Mink Meadows Turf Maintenance Department: Tall grass areas

I often refer to the tall grass areas as "fescue". There is a lot of fescue in these areas but there is also many other types of plants. Some grasses, some broad leaf weeds. There is even an odd tree growing if it has not been mowed down recently. Some of the grassy plants can be pretty but often they make it hard to play out or even find your ball. This happened last Sunday. Fred Pekari was in my group and he hit an errant shot. He still calls himself "fairway" Fred but it is no guarantee these days he will hit his tee ball in every fairway. He is kind of a thief as an 11 handicap and I still do not like to play him for money as he proved that day going low with a 78. Anyway he hit his ball to the right of 6 into the fescue. We just managed to find it after an exhaustive search. That is not how we want this area to play, so I decided to mow a bunch of the thick areas around the course. I hope they put up another seed stalk and are tall and pretty again but remain playable.

Little blue stem clump eating a ball

in the process of mowing down the fescue

Little blue stem is awfully pretty when it puts up a seed stalk but it has taken over our tall grass areas and is so thick you cannot find or play your ball from it. We are tinkering with these areas trying to make them more enjoyable to play from this year. you will see a ton of blue wire flags and a couple cart signs. This is to keep carts out and hopefully the grass will stay thin and put up a new seed stalk.
I have mentioned here in the past about how we have a red clay in the greens down about 6-8 inches from the surface. This was done when they constructed the greens in 1936 to conserve water. The only place on the course I have seen this clay is in the greens and on the 9th green side of the lawn. I assume that was the stock pile when they imported it from somewhere on the island, maybe the cliffs. I had Kev save me a piece when changing cups one day last week. not sure the picture will show the distinct reddish color.

clay piece wet

clay dried and spread out, bottom side shows color a bit

Was able to sneak off and play Farm Neck this week as a fill in on a regular game that Fred Pekari, Dick Barbini, Steve Musell, former Mink member and John Roberts play. Nice to see other courses on the island. You will be happy to know it was a 4.5 hour round so we have not cornered the market on what many consider to be slow play. If everyone considered it slow maybe we could do something about it nationally!!