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Upcoming Events

February

February 2021

BRENT JESSUP PGA HEAD GOLF PROFESSIONAL

We’re Number One! You don’t get to say that very often, but we get to say it now! We were noti-fied last month that The Walker Course has been rated the number one university golf course in America by NBC’s GolfPass.com Golf Advisor/Golfers’ Choice Review Panel. With more than 170 reviews submitted by golfers who have played The Walker Course in the past year, we were rated THE BEST in the U.S. It’s quite an honor to be recognized by this group of golfers. Now, we know we have to work even harder now to maintain that high reputation. Thanks to our members for your assistance in helping us maintain the course conditions that contribute to that ranking by following course rules and taking pride in “your” golf course. We pledge to work even harder in the coming years to keep those positive reviews coming. Congratulations and thank you!

Peggy Kirk Bell Tour Volunteers February 27 & 28 we will host our annual Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Clemson Classic Tournament and we are looking for shuttle driver volunteers to help move these young ladies around the course. If you are able to help either or both days for a few hours, give us a call and we will assign you a shuttle area. These junior events are not possible without your generous help and support of junior golf playing opportunities. Continued on pg. 2

March

3 LGA Kickoff Day 13 Super Saturday # 1 25 Educating All Outing 27 Upstate Golf Tour

27-28 Peggy Kirk Bell Tournament

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Golf Pro News Continued

25th Anniversary Souvenir Cap The old line “better late than never” definitely applies here. Late last summer we ordered commemorative 25th anniversary golf caps to distribute to our charter members to celebrate 25 years of golf at The Walker Course. (The golf course opened for play on October 12, 1995). Well, they finally came! There are still 84 charter members who have been members since day one of The Walker Course. If you are one of those charter members, drop by the golf shop and pick up one of these complimentary caps. Individual memberships get one cap and family memberships get two caps per family. Hope you enjoy celebrating this special edition cap! Member Appreciation Breakfast Canceled For the past several years, we have had a season “kick-off” appreciation breakfast for our members at Seneca Fam-ily Restaurant. This year, however, we are going to cancel the early season get together and plan a membership appreciation day in the spring or early summer. With COVID restrictions and restaurant capacity limitations still in place, we feel it better and safer to plan for a later season get together. We will post the date and information about the member appreciation gathering in upcoming newsletters and throughout the clubhouse. Stay tuned. Range Club Reminder If you have not signed up for the Range Club yet, now is the time to renew. Many of you have already signed up and were billed on the statement you just received. There are still at least 50 members who were Range Club mem-bers last year in 2020 but have NOT renewed yet. If you plan to practice, you need to make sure you “join the club.” Ladies Golf Association Kickoff Day LGA President Joyce Doss would like to invite all Walker Course women members to attend the annual LGA Kickoff Day festivities on Wednesday, March 3rd. The day will include a group meeting at 10am, followed by lunch, and a special putting contest at 12:30pm. The first playing day of the season will be the next Wednesday, March 10th. Handicap Flag Usage As many of you can attest, you still see golf carts “off the paths” on PATHS ONLY days. It is important that you understand that Don Garrett, our veteran course superintendent, makes the decision daily as to whether or not to allow handicap flags on the course based on course conditions. These drivers are then given a blue flag and a Handicap Flag Policy card with operation instructions about where they may drive a golf cart. At no time, even with a blue flag, should you see a golf cart within 50 feet of any putting surface. If you see people violating this privilege, please alert the golf shop so we can send out a ranger to remind them of the rules. Folks who violate the Handicap Flag Policy are subject to privilege revocation. Dues Increase Notice The Finance Corporation Board of Directors recently approved the corporate golf budget for third and fourth quar-ters of 2021 back in November. Included in the golf revenue budget is a greens fee increase for public golfers and a minimal increase in monthly dues for all membership classifications. These increases will take effect on April 1, 2021.

Course Update We hope everyone had a nice holiday season and that 2021 is off to a good start for you. It has been for the maintenance staff as we have been busy completing work on our 2020-2021 winter projects plan. To date, we have done quite a bit of tree work and under brushing throughout the course. We renovated the 2 fairway bunkers to include new liner, sand, and ringing with zoysia sod, corrected a drainage issue in the approach on #14, repaired a washout on #9 creek, and patched some worn areas along cart paths with soil and sod.

The course is also quite clean from a weed standpoint. As I mentioned previously, we changed our winter weed control plan to a combination of products that were applied in November. The results so far are excellent as we hit mid-winter. I think the fully dormant look of the course in the winter is very nice as long as the weeds are con-trolled.

DON GARRETT, CGCS SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

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DON GARRETT, CGCS SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT CONT.

With all of the play, it continues to be a challenge to keep good turf on which to practice. Range use was al-most double historical norms in December, and January has been busy as well. While we haven’t had bitterly cold temperatures, the temps have been consistently cool with very few mild days in the 60’s like we often experience dur-ing the winter. This is causing the seed that we place in the filled divots to germinate very slowly. Thus the turf is just not healing. It became necessary to restrict play to the mat for the entire last week of January to give the turf a break. Looking at the long-term forecast, we may be forced to do this again in February as well. February Goals We will continue with some more under brushing in February, add sand to a couple of more bunkers, spread mulch, and cut back all the lovegrass around the course. Most of the bigger projects will be planned for Mondays when the course is closed but for several jobs, we may have to play some holes as a par 3 in order to get them com-pleted. For example, renovating the fairway bunkers on #10 is more than a one day job. Same with a couple of drain-age jobs we hope to do if the ground dries up a bit. Rest assured we will do our best to keep these interruptions to a minimum Handicap Flag Policy

More and more, we are getting requests for handicap flags to allow golfers to drive off the path when carts are restricted. We try to honor these requests when we can, but sometimes the course is just too wet. When we can grant a handicap flag, we do need some rules to be followed as the flag is not a free license to drive wherever you wish. Lately, we have observed more and more abuses of the handicap flag policy so Brent and I developed a card that will be placed in the cart that has the guidelines to follow whenever anyone asks for a handicap flag.

These guidelines include: 1) Please observe all curbed, roped, and fenced off areas and all directional signage. Do not drive on, over,

or around these areas at any time. 2) When using a flag under wet conditions, please make every effort to keep your cart in the rough and

avoid crossing fairways whenever possible. 3) During wet conditions, please avoid any low areas and any areas that are visibly wet or have standing

water. 4) Please keep the cart on the path around tees and greens and a minimum of 50 feet from the green at all

times. ~Thank you for your assistance so that we may continue to offer this accommodation~

Maintenance Schedule Below is the 2021 Major Maintenance Schedule. Please remember that we will be closing the course during the last week in June to aerify greens and fairways in an effort to make this work more efficient and to avoid having the work spread out over a longer period of time.

Date Activity Condition March 1 Spot Dryject Greens Minimal Impact March 15 Fertilize Course No impact March 29 Aerify Par 3 Tees Minimal Impact April 12 Solid Tine Aerify Greens Minimal Impact May 10 Slice Fairways Minimal Impact May 24 Aerify Tees & Collars Tees poor 5-7 days June 7 Aerify Practice Tees Tees poor 5-7 days *Note: We will wait to do the main tee until after First Tee event. June 28-July 2 Aerify Greens & Fairways Greens poor 10-14 days July 5-6 Rain Date for Aerification Closed Monday Aug 16 Verticut Fairways Fairways poor 5-7 days Aug 16 Quad Tine Greens Greens poor 2-3 days Aug 23 Fertilize Course No impact Oct 4-5 Overseed Tees Par 3’s poor 10-14 days

* Note: This is an overview of the most disruptive maintenance practices. Other less disruptive procedures will be scheduled around play as time and weather permit.

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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.—5:00p.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 Sole On The Green

656-7444 The Martin Inn

654-9020 The Madren Center

656-7155

February 2021 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

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26 27 Peggy Kirk

Bell Tournament

28 Peggy Kirk

Bell Tournament

Membership by the Numbers

Individuals: 156 Family: 104 Life: 26

Non-Resident: 41 Young Alumni: 9

Inactive: 2 Legacy Life: 7 Total Membership: 345

Member Resignations John Allen

Sandy Minder J.P. Nelis

John Hoefer