Maintenance Update 01/31/2012

Good afternoon all!  I just wanted to give an update on the status of the golf course after the heavy rains last week.  We received a total of 5.25 inches from last Tuesday afternoon through Thursday morning.  On Wednesday morning, the creek rose out of the banks and covered much of the golf course.  Fortunately, it had receded by Wednesday afternoon.  However we were left with quite a mess!  The following is a list of items we are currently in the process of tackling:

• There was debris (sticks, logs, leaves, grass clippings, trash, etc) washed over much of the course.  It has been quite a while since we have seen flood waters (September 2010)  The majority of this has been cleaned up, particularly from tee to green.  There is still some debris in some out of play areas and we will get to this as time allows.
• Flood waters did not reach any greens.
• Holes #2, 6, 7 and 8 had substantial silt deposited, as well as several other isolated areas.  We are currently in the process of cleaning this up as best as possible.  We are using a large hose tapped into our irrigation system to blast as much as possible.  While most of the course is dried out, #7 and 8 are still quite wet and will remain cart path only.
• We have moved the rough mower down to 1 inch.  We started mowing the roughs today and this will help chop up much of the smaller debris.  I typically lower the height of the roughs once we start spring green up, but with the amount of clutter left behind from the water, I felt it was necessary to go ahead and drop the height now.
• The gabion basket erosion control on the south side of the creek on #10 in front of the tee failed and the wall has fallen.  This type of wall is engineered to protect from erosion from flood waters travelling parallel to the wall.  The water was so high that this area became a spill-way and water was flowing over the top of the wall.  The water started eroding behind the wall and it was just a matter of time before it collapsed.  We are in the process of looking at our options to get this area repaired, including rebuilding the baskets with a concrete cap to protect the baskets from the perpindicular flow of water.
• The bunkers are still a mess, as we have not had the manpower to start their repair.  Once we have a better handle on getting #7 and 8 back in better playing condition, we will start pumping and moving the sand around in the bunkers.

As I mentioned, most of the course is dry enough to be under the 90 degree cart rule.  Please use caution when driving outside of the fairway and watch for wet areas.  Areas that will remain cart path only include: #2, #6, #7, #8, #12, #16 and around #17 green.

Thank you all for your understanding and patience while we get the course back in shape!  Here are some photos I took Wednesday and Thursday morning.

Cart bridge on #10

#8

#17 green

#2 green and bridge

View from Putting Green

#4

#6

#14

Front of #2 green

#8

Failed wall #10

#17

Maintenance Update 01/17/2012

Good morning and Happy New Year to everyone!  2012 is off and running and we have had some great weather to start the year.  We were fortunate to receive about 2.5 inches of rain with the last storms over the course of three days.  The creek rose quite a bit, but the rain was slow enough for it to fortunately stay in it's banks. 

Cart Traffic

Unfortunately, this time of year, any rainfall we do receive means we will need to be cart path only for several days.  While this was the case last week, I appreciate everyone's efforts in staying on the paths while we were on them and watching out for wet areas once we went off.  Cart traffic through wet areas can make a mess and the tracks can and will be evident for some time.  Just a few reminders concerning cart traffic over the next couple of months:

• Be aware of wet areas, either from rainfall or irrigation, and keep carts out of these areas.  These areas are primarily around tees and greens and fescue areas under trees.
• Please keep carts away from tee and green complexes.
• Holes #7 and #8 will remain 'cart path only' through the winter.  If you take the ropes down to play a shot, please replace it.
• Traffic control ropes are going up in many areas where necessary.  Remember the turf isn't growing this time of year.  Once an area gets trampled down, it will be that way until green-up.  Carts should use varying entrance and exit points to and from the fairway and not use the same 'trails' through the roughs.

As we head into the spring, Nathan and I will be discussing new traffic control methods as well as an alternating schedule of having holes cart path only during green-up.

Hole Locations

The Ultimate Scramble has been re-scheduled for this Saturday morning at 9am.  We will change one of the hole locations to the 'Ultimate' spot on Saturday morning for the event.  So afternoon golfers won't have to play these locations, the pins will be rotated to a normal spot at the conclusion of the tournament.  We will then change all of the locations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Weed Spraying

I started our annual winter weed control application on the fairways and roughs last week.  However, to continue, the wind can't be blowing over ten miles per hour to avoid any drift.  I will continue as the weather permits and plan on completing the project within the next two weeks.  I will also be making a separate application to the greens to control the small population of poa annua.

I hope you all have a chance to come out and enjoy the forecasted warmer temperatures coming up.  See you on the course!

Chuck McCaskill, CGCS