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