Sunday, December 20, 2009

Driving Range

On Monday, Dec 21st, we will begin the process of raising the height of the Driving Range nets. We are going to do this in stages. We are going to start on the left side of the netting. If you are planning on using the range and we are out there working, please use irons only off the practice mats. It will be really hard for us to do our job if we are dodging golf balls the whole time.
We are extending the netting because our range area is too small to fully accommodate our golfers. We loose a ton of golf balls to the river. Right now the tallest points of the netting are 9 to 12 feet tall. Through this process we should reach heights of 23 to 25 feet. This is a new project for my staff and I, but we have thought long and hard about it and think we have come up with the best possible solution for an in house project.
Hopefully this first part of the netting will only take us 2-3 days to complete. I apologize for any inconvenience.
UPDATE:
Unfortunately, the net that we installed on the range did not hold up to the 40 mph winds that we received over the Christmas holiday. The winds snapped all of the posts about 5 feet above ground, just above the rear supports that we put on every vertical member. We are currently looking into other methods of support for the nets. Hopefully we will have something in place soon. Until then we will be irons only on the range.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Frost Delay

We are at that time of year where the temperatures will reach below the freezing mark frequently overnight. When this happens we will typically have a frost on the ground, or a frozen playing surface as a result. On these days we will have to delay play for a few hours to allow the frost to burn off or the playing surface to thaw.
We do this for one reason, to protect the turf. When the plant is in a thawed state traffic will cause the leaf blade to lay over. When the plant is in a frozen state traffic will injure of break the frozen leaf blade causing death to the plant. This is the reason that we have to restrict play from the Greens and Over seeded areas during frost or freeze conditions.
Also to the homeowners on the course, we are close to the Christmas break for schools and I know that a lot of the children like to play on the course during the day, especially in the snow. Please remember that these delays apply to everyone not just the golfers. If you have children that want to play on the course, please remind them to stay away from the greens complexes.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Cleaning Up The Stones River

December has arrived with a vengeance. It's hard to believe that the first weekend in December brought us a snowfall with actual accumulation. When the weather reaches our current conditions the grass has pretty much stopped growing for the year. This gives us some time to go out and work on parts of the course that would normally get neglected.


Currently we have begun working on cleaning up the Stones River banks, which have been overgrown with Privot, Osage and other woody plants. The goal is to get all of #8 cleaned to a point that we can maintain it with mowers and string trimmers. Also, we will be limbing up trees with low hanging limbs that shade the turf and make horrible conditions to grow grass. No, we will not be cutting down the limb that overhangs #8 fairway, it is a very important part of the hole. After we finish #8 we will keep working down the river as far as we can get this winter. I hope to get back to #18 Teeing area.


Here's a few pictures to show the progress of the first days work.
The above picture is a section that he cleaned up Monday.
The above picture is the next section that we have to clean up.