This first week will be a scramble, followed by a light meal of veggies and dip, and quesadillas. Golfers of all abilities are welcome. Come and join us at 4:30 pm. Call or sign up at the Club by Tuesday June 1.

Men's League Starts Thursday

The Men's League season begins on Thursday June 3. Golfers of all abilities are welcome as each team is made up of an A, B, C, and D player. The fee for the season is $50 which covers the end of season banquet. Members and non-members are welcome. Optional cart fee's are $6 and non-members pay just $10 green fee. You can also be included in the weekly prizes if you pay $5 if playing the front 9, and $6 if playing the back 9.

There is a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board at the Club. Please sign up by Tuesday June 1 and indicate your current course handicap. If you are unable to commit to the League for the season, consider signing up as an alternate player in case a regular player is unable to play. Leave your name, handicap, phone number along with "Alt" on the sign-up sheet.

Course Maintenance Update

Our maintenance crew, headed up by Rick Bouchard, has been hard at work since March 1, getting our course cleaned up and ready for the season. Much of the initial clean-up is completed and the effort to keep our course in great shape is well underway.

The fairways have just been fertilized for their early summer feeding. We will be fertilizing again in late summer and again in late fall. We added two additional fertilizings to this years maintenance budget to continue improving the health of the fairways. Previously, we only fertilized once in the fall.

The greens are progressing very well. We are still on a schedule where we are top dressing them every 10-14 days and fertilizing them about every 20 days. We have been on a four day a week green cutting schedule (Mon, Wed, Fri and Sat), but are changing over to our normal six day a week schedule (Tues-Sun). This time of year the greens grow very fast, and you will notice that they are slower at the end of the day.

During the month of June we will be reseeding the 15th tee. So for much of the month, we will have a temporary tee to give it a chance to grow back quicker and fuller before the summer months are upon us.

As many of you have noticed, we have entered the "Grub Season". There are a few areas in a few fairways where the skunks and crows are feasting on the grubs. Our ground crews are diligently cleaning up after them and reseeding the areas. This "grub season" should last only another week or two, before the grubs turn into beetles. We will be fully treating all of the fairways in late June or early July in order to minimize the grubs for next year.

You may have noticed that our non-native pine trees planted around the 6, 7, 8, and 9th fairways have slowly been dying off over recent years. We currently have two more that have died and will be removed shortly. We will be planting 5 new crab apple trees between the 6, 7 and 8th fairways early this next week.

Our crew is here very early in the morning getting the course ready each day, and Rick is also often here late in the day catching up on keeping the irrigation system operating, the equipment working properly, among a hundred other things. Next time you see one of our maintenance crew busy working, be sure to give them a wave and thank them for their hard work and dedication.

Employee Focus

David Kroll

We hired David this past September as our new Course Superintendant. He has been working for us part-time overseeing the care and work of the course. David brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that already has had a significant effect on the conditions of our course.

David was born and raised on a farm west of Toledo, Ohio. He is a Penn State grad with a degree in Agronomy. He has 40+ years of experience in the golf course management business. He has prepared two courses for USGA National Championships. He has lived in Maine for 13 years and lives in Durham with his wife and has a son and grandson. His son is a Course Superintendent in the Philadelphia area.

David worked as Course Superintendent at the Woodlands in Falmouth, and is currently the manager of the Garden Center at Lowes in Portland. He is planning on retiring from Lowes in the Fall.

David says that the "Naples golf course has tremendous potential and it will just take time and dollars." The greens have improved significantly and the transition from a mixture of grasses including Bent, to Velvet is off to a good start. Within 3-5 years, our greens should be primarily Velvet grass. David says "there is a challenge here, but I enjoy a challenge. The course will get better each year!"

Wifi Hotspot

The Club House and deck is now a free wifi hotspot. So if you have some work to do or want to check your email on your own laptop while eating lunch or having a drink, you can do that. The password for our guest network is golfnaples.

Season Passes

New this year, is an added benefit to our 2010 members. We are offering Season Passes for the practice range and the golf carts.

Cart Season Pass

Single - $425  Couple - $775

Practice Range Season Pass

Single - $125  Family - $200

Members receive a 20% discount on Practice Range tokens for buckets of balls. They are available in the Pro Shop.

Members - $4 per bucket

Guests - $5 per bucket