What's going on with Briarwood?

[Blueblaze]

Anybody know what's going on with Briarwood? It's our favorite course, and has always been in great shape, even during the high season. But now it's been closed for weeks, and for some reason, they seem to have intentionally killed off all the grass on the greens and tees. It borders my neighborhood, and I walk by every other day or so with my dog, but I don't see anyone working on it, other than to mow the fairways. It'll take a year or more to recover, after they re-sod all that grass. What the heck is going on?

[bandsdavis]

Briarwood Executive Golf Course
Following Committee approval, the Briarwood Executive Golf Course will be closed for renovation until further notice. Renovations to the course will include new greens, tees and fairways as well as bunker, landscaping and cart path enhancements.

[Blueblaze]

Well, there you go, I guess. Odd that they'd spend the renovation money on a course on the north side that didn't need it, instead of one of those down south that get lots of complaints. It makes me wonder if it's really about the drought, although the ponds seem to fill back up after every rain, same as always. But if they're "renovating", why isn't anyone working on it? It's a puzzle!

[DonH57]

Well, there you go, I guess. Odd that they'd spend the renovation money on a course on the north side that didn't need it, instead of one of those down south that get lots of complaints. It makes me wonder if it's really about the drought, although the ponds seem to fill back up after every rain, same as always. But if they're "renovating", why isn't anyone working on it? It's a puzzle!

Well. Look at Walnut Grove. Aerated, punched, and sanded greens right on schedule despite the fact the greens were in great condition the week before.

[Bogie Shooter]

Well, there you go, I guess. Odd that they'd spend the renovation money on a course on the north side that didn't need it, instead of one of those down south that get lots of complaints. It makes me wonder if it's really about the drought, although the ponds seem to fill back up after every rain, same as always. But if they're "renovating", why isn't anyone working on it? It's a puzzle!

I think you are complaining to the wrong people.
Try here :
Executive Golf Maintenance
1026 Canal Street
The Villages, FL 32162
Phone: 352-674-1885

[tophcfa]

Well, there you go, I guess. Odd that they'd spend the renovation money on a course on the north side that didn't need it, instead of one of those down south that get lots of complaints.

Amenity Authority Committee versus Project Wide Advisory Committee

[John Mayes]

Well. Look at Walnut Grove. Aerated, punched, and sanded greens right on schedule despite the fact the greens were in great condition the week before.

Basic golf agronomy at work.

[Blueblaze]

I think you are complaining to the wrong people.
Try here :
Executive Golf Maintenance
1026 Canal Street
The Villages, FL 32162
Phone: 352-674-1885

I'm not complaining. I can play Walnut Grove any time I want (at least until the snowbirds come back). I'm just asking if anybody knows the real reason. "Closed for renovations until further notice" when renovations are not happening (or needed), is not a valid reason, but it's the exact thing "Executive Golf Maintenance" is sure to tell me if I call to ask.

Have you ever seen a golf course intentionally kill off all of the greens and tees in order to "renovate"? That's just weird.

I wondered if maybe they didn't have enough water to keep all the courses watered. Or maybe they decided it was unfair that us Northies can get a tee time so easily in March, so they're going to turn it into another tortoise sanctuary.

It's just a mystery and I'm curious.

[Bogie Shooter]

I'm not complaining. I can play Walnut Grove any time I want (at least until the snowbirds come back). I'm just asking if anybody knows the real reason. "Closed for renovations until further notice" when renovations are not happening (or needed), is not a valid reason, but it's the exact thing "Executive Golf Maintenance" is sure to tell me if I call to ask.

Have you ever seen a golf course intentionally kill off all of the greens and tees in order to "renovate"? That's just weird.

I wondered if maybe they didn't have enough water to keep all the courses watered. Or maybe they decided it was unfair that us Northies can get a tee time so easily in March, so they're going to turn it into another tortoise sanctuary.

It's just a mystery and I'm curious.

Have seen grass killed off on other courses…………not weird.

[DonH57]

Basic golf agronomy at work.

My only question was is the schedule so inflexible?

[GpaVader]

The closed Continental Country Club last summer to do new greens and tee boxes. This isn't like building a house where you can stage contractors on top of each other to get it done quickly, it all takes time to do it right. Sod doesn't work well on greens, so they have to seed the area once the old growth is removed. Not sure if they will be making any soil or contour changes.... I was told at CCC they removed the old greens that were good and used that as sod for the tee boxes, then brought in some good soil, seeded and waiting a few months while watering the heck out of it....

[justjim]

I think you are complaining to the wrong people.
Try here :
Executive Golf Maintenance
1026 Canal Street
The Villages, FL 32162
Phone: 352-674-1885

Once again, common sense and a link reply from Bogie. Although nothing wrong with asking for info on TOTV. I agree with the OP and others who regularly play the executive courses, there appears to be several executive courses in much much worse shape IMHO than this particular golf course. Who knows what the selection process (criterion) might be for executive course renovations in The Villages? You might get an answer from the link provided or maybe not.

[Two Bills]

Once again, common sense and a link reply from Bogie. Although nothing wrong with asking for info on TOTV. I agree with the OP and others who regularly play the executive courses, there appears to be several executive courses in much much worse shape IMHO than this particular golf course. Who knows what the selection process (criterion) might be for executive course renovations in The Villages? You might get an answer from the link provided or maybe not.

Different courses have different teams of workers.
Some are green keepers, and others cut grass.

[kkingston57]

Well, there you go, I guess. Odd that they'd spend the renovation money on a course on the north side that didn't need it, instead of one of those down south that get lots of complaints. It makes me wonder if it's really about the drought, although the ponds seem to fill back up after every rain, same as always. But if they're "renovating", why isn't anyone working on it? It's a puzzle!

Agree 100%. Briarwood was one of the best conditioned exec courses in TV. Dela Vista is terrible

[kkingston57]

Well. Look at Walnut Grove. Aerated, punched, and sanded greens right on schedule despite the fact the greens were in great condition the week before.

Like it or not, aeration is usually done(and should be) when greens are in best shape.

[PoolBrews]

All of the courses are on a schedule for both aerification and for green replacement. The aerification will occur on schedule regardless of the condition of the course as that is what ensures continued health for the green.

Green replacement also occurs on a schedule, and they adhere to it. Unlike aerification, replacing greens should really be done on an as needed basis, not on a schedule. If proper maintenance were done on the greens (like at most other courses in the world), they would not have to replace greens as often as they do. This is The Villages band aid to handle greens that they have let go too long.

[Blueblaze]

I took a lovely walk through Briarwood this morning with my dog. Maybe they ought to just leave it that way. It was certainly more pleasant walking under all those huge oaks, than suffering in the heat under the high-tension wires on the "Multi-Modal Path", without so much as a crepe myrtle to cast some shade.

But I noticed something odd. All of the dead greens and tees had obviously been aerated so recently that the grass hadn't had time to fill in the holes. Why would you aerate a lawn and then immediately kill it? I can think of three possible explanations:

1) We're in a drought and didn't have enough water to keep 40 par-three's green, so we sacrificed one up North.
2) The guy we hired cheap to ride the fertilizer machine doesn't read English and got the bags mixed up.
3) We had an extra quarter-million bucks sitting around and decided to pick the prettiest course out of 40 that didn't need renovation after the snowbirds went home, and just go ahead and renovate it.

Oh, well. I seem to be the only one here who cares, and I just got a great walking path out of the deal. Maybe next January, when some of my fellow Northies discover they can't get a tee time, there will be enough interest to revisit "The Mystery of the Murdered Golf Course".

[Littletommy]

I would agree that Briarwood is in the top tier of executive courses in The Villages. The Villages Golf Maintenance Survey that is available for all of you to complete after playing a round of golf puts Briarwood at the top. Briarwoods greens scored 6.6 on a 1 to 10 scale. 6.6 is the top score for all executive golf courses. Tee Boxes scored 6.4 and was in second place. Bunkers scored 6.6 and were in a three way tie for 5th place.
Villages Golf Maintenance Survey is a Google Form and hosted by Google. 900 responses were recorded prior to a recent change in the questions. The survey results were cleared out to make room for new and additional questions. I changed the focus from "tell me what is wrong" to "tell me what is right". The old survey focused on only Tee Boxes, Bunkers and Greens. A new section was added for a group called Fairways, Collars and Rough. The survey can be located at "https://forms.gle/r1KiDohrECcowcRS6". The survey covers 41 executive, 13 championship and 3 pitch & putt golf courses. After submitting your results you will have an option to review all of the results to date. Results can also be found on my Google Blog which will be posted from time to time. The location of my Google Blog is "executivegolfmaintenance.blogspot.com".