Winter Work

In the past I have been asked the question, "What exactly is it that you do in the middle of winter?" While our members may not see the work being done, there is usually quite a bit that gets accomplished in the winter months. Most of my crew only works from March through November. During the months of December, January, and February there are only 5 full-time golf course maintenance employees, myself included. During these months we stay pretty busy.

The first thing that we work on is all of the course accessories. All of the natural wooden items such as divot boxes and flagsticks are all sanded and restained. The green wooden items such as coolers and trash cans are cleaned and restained with a special green stain. All other items such as benches, ballwashers, tee markers, buckets, and hazard stakes are sanded and repainted to look new every year.

The other important project that we take on is equipment maintenance. This not only includes golf course maintenance equipment but also grounds maintenance equipment and club vehicles as well. The 14 club vehicles all get serviced with oil changes, new air filters, tire rotations, and any other repairs that are needed. The golf and grounds equipment starts off by being pressure washed and then gets a thorough inspection and preventative maintenance such as oil and filter changes, hydraulic oil and filter changes, air filter inspections, greasing, and any other required repairs.

The cutting units go through a time consuming process called grinding. The process of grinding is what sharpens the blades of the cutting units, both the reels and the bedknives. With five individual cutting units per fairway mower, three per triplex mower, and all of our walking mowers we have quite a bit of work to do. In total we have 41 individual cutting units to grind!

As you can see, a lot of behind the scenes work is done before and after the season. I hope this helps you to know what we do in the winter!

On another note, Kris Spence's crew returned this past week and began working on completing the greens that are scheduled for this phase of our restoration process. Now that things are gearing up again, I will update more frequently. Stay tuned for updates!