Preparing for the winter

Yesterday we blew out the irrigation system, part of of our annual preparations for the coming winter.

We cycle through the entire system twice, removing as much water from the lines as possible.  Today, the 15th hole bathrooms, pool house bathrooms and tennis court's irrigation will be blown out.

 

Effective tomorrow, the course will be closed for the season.  A cold front moves through the area today, dropping the temperatures significantly.

 

On Wednesday we will be taking the pins out of the greens and placing cups in select approaches to allow for play during the winter months if you get the urge to walk a few holes.  While the course may be closed, we will remain quite busy through the winter out on the course, finishing leaf clean-up, building a new tee on #7, along with trimming and removing trees.

Greens aerification

Monday was the day for our planned fall greens aerification and what a perfect day we had.  Usually when we get those 75 degree fall days, the golfers want the course to themselves, but there are certain days where we would like to have those days as well to get things done, and we hit it just right on Monday.  All the greens were aerified, 60 tons of sand were applied and worked into the holes, the greens were rolled to start the smoothing process, all 25 acres of fairways were mowed and we had two guys mulching leaves all day - a very productive day for sure.

Because we skipped the typical late-August aerification this year, we double aerified the greens.

One set was a deep-tine aerifier, making a 3/4" hole about 10" deep.

The other set was done by our own walk-behind machine, making 3/4" holes about 5" deep, covering about 10% of our surface area.  Sand was applied prior to making the holes, allowing the tines to push the sand down.  Once the sand was dry, the surface was dragged to move the remaining sand into all the holes.

Tree planting

This week we were able to plant all the trees that were delivered late last week.  It's a great time of year to plant trees, the roots will still grow while the need for water and the overall environmental stress is down. 

We planted 14 trees in all.  Some of the locations may seem odd at first, but take into effect a long range view and which trees may not last much longer, it will eventually become clear.

Three 'Princeton' Elms were planted.  This variety has a moderate resistance to Dutch Elm Disease.  This Elm was planted between 10 app and 11 tee.  The Ash trees nearby won't last much longer.

 

This Elm is to the far right of 14 tee near the service road.

 

The last Elm is between 2 and 17.

 

This is what a mature Elm will look like - this is next to 17 tee.

 

This 'Autumn Fantasy' Maple is to the left of 13 fairway.

A larger Maple will look similar to these Maples along 11 fairway.

 

Three 'Shademaster' Honey Locust were planted, this one near the bridge on 1.

This Locust is right of 13 tee, the Pears nearby are failing and will be removed.

 

This Locust was planted to the right of 15 fairway about 200yds out.  A Maple next to it is being removed.

A large Locust will look like this one on 3.  I really enjoy Locust, they give you an open air canopy and filtered sunlight - great for golf courses.

This is a 'Green Mountain' Sugar Maple planted left of 13 fairway near the service road.  A few more trees along this stretch are failing, we wanted to plant a few nice trees in this area to break up the view of the range.

 

This Maple was planted near the bridge on 3.

A mature Sugar Maple will look like this one on 4

Two Bur Oaks were planted, this one right of 1 fairway, 150yds out.

 

This Oak is near 17 tee, the two Ash along 3 fairway behind it are being removed.

 

A large Bur Oak will look like this Oak on 16

 

We also planted a Scarlet Oak to the left of 17 fairway.

Two American Beech trees were planted, this one left of 11.  The trees nearby won't be around for long.

This Beech is right of 14 back tees.  A few trees nearby will be removed this winter.

One of the largest Beech trees I have ever seen is on FCC's property.  A golfer won't ever see it unless they search for their ball deep in the woods along the left of 18.

I hope someday the trees we planted will grace the proprty like this giant.

 

Fall photos, tree delivery

Took a few photos of the course yesterday:

4 Fairway

5 Green

18 Fairway

 

Last week we picked out 14 trees to be planted on the property this fall, they were all delivered today.

These trees will be planted next week, throughout the course.  The species includes: Oak, Maple, Beech, Elm and Locust.  I will make a post later concerning where they are to be planted.

Fall color, and the clean-up

What a beautiful time of year to be out here!  If you need a break from the daily grind, spend sometime out here enjoying the fall colors.

But with all those changing leaves, it also means they are falling.  Our process of clean-up involves blowing the leaves into areas that we can mulch them back into the ground.

99% of our leaves are mulched back into the ground with our rough mowers.  A few areas around the tennis courts get picked up.

Tee aerification

Today was an excellent day to squeeze in tee aerification.  We typically don't schedule this in advance because we can knock it out on a Monday and the course is still playable while we are performing the work.

All the tees were done today - mowed, pulled cores, dragged, cleaned off, verticut and blown clean.

Divot repair

A few weeks ago, I posted a link to a video on Handwatering, produced by the USGA.  They have many other helpful videos that explain the "why" and "how" of course maintenance.  One of the videos is on divot repair.  See the link below:

Divot Repair Video Link

There are two reasons why filling your divots are important: 1. It aids in the recovery of the fairway, and 2. It provides a reasonable surface for the golfer playing behind you.  If not filled properly, one or both of these will be impeded.

We have a great membership that is willing to care for the golf course.  We go through a lot of sand and many divots get filled, but sometimes just filling it isn't enough, it has to be done correctly.

When a divot is not repaired or filled, an uneven playing surface is created leaving the chance for a bad lie in the middle of the fairway.

 

But if the divot is not filled properly, the effect can almost be worse.

Not only are you creating a chance for a bad lie you are also creating mounds of sand that will most likely get leveled out by the next mowing.  When that sand goes through the reels of the mower, it acts as sand paper on the metal.  When cutting grass with scissors like precision, anything that is abrasive will produce undesired results and cause more time in the shop sharpening.

All of the divots pictured were ones that were on the course yesterday, I did not stage them (other than placing the ball next to it).  As you see, this one has twice as much sand as needed.

A properly filled divot is one that fills the void and then flattened to provide an even playing surface and one that will not cause harm to the equipment.  We appreciate all that the members do to help keep YOUR club in great shape.

Heavy Rains

3.7" of rain fell on the course yesterday and into last night.  Most of the rain came in heavy showers causing a lot of it to runoff.  This allowed the course to remain fairly playable other than the bunkers.  If we had more of a soaking rain, carts would have been restricted due to saturation, but again, most the rain ran off the property and down the drain.  We started repairing bunkers today, but most of the bunker work will have to wait until tomorrow, our day was spent on picking up debris from the storm.

Bunkers were still draining early this morning.

Most of the bunkers are washed out to some degree.

Landscape beds washed out from heavy rains.

A few fairways had to be squeegeed off.

We also had a significant number of branches down.  Most of the day was spent picking up debris.

 

Handwatering greens

I have attached a link to an informative video on handwatering, produced by the USGA.  While this season is almost behind us and it wasn't an overly hot summer, we still had plenty of days were watering was a priority. 

Handwatering Video Link

Handwatering is almost a daily occurrence for us, supplying light amounts of water to certain areas that need it just to get through one more day.  As the video states - we would rather apply too little water vs. applying too much and supplement the nightly irrigation with handwatering the dry areas.

Great picture

One of the staff members on the Grounds crew took this picture with his new fancy phone, I thought it was a great picture.

Divot bottle replacements

We have a great contingent of members that fill their divots, and the divots of many others, as they stroll through the fairways.  Many divot bottle users often run out of sand before their round is complete.  We were asked to supply a refilling station to keep those bottles full.

A container was purchased and place behind the 15th hole snack shack.

You will find plenty of replacement bottles if needed on your way past.  Thanks for the help in keeping your golf course in great condition.

Being "green"

Some of you have already read the article in Saturday's Courier about water usage on golf courses.  If you didn't catch it, here is the link:

Courier Article

I appreciate John's article.  While everyone may have their political views or agendas on the environment and water usage - nobody can dispute the facts and John did a great job reporting facts and not biased information.  Here are the facts for FCC to reiterate the article:

1. FCC is home to a variety of wildlife from the bottom of the food chain all the way to top.  This is a great example of a healthy environment that is thriving from the insects, squirrels, rabbits and birds up to the deer, foxes and hawks.

 

2.  An independent lab test has confirmed that the water coming out of the drain tiles is cleaner than the water being applied for irrigation.  FCC is a 150 acre filter for the Blanchard River.  Healthy turf is a natural filter, trapping sediment and using the nutrients suspended in the water.

 

3. We employ handwatering techniques and the latest technology in wetting agents to make small amounts of water go further.  There are more problems with overwatering vs. drier conditions.  Therefore, excessive amounts of water are not used.  Moderate amounts of water are applied via irrigation as needed to maintain plant health.  Without healthy turf, runoff and soil movement increases, making light amounts of irrigation not only necessary for playing conditions but also a good environmental practice if rain is not in adequate supply.

 

In the end, we all agree: Do what we can to make this a better place!