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| OHCC LIVING | NOVEMBER 2022 | 3 Golf Course Renovation Report As most of you know by now, we opened the front nine of the golf course on Sept. 23 and we opened the back nine of the golf course on Oct. 7. The back nine greens appear to be a little denser and in a little bit better condition because they were planted in March of this year as opposed to December of last year. The front nine is a little bit more tender and the roots have not taken as firmly as the back nine, because they were planted in December of last year. Those greens will probably take another spring growing season in order to be in a similar condition as the back nine is today. The greens are a little slow by design because we are not mowing them as short as they could be until the grass is more firmly rooted. That will change over time because we can start trimming the greens a little tighter, which will give them a little bit more speed. The greens are little tougher after our renovation, which was part of Ken Morgan's original design. Ken wanted to remove some of the unnecessary traps to make the play from tee to the green a little bit easier. That makes the golf course more playable for players of all skill levels. He then wanted to make the greens a lot bigger, and more challenging to make the course more interesting for the higher skilled players. It appears that he achieved his design intent, which was something for everyone. The larger greens also help us with our maintenance on an ongoing basis. This gives Jon Cancel, our golf course Superintendent, many more choices for pin placement. This will prevent unnecessary wear and tear with only one or two positions for pin placement. This will also make it more fun for all of our golfers because there will be several different putts involved on each green each time you play. If variety is the spice of life, then this will definitely help to make it more fun. Jon Cancel is now adding more seed to the fairways as well as the approaches which will help fill in some of the bare areas. He is also patching some of the bare spots on the greens whenever he gets more sod for each green. The shortage of sod has been a problem for several weeks. We should receive the submittal package for the lake permit from Candyl Golf the week of Oct. 12. However, we are still considering more than one iteration of the final design. No decision has yet been made about the final details of the design. As you can surmise, the course will continue to improve as the grass is more firmly grown in. Jon will continue adding rye seed this time of year and adding sod to some bare spots as the sod becomes available. We can play the course now while we finish the renovation. We have a ways to go in order to complete the lake and the electrical, but we can enjoy the course while we work towards completion. Thank you for your support for this very long project. By Don Lopez, Golf Course Renovation Committee Chairman