Irrigation Renovation Update March 8th

 Currently all irrigation has been installed on the playing surface of the golf course.  Hole #7 was the last hole to be installed and that was completed on Friday.  The driving range was completed Sunday and back open for play on Monday.
There are only 2 areas left to irrigate.  The club grounds with a res/com system and the nursery area which is about the size of a par 4. The nursery area runs parallel #2 on the other side of the rail road tracks. Apparently this area was once intended to be part of the course but for one reason or another it was abandoned.  It has been a bone yard or a dumping ground for the last 30 years. The whole thing was an over grown cedar thicket.  So we had it cleared out with a grinding machine. We found that there had been some clearing and shaping that took place somewhere in the past.  Piles of boulders and piles of quality tee soil piled up in areas. It was really pretty cool to uncover. I would love to eventually have a full sod nursery with An acre of bent, fescue, bermuda, and zoysia at some point in the future.
The pump is in place and the pump house is dried in.  Brick is scheduled for the exterior on Monday and the electricity will hopefully be run this week.  Would love to be blowing out installed lines in a week.
We have some cleanup still going on on the front nine. I would hope to get all 18 holes back open for play on next Saturday. We still have a lot of concrete cuts to pour and rolling to do though.

Driving Range Tee

I wanted to take a minute today and discuss some driving range etiquette with you today.  First a couple of things about our range that you might not know.  There is a hole behind the range that people play on and that is the reason for the range net that we put up last year.  From the center of the range tee it is only 185 yards to the near range net (left side) and about 220 yards to the far side net (right side).  Our range has to be irons only when we are on the front half of the tee because the yardage is so short to the net.  Also, the range is a living breathing organism and has to be maintained.  That means that we have to mow the target area of the range once a week.  Since our rough mower does not have a protective cabin on it we have to close the range tee on Friday mornings to mow without endangering our employees.  We have range tee dividers setup every day for your daily practice area.  We move them daily to ensure that there is adequate good turf to hit from.

IRONS ONLY

As I stated earlier our range has to be irons only to protect the golfers playing on #8.  The landing area for the tee shot on #8 is at the short side of the range net (left side).  If you are one of those young strong semi-pro golfers that can carry the range net at 185 yards with a 4 iron please aim to the deep side of the range when we are "irons only".  I get a lot of comments that sound something like, "Well, I can't hit my driver 185 yards."  I am sorry but our policy currently has to be a blanket policy that covers every person at the range.  Unfortunately I cannot sit there all day watching for who hits the ball too far with their driver.  "Irons Only" means irons only, hybrids are not irons.  Hopefully we will have a resolve in the near future that will allow us to have a Drivers allowed section at all times.  But, until then we will split time 50/50.

Oh, don't be the guy who says lets see if we can hit it over the net.  If you clear the net and hit a golfer you are the responsible party.  We have instructed you on how you are to conduct yourself at the range.  If you decide not to then you open yourself up to very bad possibilities.  A golf ball has killed a person on more than one occasion.

DIVOT  PATTERNS

Please keep in mind that several people throughout the day will probably use the same hitting area that you are using.  When you hit every range ball that you have 6 inches away from the last one and take a big "beaver tail" (divot) on each swing you don't leave very much area for the next guy to practice.

This is a example of a very poor divot pattern.

In the above picture the golfer only hit about 15 balls but he ruined 25% of the hitting area for the next person.

Below is a example of the way to pattern divots.

The person who made this pattern hit about 35 balls, but they only used about 1/16th of the daily hitting area.  I'm not saying that everyone needs to make range divot marks like Tiger Woods.  I would just like for you to be considerate of the patrons who are coming after you.  

CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE

As I stated earlier we mow the range target area on Friday mornings If we don't mow it the grass will not allow us to pick up the range balls.  I like our guy that mows the range and I don't want him to get hurt.  He wears a soft plastic Bee Keepers Hard Hat at all times as a safety precaution.  I'm sorry if Friday morning is when you were playing golf but you can still chip and putt before your round at are practice facility.

The rules that we have are for safety purposes.  We are not trying to hamper your game, drive your patronage elsewhere or aggravate you in general.  We are simply making a policy that covers everyone's best interests.  Hopefully we can devise a plan that will make our range more functional to all of our golfers in the future.