Havana
 

Played Tuesday
Not good
Hard to believe we can’t grow grass

Wait for the rain...
Ooops! It's here.

Second hole on Kilamanjaro Par 4 Front of green has 26 ball marks near the hole. Yes we counted them . It is a disgrace. We checked the rest of the green and most of it showed few or no ball marks. This is why some of us continue to talk about ignorant, lazy, inept golf course management. How hard would it be to not place a hole in this area for a week or two? Just plain stupid.

It is their refusal to over seed with rye grass during the winter. The Bermuda grass is not growing because of the temps. If they would over seed like most other courses do you would have beautiful , playable courses through the late fall and winter

And they have extended the “winter “ rates through MAY! Sad

Not always true. I have been here for 14 years and when they used to over seed because the original fairway construction did not meet USGA standards the over seeding was spotty at best, but it did look green. The transition back to Bermuda in the spring was never easy. Alway excuses of no rain or too much caused the issues. Conditions actually have deteriorated over 14 years. Quantity over quality. Since the tee sheets are mostly full don’t expect problem conditions to improve any time soon.

I spoke to the new head of agronomy in the Villages. He just started. He was not happy with the condition nor was he happy with some of the answers he was getting from the contractors. He hopes to better the conditions at the courses. He said that Havana was scheduled for a complete rebuild next year. I wish him luck.

What is that dark green paint-like substance on the greens at Havana? I'm guessing it's there to treat the weeds that have overtaken most of the greens, but it really looks bad and sticks to the bottom of my putter. We have taken Havana out of our rotation as nobody want's to play it. It's a disaster right now.

Most likely a copper based fungicide. Fungus can rot the green blades of any kind of grass once it gets going. Copper kills it and keeps it from spreading.

Really?
 

Really? The Villages now has an actual professional agronomist on the payroll. This is news. I hope it's not fake news.