Hershey Golf Collection Turf Blog

In late October 2011 Hershey Country Club continued its bunker renovation project that began in the fall of 2010. The project started on the west course this fall with the focus being to renovate each bunker on the course. To effectively renovate a bunker, all the sand must first be removed. Once this step has [...]

During the month of January you might notice some unusual clouds of smoke coming from the direction of the Hershey Links.  Don’t worry, The Highlands Grill is not on fire, it is just merely the turf maintenance department burning fescue.  Fire is nature’s oldest and most effective way of controlling an ecosystem.  The scorched turf [...]

Tropical storm Lee came through Central Pennsylvania in late summer 2011, leaving behind 15 inches of rain in Hershey, PA. As a result the Hershey Country Club had major flooding issues. Flood waters rushed through both the East and West courses, culminating on hole #4 and #6 on the west course. The green on hole #6 [...]

This fall you may have noticed some white colored turf in the rough at Hershey Links.  We did not bleach the turf, but the turf team is in the process of removing undesirable bentgrass from the rough and establishing turf type tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass.  A new chemistry of herbicide has allowed us to [...]

Number 10 fairway and the approach on the 15th hole have historically been identified as persistent wet areas where oversaturated turf conditions have diminished the quality of the playing surface available for daily golf.  Both areas were originally designed to drain by the movement of surface water through runoff across a swaled, cantered terrain, however [...]

Going green on the golf course isn’t always about dramatically changing cultural practices and techniques.  It’s about using our resources carefully and respectfully in the areas that we maintain.  I’d like to say that we’ve changed our mindset and our management practices drastically since we became a member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for [...]

As the days get shorter and colder and the winter months approach, we begin to take steps in preparation for the cold weather.  Since our irrigation system is such a critical component of our daily operations in season, we must take special precautions when “winterizing” it. We will typically shut the irrigation systems down close [...]

Over the past few days we’ve been putting out our dormant fertilizer on the golf course.  What makes this fertilizer application different from others throughout the season is the timing.  We try to make the dormant feed application after the turf shuts down for the season, and before the winter conditions make it tough for [...]

There are 27,154.28 gallons in one acre inch of water.  In other words:  If a rainfall drops 1” of rain, it means that there are 27,154.28 gallons of water that are deposited over one acre (43,560 sq ft.) The rainfall during Topical Storm Lee (Sept. 2011) totaled close to 17 inches.  The amount of water [...]

We are currently in the process of upgrading the irrigation heads on the west course. Currently the west course has a single row irrigation system with Buckner impact irrigation heads, and the system was installed in 1985. With a single row irrigation system the irrigation heads are positioned in the middle of the fairway. With [...]