Aerification of the greens is right around the corner so everyone needs to plan accordingly.  We will be aerifying the Hogan course first on April 16-17 and will aerify the Whitworth on April 30-May 1.  The greens have had a good start to the year already and we look forward to the contributing to overall experience of our Members by planning for a good Aerification that runs smoothly.

Lately we have been in improvement mode and have greatly improved areas around the club like the circle area by the driving range, the stonework next to the cartpath on #8 whitworth and have submitted new permits to build a new sign in the front entrance to the club.  A key area that needed to be improved was behind #1 of the Whitworth course.  This area has been part of our plan for a while now to greatly improve. Last week we installed a new flower bed featuring the clubs new logo in the form of a "T"and "C" together meaning Trophy Club.  So far the project looks great and we will add irrigation to it this week and plants will soon follow.  Below is how the project went and the steps we took to create it from before pics to after pics.

The area behind #1 Whitworth was bare because of shade from all the oak trees and from drainage runoff.  We decided to dress the area up by first adding a flower bed featuring stone work showing off new logo.

The flower bed is coming together.  We brought in big boulders to form the flower bed perimeter and added soil to raise it up from the surrounding area.

Our head foreman, Emilio, and one of the Whitworth crew Members, Honorio, are adding stone to the "C" of the "TC".  Its really starting to take shape and start to look good at this point.

The "TC" has taken shape and looks really good.  The golf course superintendent, me, (Grant Meredith), shows off the newly finished work.

Here is a closer look of the "TC".

In the coming future we plan to add Dianthus flowers to the center of the "C" and will seed fescue into the rest of the flower bed.  Irrigation will be installed throughout the entire area and fescue should be seeded around the surrounding trees and up to the cartpath as well.

We recently added new stonework on #8 cart path between the green and the cart path.  We added this stone to relieve the stressed out area from traffic and moisture.  There are other areas on this hole that have been utilized with such stone work so it will continue to be consistent and helpful for traffic and moisture control.

 Before adding stone, we identified where the highest level of traffic was and painted a line where we wanted work to be completed

 Fabian, our irrigation tech, is adding stone to the high traffic area as tight as we can possibly fit them together.  We made the stone level with the cart path and level with the turf on the north side of the cart path.

We have finished adding stone and sand to the area.  We still have a little bit left to do within the blue line, but we plan on finishing this soon.

Adding our first row of pavers to the circle area.

Adding dirt to fill in new circle area for plants.

Added a Youpon Holly in the Center, Double Knockout Rose bushes around the Holly, Compact Nandinas around the rose bushes, and Pansies around the Nandinas, Mulch and cap stones.

We recently transformed the circle area behind the driving range tee box into a newly landscaped area featuring plantings and a new paver stone wall.  We added the raised paver stone wall to guide rain water around the circle area and added plants to dress the area up.  This project took us a few days to complete and we believe it will look really nice once all the plants grow in.

We just put out these new benches on all four of our par 3 holes of the Hogan Course.  The bench above is located on Number 5 of the Hogan Course and has a commemorative plaque on one of the stone legs in memory of past LGA members.  Go ahead and take a load off next time you are waiting to tee off.  Look for others on all par 3's of the Hogan Course.

My name is Grant Meredith and I am the new superintendent here at Trophy Club.  I've been here for a little over 4 months and I'm very excited to be here.  I will be posting news and information on this blog about course maintenance happenings in the near future.  I'm a graduate of Tarleton State University and my experience includes working at Dallas Country Club, Royal Oaks Country Club, and Stonebridge Country Club at The Dye Course.

We just received a couple new pieces of equipment that will help us continue to improve the playability and presentation of our golf courses.  The first picture is another pro force blower added to the fleet which is used for multiple things throughout the year from blowing leaves to helping with greens aerifications.  The bottom picture is that of another greens roller to help with greens smoothness and playability while providing a second benefit of increased greens speeds.  We now have the ability to actually roll greens twice as much as we did in 2012.  A third item was also purchased towards the end of the year and that was a new triplex greens mower.