Rain

I only hope that none of our members were hurt by the recent flooding.  If you were please call the club.  We have a trash pump and some squeegees I would be glad to let anyone use.  The golf course took the rain well.  We had no major damage.  We received .92 inches of rain on 12/23/15.  This saturated the ground and when the big rain event hit on 12/26/15 we got another 10 inches. This left the course very soggy.   Here are a few pictures.

Lake on # 10 water running through the overflow

10 lake looking back to tee from dam.  Notice the hazard stakes.

Lake  # 13 green.  Water was over the top of the wall.

 Water exiting the spillway

 First Catch basin # 12

Purple Patches

     If you are playing golf this time of year you will notice the purple patches on our greens. This happens during the winter time.  The patches can be very small to 2 to 3 feet in diameter.  This is not a disease but segregated clones that develop over time as the bentgrass ages.  Our greens were seeded with Penncross creeping bentgrass 20 to 25 years ago.  Penncross is very susceptible to segregating.  The purplish color occurs when temperatures get cold in late fall. During relatively warm sunny days (60 to 65 F) the plants are actively photosynthesizing creating photosynthates (sugars). At night the sugars are translocated down into the storage areas of the plant. However, if nighttime temperatures are cold, some of the sugars fail to translocate. This causes the turf to turn purple.  The purplish color will persist through the winter and into early spring. Once temperatures rise and turf growth begins the purplish color will disappear. Below is picture of 17 green.

This patch is in the middle right of 17 green.

My Leatherman is 4 inches long

Big Oak Down

The big Oak tree that died to the right of 3 Green.  Has been cut down and cleaned up.  The tree was between 150 to  175 years old.  Here are a few pictures of the crew cleaning up the big tree.

 Top of tree fell onto the driveway

 Staff hard at it.

 Tree was 3 to 3.5 feet across

All gone

Winterizing Irrigation System

It is that time of year again to blow all the water out of the irrigation system.  We have to rent a air compressor and pump air into our irrigation system at the pump house to push the water out through each sprinkler head.  This is a 2 day process and we have to turn all  435 sprinklers on until nothing comes out except air.  Below are a few pictures of the process.

Air compressor at pump house

 water being purged from 2 fairway

1 green finished

Frost

It is that time of year we have to start watching out for Frost.  Please obey the signs.  If you are not sure please ask in the Pro Shop.  They will give you a start time as soon as the Maintenance staff has a handle on when it is o.k. to be on the course.  When the course is closed that means the putting green is off limits.  Some members think it is o.k. to putt when there is a frost delay.

Here is a video from the USGA that explains frost issues.  I could not explain it any better.

A Skunky Job

     We have been trying to capture the animal living on the west end of the clubhouse for about a week now.  We finally know what it is.  We have caught 2 skunks so far.  I hope 2 is all we have.  The first skunk was very docile we laid a tarp over the trap and away we went but the second one did not cooperate.  He let his presents be known.  No one was sprayed but the Clubhouse smells like skunk.  Hopefully the smell will be gone very soon.

The Den was off the patio outside the kitchen

Rob drew the short straw.  He is holding a tarp to keep from getting sprayed.

Once the tarp covers the live trap we can haul the skunk away.  Notice Shane is behind the glass he did not want to participate.

13 and 14 cart path

We have finally fixed the bad cart path on holes 13 and 14.  It will be a much smoother ride now.  This job was a lot of work.  I had everyone on staff helping.  We mixed the concrete on site.  For every 94 lbs. bag of Portland cement we needed 22 scoops of sand, 33 scoops of 1 inch clean rock and about 8 gallons of water.  Some of the paths we had to haul concrete in wheel barrows.  We used a total of 45 bags of Portland cement.  My entire staff was exhausted when we finished. We still have to do some grading and sod work around the path.  Below are  a few pic's of the job

 #14 before

 Taking out old path

 Old path is gone

 Mixer

 Duane, Nick and Rob pouring concrete

 Nick and Rob finishing concrete

# 14 done

 

 

# 13 was a little easier.  We were able to use the bucket of the skid loader to haul the concrete.  No wheel barrows.  We could dump the entire mixer in the bucket.

 # 13 before

 Laying forms out

 Duane, Kyle, and Rob finishing

# 13 complete