Maintenance Update 08/17/2011

Good afternoon all,

What a blessing we received this last weekend in the form of a half-inch of rain.  While it's not very much, it was over the course of about four hours and was able to soak in nicely.  It was also enough to fill up the creek and give us some much needed irrigation water.  Hopefully we are nearing the end of the brutal summer heat!

We succussfully aerified the greens this past Monday for the last time this year.  I know it seems like we do a lot of aerifying, but it is very much needed and very beneficial.  When I started last year, the greens had an incredible amount of thatch and grain.  You could run your hand one direction across the surface and they would feel smooth, but go back the other direction and it was just the opposite.  By aggressively aerifying, routinely verticutting and topdressing, we have managed to get the grain and thatch under control.  My staff has been doing an incredible job staying on top of the greens this year.  I have done what I can to teach them that you can't treat all 20 greens the same.  Each one is in it's own little micro-climate.  One may need a little extra water; one may need a little less; one may need a little extra sand; one may or may not need to be verticut.  They have taken very well to this idea and have done a great job of doing what is necessary on each green.

We will be closed this coming Monday (Aug 22nd) to aerify and verticut the approaches.  Having to water the greens and surrounds every night, the approaches have become very thick.  Aerifying and verticutting will help thin the stand of grass so we will be able to maintain our mowing height.  I asked that the club be closed while we do this so we will be able to accomplish it all in one day, instead of dragging it out over the course of a week.  I would expect the approaches to be healed in just a few weeks.

We will be opening all of the newly sodded tee boxes this week.  We rebuilt the green tees on #9 and the white tees on #14.  We placed new sod on the red tees on #1, the back of the tee on #7 and the red tees on #10.  I realize there are several other tee boxes with bare areas.  I will be marking and measuring these areas so we can get more sod to repair them.  I hope to have this process completed in the next two weeks, depending on when we can have some sod delivered.

I have also received questions about the bunkers and if we are going to be adding more sand to a few of them.  In my opinion, the bunkers have plenty of sand; it may just be in the wrong place.  I will be looking at each bunker and checking the depth.  If sand is excessively deep in some areas and thin in others, we will move the sand around.  If I determine that sand needs to be added, we will do so as well.  I realize that two of the three practice bunkers around the chipping green are literally unplayable.  The drain lines exiting both of these bunkers are completely sealed up with either tree roots or mud or both.  I hope to be able to tackle this problem in the near future.

With the extremely hot weather, my staff has started working at 5:00 a.m. each day.  This has helped us get the course ready prior to play (for the most part) and enables my staff to go home before the major heat of the afternoon.  I realize some early birds may catch up with us mowing and changing cups and I apologize for that.  Some days we have a lot more going on than others and we are just doing what we can with the resources we have to provide the best conditions possible.  If we end up getting in the way, I appreciate your understanding.

I had a member make a comment to me about the yardage markers on the driving range tee, mentioning that they were difficult to read.  We responded quickly and re-leveled and re-painted all of the them.  Like I always say, I appreciate any and all comments and if there is anything we can do to remedy a situation, we certainly will!

Hope to see you on the course!
Chuck