The 2013 Sunshine Open

The 2013 Sunshine Open kicked off on a windy Saturday August 17th with the course looking beautiful and the playing conditions fast and firm. Our Turf Care Team worked tirelessly to prepare the course for the big event, and was rewarded by seeing the fruits of their labour.

The 12th Green, August 17th

The tournament went smoothly, nothing out of the ordinary, oh except for when that horse ran across the 17th green right in the middle of play! Fortunately it stayed away from the pin placement, allowing us to plug out most of the worst damage between groups.

17th Green/Corral

Hoof damage

The 17th green has really taken a beating in the last few weeks, we also had a hydraulic hose break, leaving a stripe of oil across the green. It was small enough that we were able to cut it out and push the turf back together, similar to how you would fix a ball mark. After the horse trampled the green in nearly the same spot, I responded with, "well at least people wont notice the oil leak anymore."

17th Green Hydraulic Leak

New Toro Triflex

We had many compliments on the course during the tournament, the greens were stimping at about 11 ft and rolling true. I must admit, while plugging the hoof marks on the 17th, I enjoyed watching players blow the ball by the hole after barely moving their putter. We were able to utilize our new Toro Triflex greens mower before rolling the greens and were very pleased with the results.


The weeks leading into the Sunshine Open are when our Turf Care Team really put the pedal to the floor as we ramp things up for the Tournament. This year with our short staff we really pushed hard to prepare the course. A big thanks goes out to the Turf Care Team who made this all possible.

2013 Sunshine Open Turf Care Team left to right: Back Row: Quinton Harasemchuk, Cam Carnegie, Greg Hill, Travis Olson, Mike Lundin, Sam Smith. Front Row: Bianca Mirabelli, Sarah Schwauren, Kenyan Nagy, Kayley Pilon. Missing from photo (playing in Sunshine Open) Dino Porco, Audi Ferretti

Irrigation Addition between the 13th and 14th fwy

As we start winding down the golf season we will be caring out many course improvements including: adding additional irrigation heads in selected areas, aerating /topdressing Greens, Tees, and Fairway areas. Verticutting fairways and fertilizing as needed. We will still be spraying fungicides for TakeAll Patch and continuing on our cultural practices program.

Lets hope for some more good weather this fall to help us continue improving the course. It looks like the leaves on the trees are already starting to turn.