October 16, 2026

Course Update: Fall Conditions, New 13th Tee, and Upcoming Aeration

It’s been a great couple of weeks out here, with on-and-off rain events providing the turf with some much-needed moisture. You know how dry things have been when a two-inch rainstorm leaves only one puddle on the 13th hole and the streams are still running dry!

We’re still busy with regular play, member-organized competitions, tournaments, and outings. This is one of the best times of year to enjoy the course, provided we can avoid frost delays. We may see our first frost delay of the season this weekend, which could push back the start of play. We can only hope the warmth of the ocean and a stiff breeze will help keep the frost at bay!

New 13th Tee Is Open

We were happy to get the new 13th tee built and ready for play in record time. Things came together quickly as we hauled in material to construct the tee pad, installed the internal drainage, added the tee mix, rerouted the irrigation, and finished with sod. It was open for play in about two weeks—a record for me!

We won’t be using the new tee every day just yet, as the roots are still quite shallow and need more time to establish. Our goal is to use this teeing area primarily for both the blue and white markers once it’s ready for more consistent use.

Looking Ahead: Leaves, Cooler Weather, and Fairway Aeration

The leaves will be coming down in full force over the coming week, and cooler nights will continue to slow turf growth. Mowing will taper off considerably as we shift our focus toward helping the turf build carbohydrate reserves for the winter months.

In the weeks ahead, our priorities will be leaf cleanup, maintaining playability, and completing fairway aeration. If the weather cooperates, we plan to begin aerating later next week and continue until all the fairways are finished.

The fairways will be cored and allowed to dry before we drag the plugs and blow off the remaining thatch. We’re hoping to complete two or three holes per day while working around our regular mowing and leaf cleanup. We’re starting a little later than planned, but our busy schedule and a few weather events forced us to adjust the original timeline.

Good Luck This Weekend!

Good luck to everyone competing in the Cape Ann Cup against Rockport this weekend!

And get ready for the Turkey Shoot. The crew has been looking forward to giving you fits with some fun and funky setup ideas, so come prepared for a few surprises!

Enjoy the fall golf while it lasts, and we’ll keep you posted as we work through the final stretch of the season.

Aeration Week

We are happy to have our two Invitational tournaments behind us, with the calendar now pointing us toward fall. There is a lot going on over the next few days, even while the course is closed. Aeration is upon us, and the maintenance team is grinding through the next couple of days to get everything done and headed in the right direction for recovery.

Here is what is going on and what you can expect.

Greens & Collars

Greens and collars have been heavily topdressed with 1 mm sand, then aerated with 3/4" solid tines and left to dry. It is imperative that the sand dries completely before the next steps can take place.

Once dry, the greens will be double-verticut, brushed to fill the aeration holes, blown, and rolled multiple times. They were fertilized Sunday morning before play to get the turf growing vigorously by midweek. The fertilizer and verticutting will help the turf grow through any excess sand and stimulate lateral growth to help everything fill in.

We will most likely roll the greens additional times this week in the afternoon after they have dried. Dew will make it nearly impossible to do much on the greens in the morning, as it causes the sand to move around. We want to keep as much of the applied sand in place as possible. Early rolling or mowing would remove sand and defeat the purpose of the process.

I doubt we will be able to mow the greens before next Monday, but one never knows. The 7th green received a slightly different process. It was cored with 1/2" coring tines, dragged, and blown. It was then lightly topdressed to fill the remaining holes. This new green has some additional thatch due to the normal grow-in process. Using coring tines helps eliminate the development of a black layer and other future agronomic problems.

Tees

Tees are being cored with 5/8" coring tines. The plugs will be left to dry, then picked up and topdressed. Sand will be broomed in by hand, and the plugs will be utilized where possible.

Approaches

Approaches will also be cored with 5/8" coring tines and left to dry. Once dry, they will be dragged numerous times until the soil has been returned to the turf canopy. The remaining thatch will be cleaned up, and where possible, the approaches will be topdressed and brushed once dry.

Fairways

We will start picking away at the fairways over the next few weeks around play, as time permits. We will need a lot of water to help the turf recover from all of these holes, and we don't have a ton of water available at this point. A couple of days of natural rain would be the magic elixir the course so badly needs.

What to Expect

Expect very slow and bumpy greens through the weekend. There will be dew on them in the morning, and they will be soft. THIS IS NOT THE BEST TIME TO BRING A GUEST.

Please fix your ball marks, because there will be a lot of them.

If things go as expected, the greens should begin to improve exponentially after their dry mow next Monday. A nice rain would be very helpful, but we all know what the chances of that are here in the desert.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we put the course in the best possible position heading into fall.

July - It's A Good Start

I originally wrote this blog post as it appeared the storm was pulling away with only 0.16 inches of rain. It has since reformed and we are currently up to 1.22 inches as of 7:35 pm and a final total of 1.4

This rain event was timely but will do little to drastically improve the drought conditions here on the island; but every little bit counts. We continued to fall farther behind in our annual rainfall totals last month, and with the water restrictions currently in place, every missed opportunity for meaningful rainfall hurts; this was a win.

Unfortunately, drought has become an all-too-familiar pattern over the past three years. Even Saturday’s storm dropped nearly half an inch of rain in Rockport while we received the big “zero.” We’ve done an excellent job holding things together, but the lack of rain late last week proved to be the tipping point. Add four straight days of temperatures in the mid- to upper 90s, a full tee sheet every day, and constant cart traffic, and turf damage becomes unavoidable. The course has taken a beating.

After a great deal of discussion and consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to move to cart path only until conditions improve. This is not a decision we ever take lightly. Many of you had already suggested it last week, and believe me, I was hoping Mother Nature would give us the rain we desperately needed, we've gotten some but the course needs a little break from the traffic. Hopefully this rain event will make this a very brief stint until some of the very beat areas have a chance to recover. 

Below are just a few examples of the damage that has developed over the last several days.

Many people assume that because we’re watering, the turf should be fine. The reality is much different. Golf course irrigation systems are designed to supplement rainfall—not replace it. Unless a course has access to an unlimited supply of high-quality water, irrigation alone simply cannot duplicate what a soaking rain accomplishes.

Right now, we’re able to keep the surface damp, but very little moisture is reaching the root zone where the plants actually need it. Much of the water is staying in the top inch of the soil profile while deeper soils continue to dry out.

This is one of the reasons we aerate so frequently. Aeration helps relieve compaction, reduce thatch, and create pathways for water to move deeper into the soil where it can benefit the root system.

The rocky areas are especially vulnerable. Rocks absorb heat throughout the day and continue releasing it overnight, creating extremely stressful conditions for turf. Areas with excessive thatch, made worse by three consecutive dry seasons, are also becoming hydrophobic, meaning they actually begin to repel water. Even with surfactants, hand watering, and heavier irrigation cycles, some of these areas simply refuse to rewet.

The result is what you’re beginning to see across the golf course—localized browning and turf stress despite our best efforts.

The following photos show damage that has developed over just the past two days. Even with increased watering, cart traffic, pull carts, and in some locations even foot traffic, are leaving visible marks. While the pull cart shown should not have crossed a tee, that isn’t really the point. The turf has become so stressed that almost any traffic is capable of causing damage.

Over the next couple of days, we’ll be punching small holes in the driest tee areas before soaking them with hoses in an effort to get water deeper into the soil profile. We’ll also try to do the same in the highest-profile fairway areas as time allows.

We spiked the greens last week and are repeating that process again today while the course is relatively quiet. Every little bit helps improve water infiltration, and right now every advantage matters.

As always, we appreciate everyone’s patience, understanding, and cooperation. We all want the golf course looking its best, and we’re doing everything we can with the conditions we’ve been given. Hopefully Mother Nature will eventually do her part.

June Update

It looks like we’ve finally made it over the hump and into some warmer weather—for the most part. Recent rain events have given the course a little boost that we haven’t seen in almost two years. The droughts of 2024 and 2025 are behind us—now we’re dealing with the drought of 2026.

Believe it or not, drought conditions are actually worse right now than they were last summer. We are currently in a Critical Drought. Keep in mind that spring is typically our wet season, yet we received very little rain in April and May. Every month that passes with below-normal precipitation puts us further behind, and the only way to catch up is through months with above-average rainfall—not just a half-inch rain event here and there.

The color of the grass, the leaves on the trees, and the appearance of flowers are not what determine drought levels. Instead, drought conditions are assessed using factors such as reservoir levels, river and stream flow, groundwater supplies, soil moisture, and evapotranspiration. The map below was last updated on May 22. We’re waiting to see what the next update brings, but I doubt the 0.6 inches of rain we received last weekend was enough to significantly change our status.

What does this mean? It means we’ll need to continue paying close attention to our water use. As always, we will follow our Seasonal Demand Management Plan by reducing irrigation where possible, increasing hand watering, shutting off nonessential areas, and implementing other conservation measures. Fortunately, we haven’t used much water so far this season, so we remain in good shape. While rainy weekends may not be anyone’s favorite, they are helping us get through this challenging stretch.

As we move into June, we’re entering the heart of the season and the event calendar will begin filling up quickly. Play has increased significantly over the past week, and we’re already starting to see some of the common summer issues appear.

First, the dreaded unfixed ball marks are starting to rear their heads. Please take a moment to repair them. An unfixed ball mark can take weeks to heal under the best conditions, while a properly repaired ball mark can recover in less than 36 hours.

Second, please rake the bunker after you’re finished. Our bunkers are not raked every day, so if you’re playing late in the afternoon, don’t assume that because nobody is behind you on the tee sheet there’s no need to rake. You may have tomorrow's entire tee sheet playing behind you.

Lastly, remember to keep carts and golf bags in appropriate areas. Having a handicap flag does not mean you should drive up and park on the collar of a green.

Thank you for your help. If everyone does their part and takes pride in the course, it makes Bass Rocks that much better for everyone.

Finally, I’d like to talk about the 7th hole. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback so far, which is great to hear. It’s important to remember that this is a completely new hole and will require a different approach. Aggressive shots at the green may now come with some harsher penalties, so keep the long grass and the possibility of a lost ball in mind when choosing your strategy.

Another topic that has come up is flag color. The old green featured an upper and lower shelf, so we primarily used yellow and white flags to indicate which section the hole location was on. The new green is wide but not very deep and includes more prominent surrounding features. As a result, we’ll be using a more traditional approach to flag color placement.

As with any green, there will always be some hole locations that fall into a gray area. Fortunately, modern golf provides plenty of tools to help, including GPS-equipped carts, sprinkler head yardages, and rangefinders that can provide exact distances. Below is a general guide to what you can expect to see.

The 7th Green

Ok, so it is OPEN for use- earlier than expected. I have a few comments and requests. This is a new green, it cannot take extra traffic, especially foot traffic with spiked shoes. It is also very exposed to the wind and direct sun all day so it will need extra TLC.  Enjoy; its still tough but now its fair.

1. Please don't use it as a practice green, hitting 10 putts to learn it from all angles. It can't handle the extra traffic right now. 

2. Please don't hit a bunch of shots into the green- we don't want the fairway to look like a practice area.. Don't be that person.

3. If your ball lands on the current temporary, TAKE A DROP. We may need to utilize it here and there, especially if the new green starts getting beat from too much play. 

4. Follow the cart traffic signs. They will take you to the new back tee if you have trouble accessing the green.

5. Please fix your ball marks.

6. See number 1.

7. See number 2. 

8. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE! 

We would like to keep it open but there may be a day here and there on a Monday where it will need some extra attention. New greens that get pushed with nitrogen to fill in create a heavy organic layer below the surface that needs to be removed a little at a time over the first year or two. I will work to try and do this with very small "Emperor Tines" to limit the impact on putting quality.