Bunker Repairs

 

The storm on December 23rd wreaked havoc on our bunkers.  The heavy rains that came in a short period of time washed out every bunker significantly.  Normally it does not pay to repair bunker in the end of December since we have a few more months until we can really get in and fix them, but with a lot of liners exposed and the heaving of staples we figured we would start to push up most of them and then do a full bunker rehab in early April.  Most of the liners are past their life expectancy and each time they wash, they degrade even worse.  In some spots there are no liners left, creating other issues.  Luckily we have Juan here this winter to start the process.

Let the Sun Shine In

 

Work has begun clearing the woodland edge between 10 green and 11 tees.  With sun angles being different this time of year it is difficult to see how this area will improve.  We will go in and remove all undesirable trees, leaving key screening trees for the neighboring billboard etc.  Once the area is cleared, we will clean up the floor, seed to fescue and install some screening plants along the fence along with a green mesh that we will install on the fence for further screening.  This will definitely have a positive impact on the 10th green that right now receives little to no morning sun.  We will keep you updated with our progress.

Divot Damage and Healing

 

This is the 11th tee.  Between the markers are the divots from 1 day of golf over Thanksgiving weekend.  If you look behind the tee markers, those are divots from other days during November that have been filled with seed and soil.  These areas on the tees will not be fully healed until May, but unfortunately golf will ramp up again in April, so it will be some aggressive growing of grass come spring to get the tee to look good for the 2023 season.  

It was ultimately decided to put out mats on par 3s and short par 4s this winter to help our tees get a break and be in good shape come next spring.  Once the mats arrive we will put them out and it will be mandatory to play from them until April 2023.  We will slowly install mats each year throughout the course based on the amount of traffic we receive during the winter months.  Fortunately for the grass, it has been a cold November and play is definitely down or our tees would be really beat up.

The Retirement of a Legend

 

Middle right of the picture is Victor Grant, one of the longest tenured employees at Arcola.  His 40 years covers working in the clubhouse and out on the course, with the last 25 years working as the irrigation technician.  Victor will best be known for his "questionable" pin placements over the past 25 years, even on days when he did not change hole locations.  Victors Revenge is a fun event the club has each season where Vic and the staff can set the course up as a Supers Revenge event.  While the event has turned into a more cross country golf, Vic still enjoyed putting a few zingers out there.  Above, Vic is working on the newly improved blue tee area on 13 and in his favorite position of figuring out wires etc.  Vic had kept a poor irrigation system going for many years until we changed our heads over to Rain Bird.  With all the improvements we made over the last 12 years, Victor had his hands full installing new irrigation or repairing the ones we broke.

Thanks Vic for all your work over my 13 years and the 27 years before I arrived!

Final Step of Fairway Aeration

 

The fairways were Verticut followed by an aeration and topdressed to finish off.  Loro is doing the final brush of topdressing into the holes before the fairways will be mowed for the first time in a week.  Next spring we will do a verticutting, with a deep tine and another topdressing.

11 Pond Tweak

 

As we are in the midst of converting the 11th green to predominantly poa we also had to address the drainage issue with the green.  Before, the water level of the pond was almost a foot above the main green drain, keeping water in the green drainage system for weeks on end.  This week, we went in and added a pond drain that allowed us to lower the pond level a foot, keeping the green drain above water for the first time since the green was built.  You can see in the circle in the picture the green drain in the rocks and the pond was just filled until it started to flow out of the pond drain.  Even after heavy rains, the pond will eventually return to this level after a day or so.  With the pipe in stock, this project cost us about 6 man hours of labor to complete.

Green Speed Results for 2022

 

Our average green speeds for 2022 were tabulated and this is the 4th straight year we have seen an annual increase in our speeds with our highest mowing heights in 4 years.  It is proven with moisture management, venting, growth regulators and judicious nitrogen use we can have good green speeds with less stress on the plants.  The 2 lowest monthly averages were April (when the greens were aerated and not mowed as often) and August (US Amateur).  My guess in the beginning of 2022 would have been July would be the slowest month and August would have been the faster of the two.  We went into a defense mode towards the end of July leading up to the amateur and then was trying to step on the gas for the event.  With the change of weather during the Am, our greens actually began growing and 13-13.3 was all the USGA wanted for our speeds.  By the time the Am was over, we applied nutrients for plant health and backed off rolling which is why the month of August was our slowest but still relatively quick for private club standards.  Who knows what 2023 will bring but we will continue to monitor speeds and how they relate to nutrients, heights, frequency of cut and roll and moisture/weather.