News and Notes-March 26, 2012

We are expecting more seasonal temperatures over the next two weeks. This will hopefully give us a chance to catch up on some winter project work that did not get finished due to the warm weather recently. Thought I'd go over some notes as we start the week;

-Green aerification is Monday, April 2nd. This is also when our full staff returns. We will be aerifying tees beginning April 3rd. Due in part to the snow that occurred shortly after our Fall aerification the greens did not completely heal. While it looks as if there are holes in the greens, there are not, rather the turf has not creeped in over the old holes. After our first mowing last week the turf seems to be growing laterally over these voids.

-The driving range tee will be placed on the turf starting Saturday, April 7th.

-Ball washers, cart directional posts, shoe scrubbers, trash cans, etc. will be placed out on the course during the week of April 2nd.

-Today, March 26th we are pouring concrete on hole #3 where we had to cut through the cart path to install irrigation pipe. We will also be installing a concrete mix on hole #8 where a tree root has partially lifted the cart path up.

-The pump for the pond on hole #8 has been removed. A new one is on order and should arrive within 2-3 weeks. This is the pump that recirculates the water from the lower pond to the upper pond therefore creating the waterfall.

-Starting April 3rd we will remove the winter cups and go back to our regular pin rotation on the greens.

Healthy Ponds

In order to get a jump start on the health of our ponds this year we have treated the large pond next to holes #1 and #2 with AquaSpherePRO from a company called Bioverse (http://www.bioverse.com/).  Each one of the spheres treats up to 250,000 gallons of water and look like this:

They are completely biodegradable and all natural. They DO NOT however work overnight. It will take weeks for them to build up enough of the good bacteria for them to start working.

In the meantime we will spot treat areas along the shore as needed.

The recirculation pump on hole #8 is not working. We will be pulling this pump for repairs.  

Spring Prep

With the warm weather outside we are trying to wrap up our winter projects so we can get into "Spring Mode" of course maintenance. Would like to pass on some items of note:

Tees

The turf is still not growing so we are keeping the tee markers in roughly the same spots as they have been all winter. Our purpose is to only damage one area of the tee. If the markers were to be moved around the tee a larger surface area of the tee would need to be repaired. Therefore it is only one area which we need to repair once the turf starts growing again.

Water Coolers

Greg Taylor, our mechanic, has repaired the existing water coolers on the course and is building a new one to be placed alongside the divot bottle rack between holes #5 and #6. Hope to have the water coolers out on the course next week.  Here's a picture of some of the wood he has recently cut and is getting ready to paint:

Greens

Hope to get the first cut on them sometime next week. We have been rolling them several times a week thus far. But the soil temperatures have not been consistently high enough for high amounts of turf growth.

Bunkers

Greenside bunkers are being maintained. Rakes are out in the fairway bunkers. Once the full staff arrives April 2 and aerification is finished we will edge and distribute sand evenly on all bunkers.

Soil Temps

With the warm weather recently there has been an increased amount of play on the course. While the mild temps have been great for playing conditions the temperatures below the surface are not changing quite as dramatically as the air temperatures are. The turf starts to grow when soil temperatures are consistently over 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I'd say for at least 5 straight days until growth occurs. As of now they are not quite there so the turf is not growing to recover from any divots, cart traffic, ball marks, etc that the extra play has incurred on the golf course.

Interestingly enough, the cover we used on the new tee on #3 has really made all the difference in the growth of this turf. The first picture was taken February 2 and the second picture is from March 12. Notice the lush green growth due to the cover keeping the soil warm.

It is however economically unfeasible to purchase and cover large portions of the golf course.