A John Deere Sprinkler Beginning to Fail

If you notice closely, the sprinkler head is turning at the beginning of the video, but watch how the head begins to jerk or ratchet towards the end, this is an indication that it is failing.  Often times when we check heads daily, the head turns fine and then we shut it off, but next time it comes on it begins to jerk and ratchet and then fails and we may not notice it for a day or two since we just checked it.

Irrigation Head Failures

The video depicts a typical sprinkler head on the golf course.  You will notice it does not turn and this is the case with hundreds of heads several times per year.  When this happens, it effects our conditions, playability and efficacy of our chemicals we apply, plus it wastes a lot of water and electricity when we have to repair the head and then run it again.

The Benefits of Selective Tree Removals

Look at the difference on the 6th hole by removing a few trees on the right side of the tee opened up a view of the key Oak tree that guards the right corner of the dogleg.  Before, nobody knew this tree was here until they were out in the middle of the fairway.  By doing this as well, we now opened up a view of the left greenside bunker, which shows you the peril that awaits on the hole.

Please Be Careful When Raking Bunkers

This is the back of the new right greenside bunker on #10.  It is important to carefully rake the edge when exiting the bunker as the sand pulled up on the edge and dragged into the rough will eventually kill off the grass, causing the edge to break apart and the bunker will begin to deteriorate.  Also, this is a high side of the face and not an ideal place to exit as it will create a lot of disturbance to the face, which then creates a lot of raking to try to replace the sand that was pushed down, which in turn leads to this problem.

Course Update for the Remainder of March

Golf Course Update for the Remainder of March
Now that we are half way through May (I mean March, feels like May), here are our objectives on the golf course.
-We are only at about 1/3 of our staff right now and I plan on keeping it that way until we reach April, which is our new fiscal year.
-We are about 2 weeks ahead of normal required sprays and our greens have never been opened this early as long as anyone can remember. 
-Roots are starting to grow and grass is just starting to perk up, but real growth will not occur for another few weeks.  You will notice areas that were sodded within the last 2 years with tall fescue or kentucky bluegrass are still dormant and will green up later than our poa, bent, rye roughs.
-Our main concentration now is get finished with aerification, tree cleanups, seed and sod stumps and prepare the turf for the coming season.  Detail finish work such as stick cleanups, seeding rough areas, mulching beds etc will not take place until April when we are at full staff.
-Greens were mowed yesterday for the first time, mainly to pick up sand, but as mentioned earlier they are not really growing and mowing will occur probably 2 times per week.  Tees and fairways were also mowed once and we will mow them as needed.
-Bunkers will get machine raked 1-2 times per week, but we do have rakes out and please rake the bunkers when you play out of them so we can use our labor for other things during the week. Also, I cannot emphasize enough that in the new bunkers on #10, please do not walk up the greenside faces when entering and exiting the bunker, this will not only displace the sand, but could damage the liner and the new bunker edges, which have not stabilized yet.  We have created easy access points on every new bunker.
-Being it is so dry, we have allowed carts out early and I encourage everyone to stay on the fairways as much as possible.  I do not want to concentrate carts this early in the season in our roughs as I really am trying to get our roughs to improve this year.
-All colored tee markers will be put out on April 2nd and in the meantime we have a single set of white tee markers out.  If you normally play from the white markers, please play from where the markers are set on a daily basis.  If you like to play the blue tees, you can play from anywhere on the blue tees and the same with the red and green.  During the season our white tees get the most play and we are trying to avoid using the noraml white tee marker locations so they are in good condition when the official season arrives.
-My main goal with the new practice green and 11th green is to have them open in mid to late April.  They are progressing as expected and we do not want to open them too early and suffer any setbacks.
-Finally, we do still have firewood left behind the 17th green and if you would like to take some please feel free.  We are going to move the remaining wood in the next few weeks and put it away until next fall so now is the time.  The cool weather is not over yet.

New Piece of Equipment Already At Use

We recently purchased this used off road dumper which holds about 9 tons of material.  Originally, we used our mason dump to do all our material moving and this put a lot of strain on the truck, and we mostly use the mason dump for snow plowing and running errands.  Now with this dumper, we will save time, labor and wear and tear as this will haul more than 3x what the mason dump can hold, has 4 wheel drive and can get anywhere on the course without getting stuck.  It will help us greatly with our day to day operation, but more importantly it will help us in the future with course renovation work.  This was a great purchase!

Muskrat Problems

If you are wondering what the stakes are around our ponds and ditches, it is to mark out traps that have been installed by licensed trappers to remove muskrats.  Each stake marks a trap that has been set near a muskrat tunnel.  The muskrats burrow into pond and stream banks and cause them to collapse and eventually we experience significant erosion problems.  In our new ditch on the 17th hole, muskrats already destabilized the banks and we now have to repair it.  All trapping must end by March 15th per the law and all traps will be removed.

Aerification Rolling Along

Now that the tees are aerified and topdressed and the fairways are aerified and we are finishing up topdressing, we are now aerifying all our green surrounds.  This will be beneficial as they have not been done in some time and this will alleviate compaction and improve the health of the rough.

Dryject Process on Greens

This April 2nd and again on April 30th we will be doing a dryject procedure on greens.  The machine injects sand to a depth of 3-4" without making a big mess and by not pulling a core out, this firms up greens.  As you can see by the bottom picture the disruption is not too bad and depending on weather, the greens will heal pretty quick.  With a busy fall tournament schedule, we need to get most of our major cultivation to greens done this spring.