Drainage work

With the warmer weather and unfrozen soil, we have taken advantage by doing many drainage projects this past week. We did some work on the fairway bunkers on both courses. On #1 Weiskopf and #8 Devlin there were several sink holes from improperly installed drainage. The drains were installed to shallow to the surface, not enough drainage rock and too big of rock was used in the past. You'll see in the pictures below, a small break, a crushed area or clog can create a sinkhole or a wet spot. We fixed 21 of these alone on the fairways of 1 and 8. We added some blowout points so when the irrigation is live in the spring we can clean the lines out even more.

Shallow lines lead to crushed pipe and holes here in #8 Devlin fairway

Clogged pipe…Not enough rock was used and not pea gravel

Very Shallow….We added blowout points for in the spring

December 11th prep

Today we rolled the Weiskopf greens and did a quick spin of the bunkers. With our snow mold fungicide down we cannot mow anything until the spring. Other than my time in Atlanta, I have never had to roll greens this late in the year!!! Great bonus golf and work weather for the maintenance crew.

James rolling #2 green

Charles raking #5 bunkers

Snow and Saturday tee times/shotgun

This afternoon, we still had snow on some of the greens and other places on the golf course. We will try and do a shotgun start for anyone that wants to play at NOON on Saturday. This is only if we are melted enough to allow play. With temps forecasted tonight at or below freezing we will have frost in exposed grass areas and slow melting in the morning. Please call the pro shop in the morning to confirm the NOON shotgun. I know the proshop staff tried to inform/call anyone that was on the sheet from 9am-12

As always, but especially now in the winter, you must check in the pro shop before going out onto the course. Significant damage could occur to frosty or frozen surfaces if the course is closed and traffic goes onto the course. The maintenance department will inform the pro shop everyday in the winter when the course is closed or open and at what time. Please feel free to contact me anytime with any questions. 

12 Weiskopf fairway at 3:30 Friday

10 Weiskopf approach and green - the back of this green was still covered in  snow

6 Weiskopf - I will do another post about the brush clearing and tree removal….As you can see, the fairway bunker and the right side of the fairway can be seen now from the tee and it is much more open.

Cutting down the natural areas/marsh

The last few years we have hand cut down the natural areas/marshes using machetes, weedeaters and brush cutters. We did this in late July/early August and it took at least a week with 5 employees 8+ hrs a day each. We had over 40 man hours in this work. It was a terrible job with snakes and other animals. When we were done it didn't look good and took the rest of the year to grow back and was tall in the spring. Today we took the brush hog out and cut down the area in front of 13 Weiskopf tee. It took around an hour. We will continue at 13 green and between 14 fairway and green tomorrow and will have less than 6 man hours in the project and it looks really good. This will give those areas a fresh start in the spring.

Cutting the marsh/natural area at 13 Weiskopf Tee

Snow mold control and topdressing

On Monday and Tuesday we were able to spray 57+ Acres of greens, tees and fairways on both golf courses with our preventative snow mold fungicides. This is a huge application that needs to last 4+ months. The day after the snow mold fungicide was applied to the greens, a light/medium sand topdressing was put down to provide a little insulation to the crown of the plant in the winter.

Spraying snow mold fungicide on #2 Devlin Fairway.  The foam dots allow us to see what has been sprayed and what has not.

Ben Thomas topdressing #16 Weiskopf green

Ball marks

While spraying greens yesterday I noticed an overwhelming amount of ball marks on the greens. It is very important to fix ball marks as we are not out repairing and mowing everyday. Now that the snow mold application is down greens will no longer be mowed until spring.

#11 Green - Please repair

#18 Weiskopf - You can see how many unrepaired ball marks are in this small area

Deep Tine

We finished the deep tine on the Devlin greens yesterday afternoon. We have an outside company(PerkAir) come in with two machines to get it done in one day. The Devlin greens are old "push-up" greens meaning they are made out of native soil pushed up to shape them. Deep tining allows air and water to break through a hard pan layer and create channels. We go down around 6-7 inches and it makes a huge difference in the spring. We lightly topdress, drag and roll the putting surface after the deep tining. If we continue with this warm weather and get a little growth we will topdress again to protect the crown before winter weather hits.

Surface after deep tining, topdressing, dragging and rolling

#17 Devlin Green afterwards.  Looks great except for all the oak trees still with leaves on them

Course Update

With all the rain and wind today a lot of leaves came down which is a good thing. The next few days the wind is supposed to blow 25-35mph which will continue dropping leaves. It will be hard to get tractors, blowers and mowers out to clean up leaves the next few days with how wet the ground is. We will do all we can to backpack blow the greens off and keep the course as playable as possible. Going forward, we we only have one course open for play per day so we can do cleanup on the other course after the open course gets setup for the day. As always, feel free to email me with any questions.

#16 Devlin around 2pm today….This hole was cleaned up completely yesterday

Recovering nicely

The Devlin greens, tees and fairways are all healing nicely from aeration last week. The greens were cored with a 3/8" core on 2" spacing on a quad block. We then put out around 35 tons of sand to work into the holes and the canopy. On tees we used a 5/8" coring time and on fairways we used our new Aerway slicer. 

#18 Weiskopf cart path repair

With all the rain we had in June and early July we had some erosion issues of the ravine in #18 which then extended to the cart path. Precision Golf Construction came in and did a great job akin these areas safe again.  They are a local company out of Chardon that have done some small projects for us and we are very happy with their work.  Here are some pictures.

Cart path and drain before

Starting to dig out old drain

Using pavers instead of concrete so when it settles, we can fix

More rip rap will be added to outfall area to prevent erosion

While Precision Golf was here, they also fixed #9 and #15  wash out as well

Member-Guest recap

We had a great time prepping for one of the biggest, if not the biggest Member-Guest events in the state of Ohio. We had 84 teams competing on both golf courses. The courses played firm and fast and the greens were scary quick. Congratulations to the winning father/son team of Tim and John Williams. The shootout was a lot of fun and very competitive. August 4th-6th next year will be here soon enough.

Crew waiting at #1 Devlin Tee for Friday evening prep

John Brady rolling greens while other crew members mow #18 Devlin Thursday night

#6 Weiskopf right before the shootout began

#10 Weiskopf with the FINAL FOUR on the tee

The Final Four teams on #10 green. Tim Williams' team and Ken Baxter's moved onto #11

Gallery around #11 Green

Tim and John Williams lining up the winning putt

2 out of 3.  Aubrey and Ellie with Dad Thursday night.  Luke was out filling divots with the crew.

New chipping green area

Last September we stripped the area up by the practice bunker left of the cart barn driving range tee. We seeded and added plugs before winter and have been growing in the green ever since. The bunker is open and the green is getting very close to the heights of the other greens. We are currently mowing it at .160". The other greens on the course are at between .105 and .110". After aerating this fall it should be mowed down just like all the rest. There will be some small chipping areas around this green as well.

Fall 2014 - Stripping old sod of and reshaping area

New Chipping Green and Bunker

Looking at the green from #8 FWY side

THIS IS A GREEN - DO NOT TAKE DIVOTS ON IT

Homeowners

Homeowners are constantly cleaning up their yards and putting piles of sticks on the golf course for us to clean up. If you know if anyone doing this please ask them to stop.

#13 Devlin

Spiking Fairways

Yesterday we spiked number 12,15,17, and 18 fairways on the Weiskopf course. We will continue to do this on both courses as weather and time allows. This will help get air down to the roots and help them dry out a little. Every bit helps at this point in the season and the wet weather we have had. You can see it is very non disruptive after it has been mowed.

Spiking fairways early Tuesday morning

Up close before mowing

In the afternoon, after the fairways had been mowed

More bug spray and sunscreen issues

We are finding more and more dead grass caused by bug spray and sunscreen. Please use when on the cart path and especially not on the greens, tees or fairways. We have multiple spots now on fairways and tees with many more in the rough.

#16 Devlin Fairway

Flood cleanup and dry weather

Tuesday night into Wednesday morning we received 1.6" of rain in about 30 minutes. The rain coming that fast on already saturated ground caused the creek on #4 Weiskopf to overflow and a drain at the approach to dump 2-3 inches of silt across that fairway. The crew did a great job cleaning it up and getting the hole playable Wednesday morning and it looks even better today after it was mowed. The rain came so fast that even the Better Billy Bunkers washed out fairly bad. They were all cleanup up and repaired by noon that day. Here are some pictures.

#4 Approach to the green

Hand removal of all silt

Blowing and hosing it clean

Same spot today(Friday)  Looks much better!

#4 Fairway Friday(2 days later)

#13 Weiskopf - 9 hours after it stopped raining

Air for the Devlin green

Yesterday we "vented" the greens on the Devlin course. We used the aerifier with small .25" pencil tines to create a small channel in the surface about 3-4" deep. This allows air and water to get to the roots and will help dry the greens out just a little. With all the rain we have received, they just need the breathe. After venting, we mowed them, lightly topdressed  them with walk spreaders and the sprayed two wetting agents to help move water through the soil more efficiently. Today, it was hardly noticeable that we did anything, yet the benefits will help us battle this extremely wet weather.

Venting with needle tines

Just enough of a hole for air and water to get in

Mowing to smooth out surface

Sand to smooth out surface as well

2 wetting agents that help water penetrate more efficiently into the soil and dry out the surface