Pelican Lakes Maintenance Team Recaps Its Productive 2023

Another season is in the books at Pelican Lakes Resort & Golf in Windsor, CO.

Led by course superintendent Jason Weizenegger, the maintenance staff had a busy and productive year. “It was a good year,” he said. “The crew did an amazing job this summer getting our projects done.”

Weizenegger’s staff accomplished the following tasks in 2023:

• Used a triplex greens machine instead of walk mowing which achieved the same speeds on the greens.
• Resodded areas on #3 green and topped dressed #4 green on The Lakes that were vandalized.
• Constructed an entirely new tee complex for the red tees on #18.
• Mitigated cattail overgrowth on the waterfall between #5 and #6 on The Falls.
• Thinned out the bent grass on the approaches of all 27 holes.
• Began to add drainage in the fairway of #2 on The Lakes.
• Replaced the dividers on the driving range.
• Installed security cameras around the entire property. (Smile! You’re on camera!)

“We had a smaller crew this year and I liked the speeds we achieved this year,” said Weizenegger. “We will continue to triplex greens moving forward.”

Weizenegger mentioned his team spent a lot of time fixing areas of vandalism across the entire campus.

“Unfortunately, we had quite a bit of vandalism in the fall,” he said. “We never like to see that, and hope people in the future respect the golf course.”

Weizenegger said the new tee box on #18 was met with positive feedback.

“The new tee box we built on #18, just west of the cart path for the ladies, has been well received,” he said. “Hopefully we can reroute the cart path this winter or early in the spring.”

He also said the verticut work on all the bent grass in the approaches has been successful, as well as overseeding these areas with bluegrass and rye. “We will continue to mitigate the bent grass in 2024,” he said.

Drainage was added to the #2 fairway on The Lakes around 170 yards from the green, and additional drainage on this hole will continue in 2024.

The driving range has a new look as well. “We had Windsor High School, led by shop teacher Tony Hilim, help us make new range dividers. They look awesome! Special thanks to Tony and his students.”

Weizenegger and his staff have several projects in place for the new year. “I’m looking forward to hopefully getting the land bridge from the black, blue and white tees to the red tees done this year on #8 on The Lakes,” he said.

Other projects he has in store are:

• Releveling all the crowned tee boxes.
• Lowering the height of cut for the rough from 2.5 inches to 2 inches. “Hopefully this will allow more balls in the rough to stay on top of the grass,” he said.
• Added locked gates at four entry points on The Falls.
• Thinning willow trees that shade most of the tee complexes on The Lakes #2.
• Adding native areas to several areas on the Back 9.
• Topdressing the greens more frequently.

“We had a great year in 2023, and I know it’s going to be even better in 2024,” said Weizenegger.