It appears Frank Hancock, the new course supt, has taken the bull by the horns. It also appears the membership will have put up with a lot that other memberships wouldn't. Firm and fast doesn't happen easily. An excerpt from the article
James B
Dramatic Changes
Seizing on golf hole closings and diminished play due to the construction work, Hancock began working his craft of firming up the golf course. The club’s maintenance crew aggressively aerified not only all of the greens, but the final 30 to 40 yards of the green approaches. In a normal year, a typical course aerifies the greens two to three times. Rarely do they aerify the approaches. In the first two years of this aggressive assault on thatch, the EHCC maintenance team has aerified the greens 14 times and the green approaches 26 times. Degrading that barrier layer of thatch enables water to more readily percolate into the sandy soils. With water no longer trapped near the surface (a breeding ground for disease), the plants have no alternative but to grow their roots deeper down to find water.
Hancock also courageously turned down the water. In a break from traditional country club patterns of regularly timed light watering, Hancock and his crew took a page from the USGA playbook and resorted to more specific hand watering “in deep and infrequent cycles.” In his words, the crew now waters the golf course “just enough to keep the grass alive.” Lessening the course’s dependency on surface H2O, the grass is healthier, more resistant to disease and traffic, and can be cut shorter. For the golfers, these firmer and faster playing conditions have opened the door to a greater variety of shotmaking possibilities into and around the greens. Golf at Eastward Ho! can now be played on the ground as well as in the air.