RAINDANCE NATIONAL’S MAINTENANCE TEAM WRAPS UP SUCCESSFUL SEASON
What a 2023 season it was for RainDance National Resort & Golf’s maintenance team!
The staff, led by course superintendent Kaelen Waters, completed several projects, and has plans for even more in the new year.
“Heading into the spring of 2023, the main objective was fixing and improving any thin areas on green complexes throughout the golf course,” said Waters. “The team increased the greens’ fertility through a bi-weekly spray program, as well as introduced new growth regulation products to achieve desired green speed at a higher mowing height. This task was difficult at first without a mature green nursery.”
The team cut sod from the alternate putting green near the 13th tour tee box to fix many of the smaller spots on the course. After a couple good months of growth on the nursery green, the team was able to fix the rest of the thinner spots as well as re-sod all the areas on the alternate putting green. This green will be open in April.
Other sod projects around the course included the 6,000-square-foot addition of turf to the west side of the 17th approach area along the cart path. This area faced constant erosion problems and has matured through the fall and should be fully blended with the existing turf by the spring.
Certain issues that were addressed this year included a major drainage basin installation to the 16th fairway. Drainage installation during the course build was very good as there were few areas on the playable turf that had issues. Drainage and erosion off the cart paths will be addressed with either future concrete path additions or a specialized wax-coated pathway in steep areas.
The perimeters on most fairways were brought in roughly 10 feet to allow the ball to roll out and slow down before running into native areas. These native areas are being slightly thinned out to prevent less lost balls. A new boom sprayer was purchased which will allow the team to spray larger areas of weeds at an increased rate. Weed mitigation is one of the main problem areas that the team is addressing. A pre-emergent application of herbicide was applied in November around all bunkers and nuisance areas on playable turf. The native pre-emergent will be applied in the spring with a new product the team is incorporating. They are also over-seeding selective native areas to fill in any overly weak areas among the first four holes.
Major projects coming up on the course include filling in the farthest north fairway bunker on #4. This will open a larger landing/runout zone before the green. A second major renovation the team is looking into over the winter will be to increase the overall second landing zone on #5 by filling in a portion of the smaller ravine in front of the green. The intent is to increase the landing zone roughly 10 yards to the south around the entire complex. Framing markers will continue to be installed on these holes as well to reduce the amount of blind tee shots.
Overall, 2023 was a good year for the course. It showed it can be set up and challenge many of the better golfers with the hosting of the Colorado Golf Association State Amateur Championships in August.
“We are humbled to host such events and have been lucky enough to be asked to host the CGA Senior Match Play in 2024,” said Waters. “As the course matures, conditions will continue to improve and provide a unique challenge to the golfers.
“We look forward to 2024 and will continue to plan over the winter months for next year.”
