United Way outing

Yesterday we were host to the United Way / Marathon outing.  We had over 500 golfers in a two day stretch making this event the biggest outing of the year.  Not only was it a success on our end but the fund raising efforts were also a success.  Over the past 13 years, they have raised over $1,000,000.  Below is a link to a video recap of the day. 

 

United Way Video Link

 FCC appreciates the opportunity to showcase the Club. 

 

Sunrise

Beautiful sunrise this morning, view the time lapse video below:

Sunrise video link

 

 

One of the many great things about this job.

 



Bird's eye view

Below is a link to our most recent video:

Bird's eye view video link

This gives a wonderful example of how beautiful this property is.  This clip is also posted on the FCC website.

It's that time of year already!

Donuts, we cherish them here.  We have 1 rule that stands above all (well most of the time) in the Grounds Department:  You have to bring in donuts if you lose a tool, get stuck, run out of gas or it's your last day for the summer.  We've had donuts many times already this summer, but today we got donuts because guys are leaving already.  A few guys are on their way to internships for the remainder of summer.

 

It's hard to get guys to smile at 5:30am, but donuts do the trick!



Outing

Today at the Club we held the Fresh Encounter outing.  Below is a video of the Proshop staff hard at work as the sun comes up.

Cart staging video link

Well done today!

Small projects

July is typically a good month to fit in a few small projects as time allows.  June is more of a detail work month - getting items done for the upcoming events.  In July, the schedule opens up where we can focus more on the non-typical tasks. 

We started edging all the cart paths, taking the grass off the path where it has overgrown and creating a nice clean edge.  Some areas where overgrown by 12"

We are also tackling a drainage issue on 12.  There have been a few sink holes developing in the valley.

A large 10" clay tile was taking in soil causing the sink hole.

Another tile off of 10 ladies tee was connected to this repair eliminating some of the wet spots that usually occur in this region.

Besides these two projects we have also been spraying for weeds and trimming up trees.

 



Chipping green bunker

This year we have on staff an intern from OSU, Evan Riggs, a native to the area.  One of his homework assignments this summer was to manage and complete a project on the course.  We had the perfect project for him - renovating the chipping green bunker.

Over years of use, the chipping green bunker bank built up a very thick layer of sand.  The bottom corner of the bunker gets used frequently and with every shot a few cups of sand get dispersed on the grass.  Over time it becomes unsightly and very difficult to grow grass on top of.  Here is a picture of what the banked looked like last week, no more grass in this area - only sand.

When probed, the bunker bank had an 18" sand cap.

First step was to pull back the sand from the edge and strip the sod.

Eric is finding where the top of the sod should be.

Evan then used the loader to remove the sand and get back to the original soil.

This is Evan and Jarred creating the new bunker edge.

Once down to soil level, the area was graded and sculpted to resemble the remainder of the bunker bank.

Sod from the nursery was laid today to keep the bank in place.

The finished product looks like it did 20 years ago, I suppose.  One of the crew discussion we had was how to prevent this or at least slow the process.  We will be blowing off the sand from the bank when we clean out bunkers and also washing the sand back into the bunker with a hose from time to time.

 

Before

After

 

Evan did a great job completing the project, so good that we will give him another one!

Behind the scenes

I hope everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the fireworks show on July 4th.  I thought the show was great and definitely worth seeing every year.  Part of my new job duties this year was organizing the fireworks show and securing the permits, contractor and proper authorities to oversee the show.  With my involvement, it gave me a chance to view the inner workings of a good fireworks program.

The forms getting unloaded from the truck and being set up in our grass nursery area beside 8 fairway.

Roscoe showing us one of the 4" shells.

Set up started at 2:00pm with a show at 10:00.  Here the shells are staged and ready to be fitted into the tubes.

The guys working on the finale shells.

Roscoe's wife gave my three boys a behind the scenes tour of a large fireworks production.  The crew wouldn't let us take one home though!

Getting the finale all wired together.  They did a great job and everything went smoothly.  With a soft north wind, the clean-up this year was minimal.

 

Hydraulic leak

One of our mowers had a hydraulic leak on Saturday at the start of 11 fairway, making a line of burnt grass in it's wake.  The grass that was covered with hot oil will not recover, but with most of the damage in the rough it won't take long for the surrounding turf to fill in the void as soon as the oil in the soil dissipates. 

Damage in the fairway, operator turned the machine around not knowing there was a leak.

Unfortunately it is one of the downfalls of heavy machinery, inevitably things fail despite proper upkeep.

Recent pictures

Had some beautiful weather over the past week.

 

 

High speed action

Ever wonder what the typical morning looks like for a Golf Course Superintendent, check this 5 minute clip out:

Morning Routine Video

During the months of May - August, my morning consists of arriving 20-30 minutes before the crew starts their day, organize the job board for the morning and welcome guys as they start trickling in.  At 6:00am we start the day with a brief overview of the day and who is doing what tasks, then it's off to work.  As the crew gets their equipment out of the barns, I start my morning drive around the course - taking notes, checking on mowers, looking at turf conditions and making sure details are attended to.  Some days, I may be moving tee markers as well, but I try to keep myself free for the first hour of the day to assess everything.

This video was shot a little later in the morning, around 7-8:00.  I had to figure out how to use and mount the camera before I could go out.  I also kept the drive to a minimum to limit the length of the video, most mornings I drive down each hole.

Stump clean-up

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on a Maple tree that had to come down along 4 fairway.  I didn't want to grind the stump out until the ground firmed up enough to support the tractor without leaving a mess.  With the recent lack of rain we scheduled the stump to be removed today. 

 

We also removed the stumps of a couple small trees we took out yesterday: two Pear that succumbed to Fire Blight and three small Maple that were damaged from the harsh winter.

Bunker edges

One of the concerns we have been getting about our 2" bunker edges is the potential for a ball to hung up in the bunker next to the edge, not leaving any room for advancing the ball.  Certain holes are more prone to this happening vs. others.  Fairway bunkers seem to cause this due to their more flat construction and the fact that most balls entering a fairway bunker come in at a more flat trajectory vs. a green side bunker.  It has been discussed at the Grounds Committee meetings that tee shots have been known to roll into the fairway bunkers and come to rest at the far edge of the bunker.  While this scenario will never be eliminated because of our trimmed edge, we are trying to maintain the bunkers to aid the ball in rolling down the slope on the green side of them.

To aid the ball from getting trapped along the greens side edge of the bunker, we moved the edge of the bunker up the hill creating a slightly larger slope allowing the ball to roll down to a more reasonable space for a advancing shot.

Once we determined where we wanted our new bunker edge, we removed the sod and soil from that area and added to sand to enlarge the bunker.

Most of the bunkers out here have enough slope to them that the ball will roll away from the edge if the sand is firm enough.  The Grounds staff went around on Tuesday and fixed the bunkers that seemed to be causing most of the problems.

 

It is important to remember that our bunkers have a more flat construction and are not "flashed" bunkers.  There will always be that threat of the ball not coming to rest at a favorable spot in the bunker.  Many of our bunkers are extremely flat on the tee side and sides parallel with the hole.  If a ball trickles into the bunker, there is no slope causing it to roll away form the edge.  If you find yourself frequently along an edge with limited options, keep in mind that the bunkers are a hazard and are meant to penalize you.

Hawk sightings

Those of you that have spent time around the Club, in particular around the southeast corner of the golf course, have seen and heard the hawks that frequent the property.  Not only do I enjoy seeing them flying around I am grateful for the work they do in keeping the small animals in check.

A Rough-legged Hawk has been seen lately

 

Besides the Rough-legged Hawk, we have frequent visits from Red-tailed Hawks, Cooper's Hawks and sightings of Bald Eagles, Osprey and a Great Horned Owl.