Bunker Etiquette Tips

Following a few quick and simple bunker etiquette tips can help maintain the playability and aesthetic look of our bunkers.

1. When entering and exiting a bunker do so from the "low point" and NOT along a steep face where you can slide down, displace the sand and leave large indentations in the face of the bunker. If you feel like you have to climb in or out of the bunker, you are not entering/exiting from the correct spot. (Photo 1)

Photo 1. When entering and leaving a bunker, use the low side of the bunker.

2. Use the rakes inside the bunkers to smooth your footprints, where you have "dug in" for the shot and rake where your club blasted the ball from the bunker.

3. After raking the disturbed area in the bunker, please place the rake back into the bunker parallel to the bunker edge (Photo 2 C).

Photo 2. Photos A & B show incorrectly placed bunker rakes. Photo C shows a correctly placed bunker rake lying parallel along the side of the bunker.

4. If the sand is damp or wet, please knock/tap the sand from your golf shoes before walking on the green where it can interfere with another golfer's putting line. (Photo 3)



Photo 3. Knocking the sand off your shoes as you exit the bunker reduces the sand footprints tracked across a green.

Following these few simple tips can help maintain a consistent and fair playing surface for all golfers. Thank you for your help.

Please Replace Your Divot

After hitting your golf shot please replace your divot. This a quick an easy way to ensure that the turf can repair itself, not damage mowers and will not inhibit another golfers shot.

If the divot has good integrity please replace the divot using the instructions below. If the divot is not of good quality please use the sand provided in the carts. The reason we prefer you to replace your divot is that turfgrass will always repair itself faster vegetatively.

How to Replace Your Divot:

1) After the golf shot, attempt to locate the divot. 

2) Place the removed divot back into the missing patch area exactly the way it was removed.  Avoid placing the divot in backwards or upside down.

3) After placing the divot into the patch area tap the grass back down with your feet or club head to ensure that the playing surface is flat and smooth. Leaving an uneven divot could result in a mower chopping up the divot or a bad lie for another golfer.

Thank you for your help by replacing your divots.

The Perennial Ryegrass Overseed is here...

The Perennial Ryegrass is in excellent condition and playing conditions are ideal. If you are thinking about coming down to Ford for the Holidays you will not be disappointed. The 10 day forecast looks amazing. Take a look at some of these recently captured photographs from the course. Despite a wet year, the new drainage systems are performing beyond our expectations and members are enjoying firm conditions. See you soon and Happy Holidays from the Grounds and Golf Maintenance Teams.   

#11 Golf Hole

Morning maintenance at #15 green

#16

#17 ready for morning rounds

#18 waste area and Clubhouse

The view from the Clubhouse porch over the Practice Facility

The Clubhouse view out to #18 and the back 9 wetlands

The ryegrass is excellent condition

#3 green complex in the morning dew

#5 golf hole

#8 golf hole sitting peacefully

Making the turn at #9

Par 3 #12 on Lake Clara

The men at work on #14 green

#13 green floating on Lake Clara

Members with a difficult up and down

#1 golf hole

Golf Course Closure Reminder

Members are kindly reminded that the golf course is currently undergoing overseeding preparation. From now through September 14, the course will be open for play, but as the crews prepare for overseeding, you should anticipate heavier than usual maintenance activity on the course, and some areas may be off color. Additionally, certain areas may be taken out of play from time to time during this period. The course will be closed from September 15-October 1 to allow the final preparation, overseeding, and grow-in. On October 1, the golf course will reopen for play. Cart path only restrictions will be likely for the first week of October. 

Golf Course Update

Installment of the new bulkhead at #7 tee will keep the complex from eroding.

The installment took 5 days to complete as our crews had to fight several heavy storms.

The bulkhead is ready for sod.

Seepage drainage installation continues on the course. Enhancements have been installed at the practice facility, 6 and 10. 

This very efficient trenching machine has a belt that lifts the trench spoils from the ground in to an awaiting trailer. The process eliminates the need for a small army of employees to shovel dirt. MacCurrach Golf is performing the work and will be transitioning to holes 3,4,12 and 15 before heading back to Jacksonville. Our scheduled completion date of July 24th  will be challenged due to the inclement weather we have been experiencing.  

Course and Grounds Update

These 2 guys were seen early morning on Saturday to the right of 11 golf hole

The Grounds Department and Matt Huggins are making some irrigation enhancements to Cherry Hill Drive. Soon, the all shoulders of the roadway at this location will be irrigated... Allowing for finer turf grooming and lees erosion into Lake Dye.

The boring machine travels under the road without causing damage to the surface. 

The boring machine in action

This guy makes those long bunker shots more difficult

The Golf Course Staff and Kyle Johnson have completed the greens aeration and are now focusing on:
1. Approach aeration
2. Tee aeration
3. Fairway aeration
4. Vertical mowing fairways and scalping
5. Sod repairs
6. Topdressing fairways
7. Bulkhead construction at #7 tee complex
8. Weed Control
9. Irrigation maintenance
10. Fertilizing the course

Look closely, I saw this owl a month ago to the right of #2 golf hole

Armin vertical mowing #13 fairway

GCM Employee Nelson, vertical mowing at #2 fairway

Matt Huggins and the grounds staff recently installed new grass under some of the Live Oaks at the Main House. It looks great.

The Grounds staff has the rose garden at main house in top shape.

The finely manicured lawns and gardens at the Main House

One of Ford Plantation's several mature Live Oak stands

This bird was nesting on the dyke road next the back nine of the golf course

Operation Pollinator onThe Ford Plantation Golf Course

Operation Pollinator has really begun top take off. Our new seedlings are getting established... the warm temperature is ideal for growth.

This photograph was taken June 6th demonstrating the plants beginning to flower.

Several different colors are starting to pop from the plants including whites, purples and yellow.

This Rudbeckia is in full glory

In just 10 days the flowering plants have really exploded into color. 

Golf Course Superintendent, Kyle Johnson doing some selective hand weeding in the Club's operation pollinator plot.

A word about Operation Pollinator from the Syngenta Company:

Bumblebees play a crucial role as one of natures' pollinators, but they are in serious decline and need our help now. Reversing the plight of the bumblebee and other pollinating insects will help to prove that golf courses can be managed in harmony with the environment and provide valuable wildlife habitats.

Golf courses can provide essential sanctuaries for bumblebees and other beneficial insect species.  Environmental enhancement of relatively undisturbed out of play areas can provide the perfect location for immensely valuable ecological habitats.