Cleanup off property

The club owns 9 lots along Allen Street, which is located behind 11 green and 16 gold tee. We clean these lots 3-4 times per year. Today Eric, Derek and Mack accompanied me to Allen Street and we mowed, weedeated, picked up trash and pruned some bushes.

Irrigation

While dealing with irrigation repairs you never know what you might come across. During my most recent fix I had to replace a T that was almost under an azalea bush. The reason for the fix was a rock wedged itself into the corner of the T and over time rubbed a little hole into it. Normally this would be a routine fix, but since it was surrounded by azalea bushes I had only so much room to work with. I did not want to cause any harm to the azalea, so I dug the hole deeper than normal and then dug underneath the azalea to allow myself enough room for the repair.

Rumble pads

Next time you are on the course you may see some new stone additions along cart path corners and turnarounds. We installed the first one at 13 tee and it turned out really well. We have some of the stones higher than others to give it a rumble feeling, kind of like along interstates. We will be adding them throughout the course to do away with the worn out areas where cart traffic has taken a toll over the years.

Spring green up

What great weather we had this past weekend. Both days got into the upper 70's and had plenty of sunshine to go with it. This is the type of weather dormant bermdua grass loves. We had a tremendous amount of green-up in the fairways over the weekend due to this warm weather. I hope we are beginning to see the effects of tinting the fairways paying off. The turf canopy stays 3-4 degrees warmer by using a pigment, so with the warm weather and the pigment being in place since January the fairways are ready to start growing. All we need now is a few warm weeks of weather and we will be mowing bermuda grass before we know it.

Playing conditions improved on right side of #2

During the past week we have been improving the right side of number two rough along the natural area edge. A catch basin has been installed at the cart path to catch the water from the natural spring on 2 and 17 hillside. The water will run off into the woods out of play, thus drying up the cart path edge and the right side of the hole faster. We have also added six to eight feet of sod down the entire right side until you reach the holly bushes. Before the sod was laid four to six inches of soil was added to allow for better growing and playing conditions.

Curbs added

Two curbs have been installed on the course this week. The first one is a traditional curb and it goes from just past the tee on number seven up the right side. We decided it was best to install a curb here to try and stop the washouts that occur along the right of the path. The other curb is a new style of curbing and it is along the left side of the path on number 16 by the maple tree. This type of curbing is being used on some new golf courses and allows the golfer to ride right over the top of it. The curb is sloped and angled to the right to allow water to continue down the path and to help out with the mulch and soil eroding underneath the maple tree.

New drainage added to #6 apron

Today some much needed drainage and irrigation was added to #6 apron. There has never been  drainage or irrigation on the apron, so during the pond construction it was decided that both needed to be done. This area mainly needed drainage, because it played so wet most of the year and was unfair to the golfer. However it also would dry out and look unsightly during times of drought, so irrigation was added to allow for healthier turf to be grown. With these two additions to the apron it will allow this area to play like it was meant to be played.

Summer preemergent application

Today we started applying our summer weed control to the golf course. This year we went with a product called Ronstar and it is considered the Cadillac of weed control. In a typical year we would have sprayed everything on the golf course and not used a granular product like we have done this time. But, due to the unseasonably warm winter that we have had we were unable to apply the preemergent that we had planned on spraying. Some products cannot be sprayed on green Bermuda grass, so we went in another direction and applied a granular instead. We will apply a second application sometime after Masters week. By applying a preemergent now to the golf course or even your home lawn you will stand a better chance in controlling those pesky summer weeds. If you have not applied a summer weed control yet then I would recommended that you do not wait much longer, some weeds begin to germinate as soon as the soil temperatures start to warm up on a consistent basis.