in close proximity to this road will allow for much safer spectator egress each evening. In order to prepare and avoid confusion, the Club will be playing the Ryder Cup routing for the entire 2016 golf season. One of the most frequent questions I get is; “when will you be closing the course?” We have only two real limitations on play for the 2016 golf season. Beginning on August 1st, all players will be required to play all fairway and par three tee shots from a 6x18” mat of artificial turf. Each player will carry this mat will them as they play the course. If their ball comes to rest on the fairway turf, they must pick it up and play the shot from the mat. Our goal in using the mats is to stop the accumulation of divots and begin allowing them to heal during the month of August and early September. After Labor Day, the course will close to all play, excepting any participants. This will give us three complete weeks of prep prior to Ryder Cup
week and plenty of time to heal from cart traffic and any remaining divots. Given about eight weeks of healing time, we expect the putting surfaces, tees and fairways should look virtually untouched by Ryder Cup week. My first three seasons at Hazeltine have focused on the development of an agronomic program of bentgrass promotion and management. Our goal was the creation of a program we felt would be replicable in 2016. I feel very comfortable that we have accomplished this. This agronomic program is one of simplicity and despite the magni-
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