Tournament Prep for Horton Smith Jr. Masters

Being at a course that really doesn't host many tournaments, doesn't mean the tournaments we do host aren't taken seriously.  The tournaments we regularly host are all for junior golfers, with a steady set of three.

We host the Horton Smith Jr. Masters every June, a tournament out of a series of summer tournaments that is conducted by the Southwest Missouri Jr. Golf Association at area golf courses.  We will host a high school boys JV tournament in the spring, and we always host the Pearson High School Girls Tournament in September.  Occasionally we will host another girls conference tournament and maybe a district tournament.  That fall schedule can sometimes really throw our fall aeration schedule out of sorts, but we will adjust aeration until after all fall tournament are completed.  We were once told we could go ahead and get the aeration done, but I just didn't feel right about not providing the proper conditions for a tournament.

As we got ready for this year's Horton Smith Jr. Masters, we were able to edge our bunkers.  We have bermuda runners creeping into the bunkers and we always work to edge them so hopefully there will be no rule issues.

                  

In the first picture one can see the bermuda runners encroaching in the bunker.  In the second picture we use a reciprocator to edge the runners.  Looking at the area outside the edge, we are seeing the need to really come in with a sod cutter, strip the sod, remove the built up sand and re-level the bunker.  We will most likely do that when we replace the sand at a future date.  As a post from last summer indicated, we look to renovate one bunker a season as our budget allows, removing old sand, repairing drainage and installing new sand.  We look for bunkers that are not draining to repair first.  In the third picture, all the runners were pulled out and raked into piles to be removed.

Of course this is the last step in our tournament prep, part of our planning goes back to once we were given the date to put onto our calendar.  Once we get that date, and depending on the day of the week the tournament is, we start preparing greens for the tournament and will schedule our topdressing, fertilization programs, growth regulation program, along with any plant protectants to make sure the greens are ready for the tournament.  That also extends to our tees and fairways programs as well.  

  
We hosted 80 players this year, with a one under 69 being the low score.

  Some of the hardware to be handed out later, in the 9 and under, 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18 age groups.
















We will go back and edge our bunkers again in late July or early August before our summer help goes back to school.  We might also look at some chemical control to the bermuda to help with making this an easier process.

Thanks for reading!

Mel