Merry Christmas

The entire staff of Franklin County Country Club would like to wish all of our Members A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Weather

     Warm and Dry in December is very hard on the golf course.  We winterized the Irrigation system in November.  On Monday we had to start it back up and water our turf.  This is the first time in 32 years in this business I had to do this.  We have recorded .81 inches of rain since October 23rd.  So far in December we recorded .28 inches of rain and that was on December 5th.  It has been so dry In the rough between 9 and 18 you can see dormant cool season turf under the drip line of the Sweet Gum trees. This shows it has been so warm the trees are still using water.  If we did  not have Irrigation mainlines that come out of the ground on holes 3 and 7 we could keep the system up longer.  When the temperatures get down below freezing the exposed mainlines could freeze and break.  We will Winterize the system a second time on Thursday before the extreme cold weather set in.  I watered the entire golf course for 3 days to help get moisture to our greens, greens surrounds and cool season roughs.  The Zoysia grass fairways and tee's are dormant they can withstand the drought.  Cool season turf on the other hand is not dormant and it can be damaged or killed by the dry weather.  When the crown of the plant dries out this can kill the turf.  I hope this is the last time until next spring we will have to do this.  This has been one crazy year.  The warm weather in February caused me to start up the Irrigation system one month ahead of schedule.  Now the  warm and dry weather in November and December had me restart the system.  There is never a dull moment on the golf course.

 Ring around Sweet Gum tree.  Brown turf is dormant

 

  Watering 18 green December 20th.  This is the latest I have ever watered turf.

 

Course update

     It has been a while since my last post.  We have been very busy.  Leaf removal has taken up most of our time.  We can finally catch our breath.  We have blown, mulched, and blown some more over the past 6 weeks.  Seems like this tasks is starting later and going further in December each year.  I can remember years past we would be done with leaves by Thanksgiving.  My staff did an outstanding job.  At times it looked hopeless with the swirling winds.  We are looking at trying to get a vacuum to help with leaf removal next season.
     The weather has been unseasonably warm.  The golf course has been very busy.  We have been mowing our greens 2 to 3 times per week.  We have also topdressed our greens 4 times since we aerated in September.  Late season topdressing helps our greens get through  the winter.  It  protects the crown of the Bentgrass plant from the elements.
     Thanks to Boone Valley Golf Club we were able to edge all of our cart paths and flower beds.  They have an edger attachment that fits on our Ventrac.  They were kind enough to let us borrow it.  Cart paths have a clean cut edge know.

 

     Not sure if you know it but the Club is getting a recycle dumpster.  We will now recycle all of our cardboard, paper, plastic, aluminum and glass.  This will enable us to  have our trash hauled once a week during the golfing season instead of twice per week.  We are going to be getting recycle trash receptacles put on the golf course.  So get ready to recycle.  We had to cut a few trees and some underbrush so we could make a pad for the new dumpster here at the Maintenance Department. 

     We will be working on the last of the fallen trees from the storms in the spring.  The tree in the fence to the east of 10 green is cleaned up.  The tree behind 5 green will be worked on next.  Then we have a dead tree at the end of the driving range that has to be cut down and cleaned up.
     It has been a warm and dry fall.  We only received .5 inches of rain the entire month of November.  We winterized our Irrigation system on 11/28/17.  I have been watering our greens up until  we winterized.  Weather has turned cold finally.  We are closing the Halfway house today.  We will be installing a Port a potty near the Halfway house for anyone needing it.