While the presentation of the golf course is basically the same for 2013 (excluding the changing of the nines), there are a couple changes that you will encounter this season. These changes are part of the maturation of the course. Stowe Mountain Golf Club opened for play in 2007. This process of subtle tweaking of the layout is a natural progression for any young golf course such as ours. In fact, many new courses under go extensive renovations in the first decade of existence. This is simply due to learning the land and how best to present it for the game of golf. It should also be stated that these subtle modifications are part of any good golf course's existence.
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| Removal of creeping bentgrass on 17th approach |
Our changes for this year are based on grassing modifications. The 17th hole approach has been re-grassed with Kentucky bluegrass/fine fescue sod that is mowed at 2.5 inches. This rough grass replaces the creeping bentgrass that was mowed at .5 inches. The challenges we faced with the bentgrass was that approach shots that either landed just short of the green or rolled off the the green form back to front would end up all the way down to the drain in front of the green. This collection area was often wet and full of divots. In order to keep the ball closer to the green and to disperse the golf balls across the approach, the taller grass was installed.
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| The initial scalping of the 8th green |
On the 8th green, we have expanded the putting surface on the right side by six feet. This process involved scalping the existing creeping bentgrass collar to greens height. One of the attributes of creeping bentgrass is that it can adapt quickly to aggressive scalping.The scalped area will be slightly off color until the grass has adapted to it's new height of cut. This green expansion will assist approach shots that drift right with the chance to funnel towards the green or land on puttable bentgrass.The area adjacent to this expansion will be sodded with collar height bentgrass. The six foot wide collar expansion will allow more putting options for shots that land slightly off target.With the expansion in place the green flows much better with the terrain and looks better to the eye.