#13 Green Complete

Despite some rainy weather toward the end of the week, the Spence crew has completed #13 green. Thursday and Friday were especially difficult with some on and off showers to finish things up. On a positive note, the showers have been good for keeping the sod moist in these warmer temperatures.

#13 Drainage Installation

#13 Greensmix Installation

#13 Green Sodded

The irrigation crew has also made nice progress despite the rain. Hole #6 is completed and they are currently working on #5. They completed the road crossing from #5 Tee to #4 Green.

If weather cooperates, both crews should only require another 2-3 weeks of work before they are complete. The Spence crew will be working on #11 green this week and then they will finish the drainage work on #7. The irrigation crew will be working on finishing #5, the Inn front entrance, the croquet court and the road crossings required for those areas. After that they will have holes #4 and #3 to complete their installation. After that they will finish wiring all of the satellite boxes and making all final adjustments to the sprinklers.









#9 Green Complete

We have had some great weather so far this spring for our project. The irrigation crew has three more holes to complete (#3, #4, and #5 along with the croquet court.) The Spence crew is currently working on #13 green. I will keep you posted on progress there. After #13, we will rebuild #11 and that will be all of the greens that we take on this spring, leaving 7 greens to complete next fall. #9 green was sodded on Saturday afternoon. Below are some pictures of the process on #9.

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!

December 4 Update

I'm sorry that it has been a few weeks since my last update. Since my last update, here is what has been finished.
1. #12 green and irrigation have been completed. Below is a picture of #12 green.

2. #10 green has also been completed. Kris' crew worked on Thanksgiving to get the green sodded due to the fact that we had rain earlier in the week. Below are some of the process pictures and the finished product.

Despite the fact that we have had a great, warm fall to work on our project, we all know that cold weather is just around the corner. We have decided to stop working on greens at this point to limit our risk with the sod going into winter. We will complete our final 2 greens (#11 and #13) in the spring when weather permits. This decision was made the week before Thanksgiving. I'm glad that we made that choice because we had our first snowfall of the year earlier this week! If there is one thing I have learned in my 4 years here at Roaring Gap, it is that we always seem to get snowfall before December 15.

In an effort to continue to be productive, Kris' crew has begun working on the drainage project on #7 fairway. This was originally planned for the spring but we decided to move forward while the weather was cooperating. It won't be completed until the spring, but it does give us a head start which is always beneficial.

                                                      Drainage in front of #7 Green.

Above is a picture of the gravel bed over the drain tiles. This is installed over the whole drainage area to accommodate the springs that occur on this hole. Over time, springs may move where they rise to the surface. By placing the gravel bed, if a spring moves, the water will rise to the gravel and move to the drain tiles instead of rising completely to the surface. This will provide a firmer playing surface which is much needed on this hole.

                                                    Low spot on the left of #7 fairway.
Below is a picture of the old terra cotta drain pipes that have caused some of the problems on #7. Over time the original tar paper that was used to hold the sections of pipe together has degraded. This has caused a separation between the tiles which is one of the primary causes of the sinkholes in the fairway. Part of the work being done is to remove the terra cotta pipes that are found to try to fix this problem. Some of the sinkholes are also caused by springs, so our hope is that by performing all of this work, we can remedy a great deal of our problems on #7.

Most of our work for the fall will be wrapping up within the next two weeks. I will try to post one more time to let you know when the work will be stopping before picking back up in the spring.