Winter Work

Every winter the crew and I tackle a number of things to make work go more smoothly during the growing season.  One of our annual winter projects is tree management.  Below Paul Ardissono and Mike Petro are clearing and chipping brush from behind the range tee cart path.  The area they're working in will soon become new parking for golf carts.  The proposed area will provide spaces for cart parking while the membership makes use of the practice facilities.  

A long standing idea of mine has been to install additional irrigation during the winter months.  A tough task considering it's winter.  But this year I bought an insulated ice fishing shanty.  It pops up in less than a minute and with the help of a little propane heater the person inside is warm and cozy to work with his hands adding quick coupling valves to existing sprinkler heads.  

A major benefit of doing this work during the winter is the lack of water in the lines.  Every fall we blow all of the water out of the lines so the water in the lines doesn't freeze.  If left to freeze the pipes would burst and shatter from the expanding frozen water.  A disastrous scenario. 

These pictures were actually taken on a warm day around 45 degrees, but Forest Galanda (in the pictures) has used this setup in temps in the 20's and been very comfortable.  

Tee Project 2015 - Completed and Our First Mowing

I forgot to post this last fall.  Sorry.....

After a few rain days the tee project was finally finished  a few weeks ago (The week of September 28).  11t was a big change and we chose to sod the tee tops with shade acclimated sod from 18t.  As you can see below the 3 new tee tops are strikingly different.

View from the new 11 blue t.

18 red and yellow were also split into 2 tees.  The yellow tee is considerably larger than the other yellow tees on the course in anticipation of using the back portion of the tee for an occasional white tee placement.

The tees on 16 and 17 were mowed for the first time this week.  Each tee top has been covered and the grass under the covers is growing quickly in current weather.  As the temperatures drop the covers will help prolong the growing season.  On a sunny day the temperatures under the covers can be as much as 10 degrees higher than the outside air.

Storage Building

Last fall the crew and I began building a new storage building.  A 3 sided shed or "run in" shed".  The shed will be a great addition to our storage buildings for it will store all of the large and miscellaneous items that have been sitting outside all of these years.  Replacement costs of these items range from $400 to $40,000.

The time and money spent to build this new shed will be well worth the investment in the long run.  Also, because of the location, I believe the building will help reduce noise traveling from our maintenance facility to the course.  

Sodding

I forgot to post this last fall. Sorry....

Last week (The week of October 12th) we started a sodding project that focused on undesirable grasses in the immediate rough perimeter of a few of our fairways.  9, 14, 15 and 18 fairways were earmarked as the worst for having bentgrass in the rough next to the fairway.  Bentgrass does well below 3/4", but as it begins to grow above 1" it begins to become thatchy and puffy.  As the summer heat arrives these areas begin to suffer and die out.

Our solution involved sod cutting a 30" wide ring around each of the four fairways.  The sod cut from the ring was removed and either composted or saved if it was determined to be of good quality and free of bentgrass.  Dan Kaiser and his crew then laid new Kentucky Bluegrass sod around each fairway. 

In areas where the bentgrass extended outside of the 30" initial cut we extended our sod cutting/removal to include these areas.  Any sod that was saved from the initial first ring cut was then laid in these areas.