More Drainage!

The Spence crew is currently working on adding some more drainage on #7. The drainage that they installed last year is working correctly. The problem is that some of the springs moved this summer which caused a few more wet spots. They are now working on putting in drainage to connect the areas together so we have a bigger drainage field, and to hopefully also get all of the springs that are on the low side of the hole.

Greens Complete!

I hope that everybody had a great Thanksgiving! The Spence crew has gotten a lot of work accomplished since I last posted 2 weeks ago. Greens #3 and #4 have been completed and they are working toward wrapping up their work for the winter. Below are a few pictures of #3 and #4 Greens.

#3Green

#3 Green

#4 Green

#4 Green Complete

 



Along with getting the greens completed, the crew has begun working on a few of the other projects that needed to be completed. The first project that they began working on was the driving range tee. I'm sure everybody knew that the quality of the turf on the tee was poor. We had also lost a lot of teeing area due to topdressing which caused a crown on the tee which limited teeing space. In light of this the golf committee thought improving the tee was a priority. With the work that has been done, we have come close to doubling the amount of teeing area available. I'm sure everybody will appreciate this improvement!

 

The other project that has been undertaken was to adjust the teeing area on hole #4. The back tee and cartpath locations on #4 created an area of congestion and poor turf. As many of you have experienced, carts would be parked in #3 fairway to putt out on #3 and then would remain in the same spots while the group teed off on #4. Often times groups would wait to hit their approach shots to #3 until the group cleared from #4 tee. To alleviate this problem, the back tee and a portion of the cartpath on #4 have been removed. The middle tee has been extended as far back as possible and the cartpath has been re-routed to start on the left of the tee. As a trade off, we only lost approximately 5 yards. The back of the middle tee now extends all the way back to where the front of the back tee was formerly located. This also provides us more options to move the tees to change how the hole plays.



#5 Green Complete

#5 green was completed by the Spence crew on Friday of last week. At the beginning of the week we had some rain but not enough to slow down progress. #4 green should be finished sometime Saturday. The Spence crew also got the sod installed around the bunkers that have been rebuilt around the greensides. These bunkers include the greenside bunkers on #5, #6, #8, #12, and the small greenside bunker on #17. Here are a few pictures of what has happened over the last week of work.

#5 Finished

New Sod #5 Bunker

  #12 Rebuilt bunkers with new sod

Drainage work on #4 green

 





#6 Green Complete

Despite Hurricane Sandy's attempt to halt progress last week, we still got some work accomplished. The crew couldn't work on Monday and Tuesday but made up for it later in the week. #6 Green has been completed and the crew is about halfway through working on #5 and should be finished by the end of the week. If the weather continues to cooperate, we are hoping to have the greens completed by Thanksgiving or December 1st at the latest. Below are some pictures of 5 and 6.

#6 Green and New bunkers

New Back Bunker on #6

 

#6 Finished Sodding

Coring Out #5

 

Stay tuned for further updates as there is still a lot to do!







Tennis Irrigation

Another improvement being made at the club this fall is the installation of a new irrigation system for the tennis courts. The system is being connected to the golf course irrigation system which is great for two reasons. 1. It will be fully automated and controlled by the irrigation computer to ensure accurate applications of water. 2. It will be getting its water from the lake and will no longer be coming out of the water tower. The water tower obviously has limited capabilities and supplies all of the residential water to the club and supplies the fire hydrants should an emergency arise. The less water that is used for supplemental irrigation from the water tower, the better.

Once again the club hired Al Lackey who installed the golf course irrigation system to complete the work. As with the golf course, their quality of work is excellent and they wasted no time in getting the job completed. The entire project to irrigate 6 courts and make the connections was completed in approximately 10 days! Below are some pictures of the project.

Finished Product on Court #1

#7 Green Complete

Once again we have had another great week of weather for our project. It looks as though our luck may run out for a few days this week but we will get done what we can. This week #7 green was completed. The Spence crew worked hard this week to get as much accomplished as possible, knowing the impending poor weather forecast for this week.

#7 was sodded on Tuesday. Before the sod could be laid, we applied some "pre-plant" products that help improve the soil to be the best growing medium possible. Below is a picture of my staff applying these products.

#7 green being sodded

 

After #7 was completed the Spence crew moved over to #6 green. They utilized the great weather to get a large portion of the green completed before the cold weather moves in. Even in some cool, drizzly weather on Saturday morning the crew was hard at work to get the greensmix installed on the green.

 

 

Meanwhile, our staff has also been taking advantage of the good weather. This week we finished aerifying the back 9 aprons and all of the fairways. We also topdressed all of the greens, tees, and back 9 aprons. The front nine aprons were not aerified because some of the sod will need to be cut for the green project. Some of you may have noticed the huge pile of sand that has been stockpiled next to the maintenance facility. This is all of the old bunker sand that was removed during our sand replacement project. The sand was saved in case we needed it for the irrigation project if we found a lot of rock that needed to be removed. Due to the fact that we found little rock, we can use the material to topdress around the greens to firm up the aprons and smooth out any surrounds.

 

 Mowing Fescue

 

Hopefully #6 green will be completed this week but we will just have to wait and see what Mother Nature throws our way!





Project Update

We have had another great week of weather and things are moving along nicely. The bunkers on #2 and #14 are complete. They have been irrigated, seeded, and covered with mulch mat to promote seed germination. Hopefully the weather is still warm enough that we can get a good stand growing before the cold weather sets in for good.

#14 Bunkers

 

The small greenside bunker on #17 has also been rebuilt and is ready for sodding.

 

 

As everybody knows, the cartpath on #8 is in bad shape. The path along the fairway is being removed and the sections up around 7 green and 8 tees will be reworked. The Spence crew is responsible for removing the path while a paving company will install the new path in the spring. The Spence crew has begun removal of the old path. Soil is being stockpiled so that once the path is removed, the area can be backfilled and seeded.

 

 

#7 green is currently being rebuilt. The green has been stripped, cored out and drained. At this time it looks like the green will be getting resodded on Wednesday. Here is a picture of the drainage on #7.

 

 

In the mean time, our staff has been incredibly busy as well. We began our fall aerification process this week. Greens and tees have been completed and will be topdressed this coming week. Over half of the fairways have been aerified. We are also in the process of aerifying the green surrounds. This should be completed within the next few days.

 

While we are busy in the summer season, our busiest times of year are easily spring and fall as we try to accomplish as many projects as possible before the summer season or the onset of winter! 







#8 Green Finished

Despite some rain early in the week, the Spence crew made great progress this week. The fairway bunkers on #14 are irrigated and should be ready for seeding on Monday or Tuesday. The greenside bunkers and surrounds on #12 have been reworked and are ready for irrigation installation. The large mounds around the bunkers on #12 have been removed and have been shaped to blend into the surrounds better as seen in the pictures below.

#8 Green has also been completed with the sod being laid today. The bunkers around the green have also been rebuilt. I am especially pleased with the right greenside bunker rebuild. The original bunker tended to wash out quite a bit and did not fit into the surround very well. The entire complex now fits in much better.

The goal next week will be to move over and start rebuilding #7 green. They will also finish, seed and mulch mat the fairway bunkers on 2 and 14, and rebuild the small greenside bunker on #17. We made great progress this week, let's hope the weather continues to cooperate!

In House Project Update

Well, after a few computer issues, I am back up and running, sorry for the delay! I'll get everybody caught up on all the progress over the next few days when I get a chance to get all of my pictures ready. In the mean time, I do have a few ready for you.

While the Spence crew is working on their tasks, we are taking on some in house projects. The first project we took on was improving the turf quality in the drainage work areas on #7. I have had a few questions, mainly toward the end of the summer, why the drainage areas are no longer working. First off, these areas are working! I'll save you the boredom of agronomic jargon of our problem and get to the point. The area became "sealed off" where the water would not soak through the soil. The solution to the problem was to aerify the area to break through the surface. The problem with the solution, was that the turf was not mature enough, so had I aerified the area during the summer, it would have torn up the turf. Simple enough? I hope so! Now that we are into the fall, the turf can handle an aerification. We aerified the drainage areas, along with the rest of the fairway. We then topdressed the areas with our old bunker sand to create channels to minimize the chance of the area sealing off again. The sand was then drug into the holes and we overseeded the entire fairway to promote thicker turf. Hopefully this area will be much better next summer as the turf matures.

  Aerifying the fairway

 

Topdressed drainage area

 

Area after overseeding and dragging

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what all has been going on with the course. I'll get everybody up to speed over the next few days!

 







Green #1 is Finished/Bunker Work Has Started

The Spence crew finished sodding #1 green on Thursday. It only took them 6 working days to complete which is pretty impressive. Unless they get behind due to weather or other circumstances, they typically only work Monday-Friday, although they are pretty long days! The green was stripped last Wednesday so the sod was only off the green for one week. They averaged this pace last year as well so we are off to a great start.

Construction of the new bunkers is also under way. The bunker on #2 has been shaped and drained, one of the bunkers on #9 has been shaped, and one bunker on #14 has been shaped. The bunkers are being worked on now for one main reason. I want to get them built and seeded before it gets too cold. I believe one of the issues in the past was that they were seeded too late in the season. This caused poor germination and poor turf coverage. We are making every effort to prevent this from happening again.

#2 Bunker

#14 bunker being shaped

There will be 5 bunkers that need to be seeded. The goal is to have them ready this coming week if possible. Irrigation will also need to be installed but this should be done relatively quickly. When installing the system last year, we planned for these bunkers so most of the items are in place and simply require completion.







Restoration Year 2 Under Way!

Last Wednesday the Spence Golf crew began working on the second half of our restoration project. So far we have had great weather and they have been able to get off to a great start. We started on hole #1. The green is almost complete. Sodding should be finished by tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.

The crew has also begun some of the bunker work. More pictures will follow as these progress. I plan on posting weekly, if not more frequently throughout the fall.