Masters Week

Masters week is always a very busy week for us here at Great Waters. We have averaged just under 200 rounds everyday since this past Saturday. Here a few pictures of our guys in action this morning.

spring sod work

Spring time in Georgia can be very unpredictable. We had a fairly cold winter but overall it was not too bad. We have however had a VERY wet spring. It has rained on average 1/2" per week since the beginning of February. Rain is usually a good thing but just like anything else too much of a good thing can be bad. This has made it very hard to actually get out there and do any kind of mowing on the golf course. It has also created some issues on a few holes where the water collects, creates algae, and does not let the grass grow. If the rain would stop for a week or so the areas would dry up and the algae would crack open and the grass would grow through, but this has not happened yet. We are sodding a few of these areas and we are running a solid tine aerifyer over some of the other spots today. We laid 18 rolls of sod in different areas on #2, 6, and 7 today. These areas will take a little time to heal from the sod but it will be much faster than waiting on the algae. The solid tine aerification should help the other areas to dry out and start to grow some grass faster.

 

 

Coming alive day by day

With the temperatures slowly warming up the golf course is changing every day. Greens are almost 100% out of dormancy and the fairways and tees are following closely behind. The rough is coming along nicely in some areas while some of our wetter or heavily shaded areas are still just sitting there.

Spring is getting closer

What a difference a week makes. We had some warmer temperatures and a little bit drier weather. Last week we finished up the drainage project that we started on #8 back at the beginning of February. We added 2 surface drains and installed about 180' of solid 4" pipe. We also mowed rough last week for the first time this year. Last fall our rough was grown up fairly high for the Big Break Invitational and we are starting it slightly lower than we normally do. This makes for a very slow, ugly process on the rough. We made it all the way around last week mowing and blowing but honestly it still looked a little, well "rough." We started back around on all of it again today and it is really cleaning up nicely. The weather this week looks a little wet again but the temperature look better so hopefully we will have a green golf course very soon.

Pictures from the drainage project on #8

 

 

 

The first cut on the rough 

After the second cut

Another picture of the second cut. You can see just how dusty this is when the grass is dry. You can also see #13 fairway beginning to green up here.

A close up of the rough after the second cut. Here you can seen a lot of green grass coming though. Cutting all of the excess dead grass off the top should help the grass green up quicker and come out healthier.

A wet, cold February

The month of February has not been kind to those that must work outside. The day time highs have been averaging somewhere in the mid 40's and some days have not made it out of the 30's. Many nights have been below freezing and a few nights got down into the mid teens. I know anyone that is reading this up north is laughing, but this is middle Georgia, our winters are supposed to be cool but not uncomfortable. We have also gotten over 4" of rain for the month. It has rained every Sunday or Monday this month. This gets the golf course very wet at the beginning of every week and it is hard to get any projects done. However, we are still plugging away on a few different projects and have already started on a fairly large drainage project on #8 that we will finish as soon as we get a break in the weather. As I type this we are under a winter weather advisory, the temperature is a balmy 37 degrees, and it is pouring rain. So when is the first day of spring???

Video about covering Greens

Last week we covered greens and we made a video documenting the process. We got lucky with our closed days and we were able to put the covers on before the wind got really bad on Wednesday. However, we did have a few covers that got blown off because of that wind that we had to go back to.

Greens are covered

We did cover greens on Tuesday of this week and the covers are still on today. With a morning low of 16 degrees and a high today of 33 the golf course will be closed. Right now we are going to do everything that we can to get the golf course open tomorrow but we will have to see what the weather does. We did have to battle the winds a little yesterday. 30+ MPH winds are not nice to our covers.

Pressure washing

We got the pressure washer out this past week and we were able to pressure wash all of our rock wall, sea walls, bridges, and the fence here at the shop. We are also in the process of putting a new coat of paint on the fence at the shop.

 

Drainage video

Here is a video I made of us adding drainage to #13 fairway. We actually did 2 different places and the video shows scenes from both spots.

Drainage work

 

We are definitely in winter project mode and we have already made a pretty good dent in our list. Here are a few pictures of some drainage work that we have done. So far we have added a new drain a drainage along the cart path on #5, added drainage and worked on the basin at the small putting green, and added some drainage to the back left of #2 green. We have a few more places that we are going to try to get done and I will try to post those as we get to them.

 

Working at the small putting green 

Working at the small putting green 

Finished product at the small putting green 

Working behind #2 green 

Working behind #2 Green 

Finished product behind #2 green. This area will be sodded in the spring after it dries up a little bit.