New Equipment

Our current lease is up and our new John Deere equipment has been coming in over the last few weeks.  Every piece that comes in gets a thorough inspection by Eric or George. We also have to make sure that heights of cut match up when we try a new piece of equipment for the first time.  They also use this time to add any modifications that we may need to fit our job (like modifying the basket on the Sandpro to hold a backpack blower). We are looking forward to some warmer weather so that we can really put this stuff to use. Here are just a few pictures of some of the new stuff. Some of these were taken while they were still looking over a few things.

Parking lot work

With the golf course being so wet and the wind howling we spent yesterday doing some work to our parking lot. Our crew size has grown greatly from what it was 3 years ago so parking has become an issue around our shop. This area was already used as a parking area and some gravel was there from years ago. We capped it with a little more gravel and expanded the area to accommodate a few more cars.

Storm during the tournament

Yesterday was supposed to be rounds 1 and 2 of the Linger Longer Invitational tournament. They started on time with an 8:30 shotgun planning to play 36 holes continuously all day. However, we had a 2 hour rain delay from 10:00 to 12:00.  This put everyone behind and the wet conditions slowed pace of play down.  We tried hard to get all 36 in yesterday but failed to do so with every group having 5-8 holes left in the second round. At that point the plan was to shotgun again at 8:30 to finish round 2 and go straight into round 3. However, Mother Nature had other plans. We received 2.5" of rain in the storm last night. The golf course was a mess and standing water was everywhere. We spent the morning cleaning up debris, pumping out bunkers and drains, pushing up bunkers and trying to get the course back into playing shape. The event was cut to 36 holes at this point and the golfers came out at 11:00 to finish up the final few holes of the 2nd round.  I took a few picture of the course this morning. It might be the most standing water I have ever seen on the course and I feel like we did a pretty good job of getting it cleaned up.

The pictures really don't do it justice as most of the water had ran off or we had already pumped it down before I got to take a picture.

Tournament Prep

We have been preparing for the Linger Longer Invitational tournament all winter and have really kicked it into high gear this week with our preparations. The warmer weather over the weekend along with the fertilizer that we put out and a little bit of rainfall has really made the course begin to wake up. The fairways, tees, and perimeters are really looking good and the contrast with the rough right now really looks sharp.

Wednesday is our closed day so we have taken most of today to polish off much of our detail work. Here are a few pictures of the guy's flymowing, edging bunkers, edging heads, drains, and yardage blocks. We also used today to get our liquid fertilizer sprayed onto greens.

New Irrigation Boxes

We have been upgrading our irrigation system slowly over the last few years.  We have had the boxes in our shop and as time and money has allowed we have been replacing our old system. We had Toro network 8000 boxes with no hand held units before and we are putting in a Toro VP system.  The old boxes also had poor grounding.  As the new boxes go in we are adding grounding to each new box. The old boxes only had an 8 foot ground rod directly under the boxes. For the new boxes we are installing an 8 foot ground rod 8 feet from the box plus a 6 foot plate 16 feet from the box.  To perform this install all wires and irrigation lines must be located around each box, then a trench must be dug and everything laid into place. This new system should greatly reduce the amount of damage that we can receive in a lightning storm.  The new boxes will also help us to be more efficient when running water, we will also have the ability to run water from our radio. Here are a few pictures of the grounding being installed at one of the new boxes.

Spring Fertilizer Application

Yesterday (Wednesday 3/13) we fertilized the entire golf course.  We have the Howard fertilizer truck come in and do the bulk spreading while a few of our crew members to the tie in with small rotary spreaders around the greens.  This fertilizer also has a pre-emerge weed control product called Ronstar in it, this should help keep the weeds off of the course for much of the growing season.  When these products are put out we have to run large amounts of water to get them to break down and move into the soil. These products will also burn the turf if they are driven over and crushed with a cart before they are completely worked into the soil. For both of these reasons we must remain Cart Path Only for the next 2 days.

Fertilizing Greens

Here is a picture of a few of our guys applying a few products to our greens. One is put out to raise the pH of the soil. Low soil pH can have very bad effect on the health of turf. The other was a product that is used to control goose and crabgrass.  This product should keep us free of any goose and crab grass for the growing season.  As you can see these products are both in a granular form and must be put out with spreaders and then watered in.

Spring is just around the corner

The nice weather over the weekend has our Fairways and Perimeters trying to green up. Here are a few pictures that  I took today of the course. Some of the color seen is from the pigment that we have been spraying all winter but you can also see some fresh growth in the fairways.

New sod behind 4 green

Two trees were removed from behind 4 green a few weeks ago. These two trees had roots that streched all the way to the green and they also shaded the back half of 4 green most of the day during the winter.  They were removed to allow more sunlight onto that green. Here are a few pictures of they guys preparing the area for sod and then actually laying the sod.

Here are a few pictures of new drain line that we put in in 12 fairway.  This drain has been holding water for quite some time. We figured out that the pipe was crushed in 3 different places, so we decided that it would be cheaper and eaiser to put in a whole new drain pipe. 

Drain #11 fairway

Here is the drain on 11 with sod in place.

In addition to all of the new drainage we have been doing around greens, we have also been replacing some of the fairway drains. Many of our drains were just 12"X12" plastic grates placed over a 4" pipe with no basin at all. Here are some before and after pictures of a drain that was done in 11 fairway a few days ago.

Here is the front of 8 green with the sod removed and some of the sand being brought in. We stripped a 30X40 foot area in the front of 8 green to smooth out a few humps and dips and to bring in some sand in order to help firm up this area.

Here is the front of 8 with all of the sand in place. The guys are working on the finish grade at this point.

Here is the front of 8 with the sod put back into place. Some of the sod on the right side was to thin to salvage so it is missing in this picture and will be added when we get sod in.