Christmas break help

We brought in the reserves this week as our summer staff is now on Christmas break.  Despite the frigid temperatures outside, they have been bundling up and getting things done.

Today we trimmed the hedge row along the range tee. 

 

The previous few days we spent some time splitting and delivering firewood, next week we plan to start trimming trees. 

Winter injury update

The injuries the greens sustained due to ice cover this past winter are healing and coming along, here are some pictures that show the progress:

March 18

April 3

April 22

 

We've sodded the large dead patch on 7 green and plugged out some thin areas on 5, 9, 12, 16, and 18.  All the of the thin areas on the greens are receiving 'special' treatment - increased fertility, less mowing, no rolling and increased mowing heights.  If you can be patient with us for a few more weeks, they will look dramatically different.

 

The injuries we sustained were due to ice cover for an extended period of time, suffocating the turf.  In 2014 we had the opportunity to remove the snow, melt the ice and prevent damage, we never saw a warm up in February to accomplish that this year.  Assuming we have winters like this again, we will do all we can to prevent this from reoccurring. 

Winter damage

Now that the greens have started growing, we are able to see where the winter damage has occurred.  A few greens have significant damage and will take a month to fully recover, most of the greens have just a few small spots that will heal rather quickly with some warm weather.  This damage came from ice cover over the winter, we were at the limit of ice cover on poa greens.

12 green suffered the most damage.  If you look at the picture below, you can see how far we have come but this green will take another month to get back to normal.  We are seeing a fair amount of green turf underneath the brown just waiting to pop up, a majority of this will grow back on its own, there will be a few spots that will need to be plugged out.

There is also damage to the greens from other sources - foot traffic.  This is a great example of why we close the course once the grounds freezes and the turf stops growing.

Someone decided to walk across 9 green at some point while we were closed, leaving a nice trail.  Eventually this too will recover, I see a little green underneath the damaged turf.

One of the capital purchases we recently made was a bed knife grinder.  This grinder allows us to grind the knives for all our reel mowers.  This machine is safer, quicker and provides a quality of cut that we couldn't match in the years prior.  We put it to good use this week.

Opening? Eventually!

The question we hear the most this time of year, and rightfully so, is: "When do you anticipate opening?"  This is when I keep an eye on the long range forecast, course conditions and the timing of our maintenance activities such as aerification.  First, forecast - looks like the next 7 days will be highs in the 40's and lows in the 20's, while the sun may be out, it isn't exactly grass growing or golfing weather.  Second, course conditions - the greens have not started to grow yet, therefore we have not mowed them and they would be unable to recover from any traffic during the next week.  Third, aerification - we are scheduled to aerify greens on Monday, March 30 if the weather permits.  We might also aerify fairways next week if we stay dry.  If these activities happen, it will be more efficient for us to leave the course closed for a few more days, get the work done, then open the course and be ready for the season. Right now, I would say we will open in early April.

 

With that being said, I know there is an itch to get out there, if the weather turns warmer and the greens start growing, we may open sooner.

 

To be honest, a few of our greens look like junk - they really took a beating this winter due to some ice cover, cold temps in high winds.  Here is what 12 currently looks like.  The great news is that there is plenty of green grass underneath and they will all be green and healthy in a few weeks as they start growing.  On typical winter damage - if it's brown it comes back, if it's white it's gone.

Our major task this week and into next is cleaning the course from the winter winds.  We rake up any debris and pick up any stick that is pencil size or larger.  With 150 acres and thousand of trees, this is a big task.

One of the last small projects that Wayne has been working on is a shelving unit for our reels.  He did a great job putting this together last week, helping maintain a clean and organized shop.

Course supplies

One of the many jobs we take on during the winter is refurbishing our course supplies - benches, ball washers, trash cans, tee markers, etc.  This week, Wayne has been working on some of these items while the remainder of the crew has been working on tree work.

All of the tee markers were sanded and dipped in a coat of epoxy to give it that "brand new" look.

Next project is refurbishing our benches, they will be cleaned, sanded, repaired and painted.

Tree removals

Last winter was not conducive for removing trees, this winter has been more comfortable and has allowed us to catch up on needed removals.  We've had multiple Ash trees decline over the last few years and will continue to see the slow decline.  With that in mind, it is inevitable that most of our Ash will be removed over time.

This Ash was on the right side of 13 approach.

One of the more noticeable removals will be this Ash.  This was the large tree on the inside corner of the fairway on 10, left side.

 

Other notable Ash removals this year included 4 trees along the right side of 3 fairway, the large Ash between 3 approach - 4 tee, also 3 Ash on the inside corner of 11 fairway near the bunker.

 

Winter, enjoy it before is leaves us!

 

Equipment detail

One of the changes we made this winter is to keep Wayne in the shop and detail all of our equipment.  Along with Jim, our Equipment Technician, they've been going over each piece of machinery with a fine tooth comb.  In the end, all the minor and major repairs will be taken care and the equipment will look brand new before it goes back to the barn for storage.

Wayne has his own work area set up (fully heated) with all the appropriate tools - degreaser, 409, Armor all, Bleach white, wax, Rhino liner....

After Wayne's done, the 5 year old mowers look like new.

Winter projects

Every winter we complete a few small projects besides the normal winter tasks of painting benches, sharpening cup cutters, etc.  These projects either enhance our operation or increase efficiency.  We are outdoors during the majority of the winter, but when the weather isn't cooperating, we get to work indoors.

The improvement last week was building a better system for storing our string trimmers.  Adam came up with an efficient solution and went to work.

The end result is a tidy appearance that saves space.

Winter wonderland

What a picturesque week we had.  Although we saw sub-zero temps, the snow and ice fog created some stunning views.

As the sun rose on Wednesday morning.

 

We also put together a video showcasing the property under it's winter blanket:

 

FCC Winter Video

 

 

 

What we've been up to:

The month of November was a busy month for us, preparing for winter, dealing with winter and trying to get rid of winter so that we can finish our late-fall projects.  We were mulching and cleaning up leaves up until the snow started flying, but the leaves didn't stop falling.  This week we are going through the property one more time to give it a final cleaning.

With no snow and dry ground, we can finally finish mulching the leaves.

The look of a clean golf course going into winter makes you smile!

The wind we had early last week made its mark.  The Grounds Staff spent a fair amount of time last week cleaning up the mess, but we still have a fair amount of sticks and debris that need to be cleaned up before we can send the mowers through to mulch leaves.

There were a few large branches that came down, this one along the creek left of #2.

This Concolor Fir along #1 blew over on Monday, it is on our removal list anyway.

A few weeks ago, we built the new forward tee on #7.  This will be sodded next spring, dropping 40yds off the hole from the gold markers, making this a much more manageable par 4 at 318yds.

 

Just before the snow started falling, we topdressed tees to firm them up.  A few tees have felt soft to me, to combat this, we verticut all the tees and added sand topdressing to those that needed it.  This will keep the tees firmer and provide better footing.  Because of the sand application, the tees really bruised, but there is plenty of green tissue underneath which will show itself next spring.

We are also in the process of washing all the equipment before we bring them in for service.  After a good power wash, we will bring the mowers inside to be detailed and serviced in preparation for next year.

 

Tree removal has begun, two large decaying trees were removed behind the club.

The center of this Oak was hollow, leaving only six inches of good wood around the perimeter.

Finally, if we can't get out on the course, we have been splitting the trees that we take down into firewood.  Speaking of firewood, we are now depleted of seasoned firewood.  The demand for firewood has been high as more and more members are taking advantage of the service.  The wood we are splitting now will be ready to burn next summer.

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.

More winter damage discussion

While winter is behind us, some of the area courses have damage that still lingers.  FCC suffered minor damage to the practice putting green.  Last week we sodded a portion of that damage and the remainder will fill in after a brief time.  Below is a link to a radio interview done with a Michigan State University Professor that describes the winter we had and the steps that Superintendents took.

Radio Interview Link

This will give you some idea of why we added snow to the greens during the winter at times and also why we cleared the snow off the greens at other times.  We were fortunate to escape with minor blemishes, other poa greens in the Midwest were not so fortunate with many courses having to play on temp greens for a few months.

A little bit of everything

First of all, what's up with that snow?

 

Spring is trying to come!

We leave ourselves a list of things to do that can be done on frost/snow days.  When the weather is good we spend most of our time out on the course.  When we can't be on the course, we fall back to our "frost project list".

We came through this harsh winter very well.  The two minor blemishes we had on the putting green are starting to heal in.  One of the spots was bad enough that we wanted to sod a portion of it, speeding up the recover process.

This picture shows the difference in the old shingles vs. the new color (black) shingles.  I think the roof looks great, very classy.  The project is still ongoing.  With the shingle portion done, the contractor is now working on the flat roof portion.  Along with the flat roof, the chimneys need to be finished, a layer of stucco will be added to the bottom, then the chimneys will be painted.  The project has been going well thus far with no major surprises.

 

April is always a crazy month for us - course opens, grass is growing, lots of mowing to do, winter projects need to be finished and spring project need to be started.  As always, we make it through.

 

Putting green, Spring clean-up

With all of the ice now melted off of the putting green, we can get a good look at the turf.  The low areas of the green where ice sat for 60+ days definitely saw some injury.

The brown spot in the middle of this picture is a low area in the green where ice sat for a few months.  The lighter brown towards the sides of the picture are mounds in the green where the snow was blown off from the wind - causing the tips of the turf to turn brown due to the cold.

These "puddles" of ice damage are a very deep brown.  I can still see spots of green turf down by the soil.  I think we might get lucky and this will grow out.  Another week under ice cover and these spots would have completely died.  If we do see areas not recovering this spring, we will be replacing the damaged areas with healthy sod from our nursery.

 

The good news is that this damage is only present on the practice putting green.  This was due to the fact that we did not remove the snow from this green to melt the ice a few weeks back.

 

On Monday we started our stick clean-up on the course, preparing and cleaning the course for an opening sometime soon.

We spent all day on 8 yesterday cleaning up debris from the floods this winter, today we again will be cleaning up 8 and 9.  Next week we will be finishing up the remainder of the course.

 

 

Greens update

Yesterday was a great "Spring" day.  We started our Spring cleaning on the golf course, cleaning up leaves, sticks and debris around the front entrance of the club, around the clubhouse and also around 9 green.  Also with most of the snow melted I was able to make a walking tour of the course, taking inventory of the winter damage and making notes of projects that need to get done.

The course looks great out there.  We got through winter with very little damage.  Most of the damage is superficial and the grass will make a full recovery with a few weeks of good growing conditions.  We definitely have some damage and battle scars, but overall we made out well.

This is wind desiccation damage on the putting green.  Just like previous pictures of 12 green, these are areas that were exposed to the very cold temps and high winds.  There is green turf underneath, these areas will grow out of this damage with a few weeks of 60 degree weather.

When we removed the snow from the greens a few weeks ago, we did not get to the putting green and 8 green.  There was a few areas of ice the remained on those greens yesterday, being melted completely away by the end of the day.  This is the ice cover on the putting green, underneath I saw green turf.  Therefore, we made it through winter with no damage due to ice cover.

This is the snow mold damage to 1 green.  With it being Pink Snow Mold, this damage is mainly superficial and the turf will recover from this damage.  Again, I can see green turf underneath the damage, come mid-April we won't know it ever happened.

This is some bruising of 3 green due to removing snow with the snow blowers.  This will recover quickly.

It is hard to see, but these are deer tracks across the green (you can click on the picture to get a better view).  This type of damage is all over the course.  This also will recover quickly.

Here is where the deer dragged their hoofs across the green, I need to remind them to stop being so lazy and pick their feet up!

These are the icebergs that were deposited along 8 fairway, it will be a while before these melt away.