Since many golf courses are again closed to dry out – wouldn’t this be the best time to punch and top dress many of the tee boxes since they’ll have ample time to grow in? A great time to sharpen the perimeters around the around the greens and sand traps. Fill in the bare spots and even holes (trip hazards) where grass once was?

Noticed in particular driving on the cart path – Turtle Mound was closed for a while after Helene and the tee boxes are basically dirt on some holes. Cannot think of a wiser time to do this maintenance since there is no play going on.

These should never get this bad in the first place – never did prior to 2018 when we had greenskeepers running the show. For those of you who were not here then, somehow that generation had no issue keeping all the executives as pristine as the championship courses.

Yup, I am aware there are more folks here now – however just as in years past during snowbird season tee times are usually full on the executives.

Since there are “exactly the same” number of tee times per hour (course play and wear) regardless of how many additional homeowners move here – only the percentage that are now here for the summer are adding to additional wear.

This generation is doing an outstanding job with growth and new areas – but for whatever reason “something” has changed for the worse regarding golf course care.

In the long run it is far more expensive to completely redo courses vs top dress, fertilize and use weed control as routine maintenance.

Some improvements have been made to the championship courses – but they are still nothing like they were prior to 2018. Pride of ownership is lacking except on Glenview, Tierra Del Sol, Southern Oaks and Shallow Creek. Even Lopez which used to be as nice as Glenview and has already had all 3 9’s completely redone is far from looking as crisp and perfect as it used to. If you didn’t know – it isn’t apparent whatsoever that Lopez had millions spent there in the past few years looking at current conditions.

Folks are more inclined to repair ball marks and divots when courses are in great shape – vs when you feel like it will make no difference anyway.

Lastly, for those that use their putter heads to retrieve the ball from the golf hole – you are chopping up the edges of the cups. Please invest in the rubber or plastic ball grabber that you can add to the end of your putter grip.

Michael Levesque is a resident of the Village of Richmond.