North Putting Green

When to Prepare Putting Greens

The preparation of putting greens should always be done considerably in advance of seeding, to allow ample time for the sinking of soil and the smoothing over above the drains. If it is intended to sow greens in the fall. it is best to construct them in the early summer.

Donald Ross

from Golf Has Never Failed Me

PG gravel layer being installed



Donald Ross on Trees

"As beautiful as trees are, and as fond as you and I are of them, we still must not lose sight of the fact that there is a limited place for them in golf. We must not allow our sentiments to crowd out the real intent of a golf course, that of providing fair playing conditions. If it in any way interferes with a properly played stroke, I think the tree is an unfair hazard and should not be allowed to stand."


- Donald Ross, from Golf Has Never Failed Me

Spruce #10 South

The Spruce between #10/11 South have been removed exposing a spectacular view to #17 green in the distance. You are beginning to see the golf course as designed in 1920. The photo below is a little grainy due to snow, but #17 green is still visible.

Double click for an enlarged view.

Exposing Donald Ross

The Donald Ross 'restoration" craze has  in some instances been misguided. In one area Ross deserves credit: routing and use of  available land forms.

We removed two maples ("weeds that got hard") to the right of number 12 green South mostly to improve turf conditions in a high traffic area.

But a bigger advantage is to further expose the ridge line that Ross used to route so many golf features over and across. This ridge line begins farther to the east on Lahser Road, continues across #6 and finishes on #15 green. Ross built the following features on that ridge, one of two major landforms on the South Course: #5 fairway, #7 tee, #6 green, #6 fairway, #14 fairway, #13 tee, #12 green, #16 tee and #15 green. Pretty awesome foresight without computer aided design (CAD).

Removing trees ("weeds that got hard") from these ridgelines allows us to see what this golf course was meant to be.



The piles of stump grindings can be seen on the right side of this photo.