertical disk machine to tuck them into the soil, then roll them to increase soil contact. Once the sprigs are cut in and rolled, we water them frequently to keep them from drying out in the summer sun and fertilize frequently (1x/wk) to promote growth.

Here is a video of sprigging a green at Eagle Creek. The process is pretty much the same on tees.

Prior to sprigging, we applied a pre-emergent herbicide to keep weeds out of the newly sprigged tees and applied preplant fertilizer to help the sprigs get established.

Here is a video of the preplant fertilizer going out.

I will take video of the sprigging process and have that to show next week. Our goal is to have all the tees sprigged by the end of the week. Then it is a race to get them grown in and ready for play by October 1st.

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!