Welcome Back to Swope

Golf season is back! 

(Drone photo of 18 - courtesy of Dimitri Lash)

Hopefully this blog finds you all alive and well. The cold winter months are finally behind us and the sun is starting to be a normal sight again. That means Swope is back to business as usual. It's just the end of March and you'd think it was the middle of July with the golfers enjoying a round out here. Our greens are starting to green up and heal from Spring aerification, fairways are waking up from dormancy, and the rough is ready to eat some Pro-V1's. 

(Spring aerification on #4. We went with a curved path to avoid the previous aerification hole pattern.)

As mentioned before, we are around 4 weeks since aerification and our greens are close to fully healed. Twice a year, we aerify our greens to promote new growth in the greens, along with allowing nutrients and fresh air to reach the roots. This is one of our largest tasks of the year and it went smoothly, luckily. Here at the end of March all that's left is slight dimples.

(Safety posts for cart security.)

Aerification is expected each year; having our carts stolen is not. Some thieves made their way onto the course one night and stole two of our carts. They had made a trail from behind 12 tee box, through our dump pile, and then rode the rocks near the train tracks all the way down to 67th street. With a new fleet of carts on the way, this problem needed to be addressed yesterday. Our crew, with the help of a jackhammer and auger, installed and concreted 37 posts around our cart parking area. Also, the trees we cut down near 2 green are now piled on what was their trail behind 12. If the thief is reading this right now, please don't do it again, jack-hammering through asphalt and cement is a killer on your upper body. Literally, I'd rather be hand-watering greens in sweltering heat than do that job again.

Any who, welcome back to Swope Memorial Golf Course. As always, we will be doing everything we can to make this a home course to be proud of.

Remember:

Kansas State was uninvited,

Gonzaga's Center pivots,

KU got whipped,

Fix your divots!