Cold Storage Building

 Our new 3000 sq ft cold storage building located between 1 and 18 has made significant progress since we started a few weeks ago.  On the building side, we just have to add insulation, electric and the doors.  We will then do the concrete floor last, hopefully in January some time if the weather allows.  This building will allow us to store more equipment inside and free up space at our main maintenance facility.

Progress Being Made on 5

 

The work on 5 has been progressing steadily despite some heavy rains to start.  This is a big project which includes rebuilding and shifting all the fairway and greenside bunkers, changing the fairway contours, reshaping parts of the fairway and draining the entire fairway.  The biggest part of the project is happening now with moving a lot of turf, reshaping areas and building new bunkers.  Once this is done, we will add all new drainage on the top portion of the fairway.

The last 80 yards of the hole is a complete rebuild to add more strategy to the hole and to divert water away from the green and bunkers.  We are also rebuilding the alternate tee area on the 6th hole as well.  With continued good weather we should be almost done with the big work in another 10 days.

Drainage and Renovation Underway on #5

 

Work has begun on the 5th hole this past week.  Our goal is to drain the fairway, rebuild the bunkers and tie those drains to our new trunk lines and to change the fairway contour lines.  The biggest problem with #5 is the amount of runoff from the hillside so we must divert water to drain basins to prevent the runoff from entering bunkers and ending up down by the green.  Phase one is to catch the upper portion of the fairway on the left side and phase 2 is to divert the water on the lower portion of the fairway toward the cart path and drainage ditch.  While this is good sized project it will address all our issues on the hole while improving the playability and strategy.

Screening the Maintenance Facility

 

Phase 1 of screening the maintenance facility area is completed and we will finish the remaining screening plants in the spring of 2021.  We will remove the dawn redwoods that run along the new putting course this winter and replace them with green giant aborvitaes.  This will improve the turf on the putting course and actually free up some more space in the maintenance area.

One Step Closer to Our New Storage Building

 

The materials for our new 3000 sq ft cold storage building arrived this morning.  The site work is ready so the next step is to have Morton come and put it up.  We are hoping to have everything done by January.  This will take the burden off of leaving equipment outside in the elements all season long due to our current lack of storage.

Hydraulic Leak

 

Unfortunately we had a hydraulic leak this morning on our practice area.  It basically goes around the perimeter of the practice area and then several passes were made along the fairway area until it was noticed.  While this will look unsightly for a while and we can seed it out, lucky it was not on one of our fairways as we use a fairway mower to mow our range area.  This is one of the downsides of mowing in the dark every morning where things like this do not get noticed right away.  

Aeration Week Coming to a Close

The first mowing on the greens since they were aerified on Tuesday.

The fairways were verticut in two directions and even with the unexpected rain on Tuesday we were able to get most of the debris off the fairways.  For the next few days we will vacuuming the debris that was blown in the roughs.

While we had almost 2" of rain to start the process this week, everything has cleaned up well.  Having the course closed during the process allows my staff to work without interruption which leads to more productivity, especially with 20% less staff this season.

 

The Cavalry Has Arrived!

 A sight for sore eyes.  These line crews from Pennsylvania arrived last night at 6:45 to put all the power wires back up to our pump house.  Lucky we had a generator to run one pump for the last week but it presented its own challenges.  Now we are fully operational!  The little things in life we take for granted.

New Path

We are rehabbing the old path by the alternate 6th tees.  Pedro widened the path a bit and then added the new crushed stone to match the rest of the paths on the course.

Utilize the Rain

Once again with a significant rainfall in the forecast we are lightly topdressing greens again.  The rain will wash the sand into the canopies for us so we do not have to turn on sprinklers or brush the greens.  This is the 3rd time in 7 days we have applied sand to the greens.  This light and frequent approach will smooth surfaces, protect crowns and not impact play after the rain is over.

More Irrigation Upgrades

We could literally make irrigation changes every day of the week to help correct our deficiencies on the course.  In front of 15 green, the spacing of the heads was off so much that we corrected them and actually added another head to cover areas that were not being hit.  All our sins show up when we get really dry.  Our next stop will be the area in front of 13 green where the lack of coverage has less than desirable turf.

Is Spraying Important?

If you are wondering why we spray when the weather is like it is right now, the picture above should be a good indicator.  Inside the 4 white dots is a fungicide application and out of the white dots is the untreated area today at Rutgers university.  With this sultry weather you can imagine what the course would look like if we skipped sprays or did not make them at the proper times.

More Irrigation Additions

This will be the norm for the next few weeks, adding irrigation to areas that do not have any or moving heads around to improve coverage.  Our system was poorly designed and we have inadequacies throughout the golf course that show up during prolonged dry spells.

Irrigation Additions

This area left of 1 green used to be fescue and was not irrigated.  We are now adding irrigation heads to the area due to the dry weather and lack of irrigation.  We are starting to find all our sins on the golf course right now due to the prolonged dry spell we have been in.  We will address an area at a time as time permits.

Cart Path Attention

Now that our crew size increased a bit this week, we are starting to address issues that needed attention.  Our crushed stone cart paths were full of pot holes and carts started driving around them and wearing out the rough.  On top of that we have all new carts that we want to protect.  The good news is the the paths look awesome once we regrade them but the bad news is the material we used to build them in the past is no longer available.  The new material we are using now is whiter and may pack better so now we must recap all the paths so they all match each other.  We are doing the 17th hole now for members to take a look at and see how it performs.  Stay tuned.

New Machine Paying Off

We purchased this motorized spreader and sprayer this winter to help offset labor.  Today it proved its worth with Patrick O'Brien fertilizing all greens by himself in 4 hours rather than 3 men taking 2-3 hours.  The machine also has a small sprayer that can spot spray weeds etc as well.  Tomorrow Pat will be doing tee and green surrounds and the machine once again will save us at least 2 men most of the day that can be used to do other important work.

Coming Along

The putting course got its second mowing of the season since we seeded it back in early April.  The lower portion was seeded 3 weeks later and it is pretty far behind but with the warmer weather and some rain, we should be mowing the entire area by the end of the week.  We are hoping to have it in use by September.

Bunkers Are Truly Hazards Now

This is just one example of many of our bunkers after a single day of play.  This is not the members fault or the grounds staffs fault either.  Without rakes out on the course, there is not much you can do to alleviate this problem except to give each member a small rake.  With our minimal staff right now, we will rake the bunkers with a machine in the morning and by the afternoon they will look like this.  On weekends, we will have to rake bunkers both mornings and this will add to overtime and also will start to beat up the edges of the bunkers with the machine coming in and out.  We will figure something out in the short term and the long term to help alleviate the problem but until then please be patient.

Needed Tree Work Today

This tree has been slowly leaning more and more towards our neighbors house left of the 5th hole.  We have been unable to get a crane to this location due to the soft conditions.  Today we were able to get the crane in to remove the tree before another 2" of rain tomorrow night.  Our staff will chip the branches due to the tight location for the chip truck to get in.

Germination!

It is hard to tell in this picture, but we have seen germination starting the past week on the putting course.  Once the warm weather sticks around and we start feeding it you will really see it greening up quick.  We keep watering it each day and rolling it every few days to get the plugs nice and tight.
Will keep you posted with more progress.

Putting Course Taking Shape

We have made a lot of progress on the new putting course.  Today, more than half of it was seeded and plugs were spread on it.  We will spread more plugs tomorrow.  Next week we will eliminate the green and shape the bottom portion of the course and do the same, add seed and plugs.  In another few weeks this area will start to green up significantly.  The importance of the putting course is this adds another source of practice and more importantly fun for members and guests.  We will keep you posted as we make more progress.

Great Purchase

The new norm right now is doing more with less and the purchase of this turf sweeper will pay dividends in 2020 and beyond.  Normally 7 or 8 guys would be shoveling behind the aerators and now this machine can clean everything with 2 men blowing what is left behind.  The key is not to drive over the aerated sections to prevent tire rutting so we are getting it down to a science.  With only about 1/3 of the crew, we can still pull cores, save them and use them in another week for our new putting course.  We will be doing the same on fairways when we are done with greens.

New Putting Course

We recently broke ground on our new 75000 square foot putting course that will take the place of the old barn hole.  We are hoping to have the area seeded by the first week of April and we will also be using the cores from our greens, tees and fairways as well to get the area to match the look of our greens.  We will keep you posted with our progress.

The New Norm......Social Distancing

With a skeleton crew, the sound of a single fairway mower mowing all the fairways over the course of 2 days vs 4 machines mowing them all in 4 hours.

In the distance, a triplex mowing all the approaches and the deep tiner doing all the greens on the next hole.  With no play there is no rush to get these things done and we can send individuals out to do them to keep workers spread out in the beautiful weather.

Limited Touching

After discussions with neighboring superintendents about what to do with flag sticks during the Coronavirus we came up with a sensible solution.  Some clubs have raised cups above the ground to prevent balls from going into the cup and others have used pool noodles or pvc pipe to do the same.  We are using old foam plugs that we insert during aeration to protect the cups from collapsing and it seems to do the trick.  The plug is 1" below the surface so your ball will roll and fall in and will rest at the surface so you do not have to touch anything to remove it.  Please leave all the flags in while playing and just remove your ball only.  Continue to wash your hands thoroughly before and after your round though.

Coming Down The Stretch

We are finally going to be able to get the new range tee expansion completed this week.  We have 3 loads of sod coming to finish the tee and we also expanded the fairway area by the cart parking area.  We removed the fescue mound that was there and now added an extra 5000 sq ft of practice area.  The new tee will be ready for use by early April.

Parking Lot Clean Up

The crew is getting after it.  Cleaning up all the scrub and lousy under story saplings to give a better appearance by the parking lot.  A few poor trees will be removed as well and will open up some nice views. We still have to hydroseed all the parking lot perimeters this spring when the weather warms up.

Range Tee Prep Continues

Patrick O'Brien floating out the range tee expansion.  This will be the most tedious part, getting the tee nice and level before sodding.  We will need to float and rake it a few more times to get the imperfections out and then do a final roll, add nutrients and sod.  The tee will be substantially bigger come spring.

Is it January?

While everyone is excited it has not snowed significantly yet this winter, the ground is not very conducive to doing a lot of heavy work.  We figured with the moderate temperatures and lack of frost we would get a good head start on spring work by aerifying roughs and deep tining our wetter fairways.  Warm weather is coming this weekend but rain is as well so ground conditions will not improve too much.