Fall Updates from Lakewood

I would like to thank all of you who have supported us during a very trying year. Your comments have been incredibly uplifting for me and the entire staff. By the time August rolled around, the grind was becoming very difficult. It was your words of encouragement that got us through it—thank you very much. 

I am happy to let everyone know that Tamara has had her final surgery and is recovering. It’s nothing short of a miracle, and we are very thankful for it. 

For those who haven’t visited in the last few years, we have invested a tremendous amount of money, time and effort this year in upgrading course conditions. We’ve increased the maintenance staff, purchased new equipment, and started upgrading the carts. We rebuilt four bunkers on the Gailes with astroturf sod—they look amazing, and I cannot wait to do more. Once we get through the winter and confirm our construction techniques have withstood the freeze/thaw, we’ll start rebuilding more, so look for crews next year. The fairway turf on all three courses has recovered and is now back to where it needs to be for the most part. There are still a few spots I’m not happy with, but they’ll be addressed first thing in the spring. We purchased a new overseeder and have hired another irrigation technician so turf will be in very good shape next summer and moving toward our firm and fast conditions that we had when we first opened. 

We’ve just completed a very aggressive aerification program that was long overdue on all three courses as well as the Wee Links, including aerifying all the tees twice. We’ll do more early next year and continue throughout the year to get as much thatch out as we possibly can. The greens have a ton of sand on them right now both to protect them during the winter and to give us back that firmness that you are all looking for. We have not forgotten about the Wee Links either. It has been aerified and has received all the same attention that the other courses have all-be-it late in the year. To tell you the truth I cannot remember the last time we have aerified the Wee greens. We re-grassed the 18th green and overseeded all the other greens. Mowed down three big areas that we all over-grown and reseeded the areas with new seed, looks amazing as you can now see from one end of the course to the other. There’s still some work to do on #15 green, but that will get sodded first thing in the spring. We now have two walking greens mowers for the Wee, so look for the greens to be back at green speed next year. 

The clubhouse is moving along nicely. The floor plan is complete, and we’re now working on renderings. As soon as we have those, I’ll post them so everyone can see what the new clubhouse will look like. I’m very excited about the new layout and cannot wait to get started. We’re going to have a bar outside on the patio, and the patio will be twice as big as before and covered—a great place for dinner and post-golf gatherings. The putting green, #18, and #9 of the Serradella might just have to get redesigned… not that I’m itching to get on a bulldozer, so who knows! Stay tuned. 

Again, thank you for your support. I’m looking forward to next year—it’s going to be exciting. 

Kevin Aldridge President

Lakewood Shore Resort