Visitors

We had some unlikely visitors at our shop today.

 

A mother Mallard and her brood of chicks!

They decided to stroll through our shop and check out every room.

After a little coaxing, they headed out for the driving range.

That will brighten anyone's day.

 

 



Landscape updating, Snack shack

Today we tore out the landscaping in the small bed between the two tennis courts.  This bed was in bad need of an overhaul.  As landscaping ages and outgrows it's purpose, we update the beds and give them a fresh look.

The bushes outgrew the size of the bed.  There was no visual appeal.

You usually have to make things look worse before it gets better.

The end result.

We have a few more beds that we would like to update this year, as time and funds allow.

 

 

The 15th hole snack shack has been painted.  We did this in-house making the process take a little longer.  The Grounds Equipment Technician - Jim Otley is a great painter, but repairing the equipment comes first.

 

Last fall's construction.

 

This spring with the new roof and porch

The freshly painted exterior and interior.  No more baby blue and pink bathrooms.

 

 

Soil test results

One big change we are implementing this year is no August aerification on the greens.  The last few years we have typically aerifyed greens in late March, mid August and late October.  This year I am combining the August and October aerifications into one late October greens plugging.  We are going to poke twice as many holes as we normally do in October to compensate for the loss of aerification in August, in doing this we will be providing more time of uninterrupted golf for our members during the key months of golfing weather.

I am in no way diminishing the importance of aerification, our greens would not hold up without it.  Due to the continued improvement in our soil test results, we can make this slight change, or at least try it for a few years.  We take yearly soil samples and get data for nutrient levels and fertilizer recommendations.  We also get data on pore space, infiltration rates, organic matter content and sand particle size distribution.  We track trends and apply practices to meet the needs of the greens and move the numbers in the right direction. 

Last fall I spoke with our soil consultant about implementing this change in aerification schedule.  He stated that with our conditions and recent data, this could be a viable option.  In the least, it won't hurt to try - we can always move back to the past schedule if needed to improve greens conditions.

A few weeks ago, Brian Mavis our soil consultant was here for his annual visit.  We took multiple soil samples and performed a few tests.

The results just came back yesterday, the data continues to improve (I won't bore you with all the data, I'll save that for the Grounds Committee).  Because of this, we are very comfortable implementing the change in aerifiaction schedule this year.

One item of note on our test results were higher numbers of medium size sand particles.  This has caused us to test our topdressing sand to insure it continues to meet our standards.  If the sand has changed compared to what data we currently have, a new sand will be found.  Here is a picture of our OSU intern, Evan Riggs taking a sample from our topdressing pile.  To get a representative sample we need sand not only from the outside of the pile, but also the inside - hence using a tube.  We take samples in this manner on the top, middle and bottom of the pile in 5-6 different sides of the pile.

The sand is then brought to a clean surface, mixed and divided until we get an adequate sized pile to send in. 

Flowers arriving

This past week we started to see our flowers arriving and being planted by the crews from Blanchard Valley Center.  This past winter, Tim Stumpp and clients from BVC planted and grew from seed the majority of the flowers that we need here at the Club.  We have also contracted BVC to come plant these flowers this spring.  The flowers and the crews started arriving this week and they look great.

Tim showing the clients on proper spacing and planting depth.

 

Molly was really excited to plant.  Not afraid to work in a little rain.

Molly and Nicole getting their hands dirty.

Bill has been here most days - doing a great job with the planting.

Tim was able to get the help of a few clients that couldn't make it out on the course to plant the planter boxes.  I met Alex this winter, he was in the greenhouse helping Tim grow the flowers, now getting a chance to plant them.

Bill did a great job on these planters, he wanted to make sure his picture made the "scoreboard" at BVC.

 

 

Protecting the flowers

It is annual planting season again.  We always wait until after Mother's Day to plant annuals, hoping to escape the threat of frost.  This year, just like last, we had a late frost.  Last year it was May 13 - we got down to 31 degrees.  This morning we had a heavy frost again, causing us to take precautions to protect the annuals that were already planted.

Trash bags are helping hold the heat it, fighting off the frost.

In areas where we had irrigation, we just rain the water.  The warm water also keeps the frost off.

Tee construction finished

The 6 new tees we built for the "white" course are complete.  The process was started back in last October with the building and shaping of the tees.  Over the winter the tees had a chance to settle and compact.  This spring we leveled them once more and sodded the bentgrass tee surface and the rough surrounds.

Last fall - first thing we did was stake out the location and size.  Chad and I worked out location based on the hole being played, total course yardage we wanted to aim for, aesthetics and of course - nearby irrigation.

Soil was added and brought up to grade.  We used a laser transit to make the tees level with a 1% fall for drainage.  See if you can determine which way it is leaning.

 

 

Prior to winter we compacted the tees and added more soil as needed. 

 

This spring, after the tees were leveled one more time - sod was laid and trimmed.  All sod came from our nursery along 8 fairway.  Using in-house sod makes the tees look like they have been there for 10 years.

Once the sod was laid, we rolled the surface smooth.  Over the next few weeks we will topdress them to work out any imperfections.

The sod crew just finishing up 18 tee.

Today we finished up with the tee on 15.

A view from the back tee on 15.

A view of the new tee on 1.  I think they turned out great, I would like to hear the members feedback on the tees.  After a couple weeks, we will move the white markers to these tees and they will be in play.  This will provide a nice intermediate length course at 5,661 yds.

 

Next project on our list is finishing the mulch around the club.

 

 

 

Roots

While changing cups this morning, I noticed something I really enjoyed seeing - ROOTS! 

You will notice a clump of roots coming out of the plug - coming through an aerification hole.

One lone root coming through the entire plug profile, about 8".  There is only one way this happens - deep tine aerification.

 

I know it may not look like much, but 4-5" poa roots is a good thing.  Especially when mowed at an 1/8 of an inch.

 

Click on this picture to get a good view of all those white roots coming out of the bottom.  All of these roots I saw were the direct result of aerification, that is why the process is so important to the health of our turf.  Aerification decreases compaction, increases oxygen levels and promotes water movement through the profile - all very important to roots.  Without aerification rooting would decline and shallow out.  We need long and healthy (white) roots this time of year to get us through those tuff summers.  During the summer, roots will die back and shallow out due to plant stress.  The longer and more roots we have now, the better the summer will be for us.

 

 

Irrigation System

Last week we started up the irrigation system.  There is always the concern when you start up the system of what "bugs" we are going to find after 5 months of being shutdown.  With so many pipes, fittings, electronics and controllers; there always seems to be something that needs to be fixed or adjusted.  With the irrigation system being the arteries of the course, we need to keep the system in proper working order.

The pump motors were raised up off of the pump station this winter due to flooding.  We lowered them back down, everything is working properly.

The main control system fired right up.

All the irrigation boxes on the property came back to life with no issues.

We pressurized the system and checked each head.  We run at over 1,000 gpm at 125 psi

Due to the amount of debris and silt we get from the river, when we fire the system up in the spring, we get a fair amount of irrigation heads that weep.  In the next few weeks, you may notice an head here or there that is leaking a little bit.  We go to each head that is leaking, remove it and clean out the debris.

 

National Farm and Garden Award

On Tuesday, FCC was presented the Latham Award from the Ohio Division of the Women's National Farm and Garden Association.  This award is given annually to an organization that makes contributions to conservation, beautification and civic improvements.  Anne Hermiller nominated Findlay Country Club for our efforts of developing and maintaining a well-designed facility.  She highlighted our history, mission statement, facilities, dedication, trees and flora, seasonal decorations, and opportunities we offer for members to enjoy the outdoors.  In fact, this blog was used and made a significant impact in the award.

 

Anne Hermiller presented me with the Award and a $100 check to be used for further beautification of the grounds.  While this was completely unexpected, it was very appreciated.  FCC would like to thank Anne for her nomination and her efforts.  The Grounds Staff and everyone at FCC appreciates the recognition.  Thanks again Anne!