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Upcoming Events

February

February 2016

BRENT JESSUP PGA HEAD GOLF PROFESSIONAL

Couples Valentine Clash Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday this year and that is our couples normal play day. Therefore, we will host a Sunday afternoon Couples Clash event beginning with the normal tee times at 12:00 noon. Please call the golf shop by Saturday at noon to sign up to play. Weather permitting! Peggy Kirk Bell Volunteers Needed Again this year, we are hosting the Peggy Kirk Bell Junior Girls Golf Tour on February 27 & 28. Seventy-two players from across the southeast will compete. In order for this event to be successful, we need several adult volunteers to drive shuttle golf carts to help get these young ladies around the course. Two shifts are available each day: 9am until Noon, and Noon until 4pm. If you have a few hours to spare, we would love to assign you a shift. Please call the golf shop to sign up, and thanks for your help in making this a great chance for these young ladies to visit Clemson! Ladies Golf Association Opening Day: March 2 All Walker Course lady members are invited to join either the 18 or 9-hole golf league. The WLGA play every Wednesday morning, March through November. The opening meeting and golf clinic is scheduled for March 2nd beginning at 11am. To join, send your contact information and a check for annual dues ($40). Make checks out to: Walker Course Ladies Golf Association and send check to: Kim Rector, Treasurer 333 Meldau Road Seneca, SC 29678. Contact: Brent Jessup or Susan Hehir (suehehir@icloud.com) for more information about WCLGA. Member Appreciation Breakfast: March 5 The 2016 season kicks off again this year with our Member Appreciation Breakfast on Saturday morning, March 5th at Seneca Family Restaurant on Highway 123 in Seneca. All members are invited to drop by for a hearty, warm breakfast and get ready for a great year of golf. Drop in anytime between 9am and 11am. Make plans now to attend. Breakfast is on us! Range Club Reminder Don’t forget to renew your 2016 Range Club membership. If you have not notified the golf shop yet, please do so. We can charge your membership account for this fee. The fee is $200 for the entire year for the first member, and $100 for each additional family member. If you were “in” the club last year before the renovations, you only have to pay for 9 months this year. Eagle Report: Allen Smith, December 4. Hole # 13, 120 yard 8-iron, with playing partners John Shkor & Bob Wall.

Continued on pg. 2

14 Couples Valentines Tournament 27-28 Peggy Kirk Bell Junior Tournament

March

02 LGA Meeting & Golf Clinic 05 Member Appreciation Breakfast 10 New Member Orientation Dinner 13 Daylight Savings Time Begins 19 Super Saturday # 1 20-22 Spring Golf Trip

Membership by the Numbers Individuals: 127 Family: 118

Non-Resident: 28 Young Alumni: 10

Inactive: 10 Life: 27 Total Membership: 320

Welcome New Members Amy & Mike Snyder Alley & Sandy Linder

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Golf Pro News Continued:

New Golf Rules for 2016 We ran across a nice, simple piece of information everyone might want to review. Please click on the link below and let us know what you think! New Rules 2016 Facebook & Twitter Don’t forget to “follow” us on Twitter and “like” us on Facebook for the most up to the minute reports on activities at The Walker Course. We are posting weather related delays and other information on a regular basis.

New hosts of The Morning Drive on the Golf Channel???

Brent & Josh toured The Golf Channel studios last month while attending the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando,

thanks to Golfnow.com

Pro News Continued on pg. 4

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DON GARRETT, CGCS SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

Course Update The weather has continued to be an issue, as it has been unusual to historical proportions. Nearly double the average rainfall for 3 months, followed by an extremely warm late December and early January, has been very frustrating to golfers and golf course superintendents alike. The unusually warm and wet weather in December lead to an outbreak of large patch on the fairways. The fairways, after being dormant, greened up with the warm nights and days we experienced. Coupled with all of the rain, this produced ideal conditions for the disease to occur. Normally we don’t have any disease issues with bermudagrass except for the spring dead spot. We did have some large patch last spring when it was cool and wet, but not to this extent. Bermuda is very tolerant and can usually outgrow any disease pressure. But in this case, even though it was warm enough for the fairways to green back up, they weren’t actively growing and the disease ran rampant. Treating for the disease with fungicides is not economically feasible and even if it was, the ground was too wet to drive on the fairways with a sprayer. Now that it has gotten cold again, the bermudagrass has gone back into dormancy and the disease has stopped. But the patches of damage remain visible and I expect that these areas will be thin in the spring and will take a few weeks to grow back in. Speaking of driving on the fairways with a sprayer, the wet conditions have made it difficult to get out and do our winter weed and pre-emerge applications. Normally, by February 1, we are well on our way to completing this work, if not already done. This year it has been too wet to get out and we just sprayed our first tanks on January 29 th. We had a good day on February 1 and were able to treat almost 60 acres, leaving us with about 40 to complete. And speaking of the weeds, the wet weather of the fall has provided us with a bumper crop of poa annua, which the aforementioned warm spell allowed to flourish and mature. If the fairways were dry enough, we would have gotten out and mowed them to knock down the weeds and to top off the growth we got when they greened up in December. No question this is the most winter weeds we have seen at the Walker Course in my 17 years here. Hopefully we can get this done before the bermudagrass greens back up. As for the greens, they seem to be holding up ok. Again, the wet weather is a concern as saturated soils are not good for developing root systems. But at least the greens are constructed out of a sand base which is better able to handle excess moisture. We did make an application of turf paint to the greens on December 7 as they were starting to go off color. However, they greened up and started growing and most of the paint was mowed off with the new growth. They are off color again and we have debated whether to make another application. With being behind on the winter weed spraying, it has become a priority to use the sprayers to get that work done while we can. If we get caught up and get a good Monday to spray greens, we may make another paint app. If not, they should be greening up soon unless mother nature decides to keep throwing us more curveballs. We have covered greens twice, once for 2 days on January 5&6 and again on the 18 & 19 th. The first time, we were borderline needing to cover. But with new greens, we felt it better to be safe than sorry. This also gave our staff an opportunity to gain experience with installing the covers. The second time, there was no doubt with lows of 21 and 22 degrees. Hopefully that is the end of the coldest weather and the need to cover for this season. But if the need arises, we appreciate your understanding.

Coming February 2016!

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FOR YOUR INFORMATION Pro-Shop

Operating Hours:

Tuesday—Sunday 8:30 a.m—5:30 p.m.

Practice Range Hours:

Tuesday—Sunday 8:45 a.m.—5:00 p.m. (Weather Permitting)

Brent Jessup

Head Golf Professional

656-7516 Don Garrett

Course Superintendent

656-1814 Azenda Thompson

Accounting

656-0595 Golf Pro-Shop

656-0236 Club House Grill

656-7518 Joe’s Place

656-7517 Sole on the Green

656-7444 The Martin Inn

654-9020 The Madren Center

656-7155

February 2016 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

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14 Couples

Valentines Tournament

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27 PKB

Jr Tournament

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Jr Tournament

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Passings William Pendleton , retired professor of sociology at Emory University, member of Walker Course since 2006, passed away on November 29, 2015. Harry Layne, left this Ear thly life for the gates of Heaven on January 22nd. He retired from Western Union in 1984 and was an active member of The Walker Course for many years. He was one of the original “dew sweepers” (first tee time group) each day here. Mr. Layne was also well known for awarding a “Werthers” candy bite to anyone in his group that made a birdie! An accomplished golfer, he enjoyed traveling with our member golf trip groups on many occasions until health issues forced him to miss our fall trip last year. He is survived by his wife Margaret, a son and daughter. Rest in peace our friend.

Member Resignations David & Cindy Lowery

Howard Sparrow B.R. Skelton Ed Legette

William Hill Thomas Reardon

Ray & Donnie Billingsley