November 1, 2013
Golf Course Update
The golf season has all but
come to an abrupt end here at Quail Hollow.
I hope we will have some nice, dry days in the month of November to get
in a few final rounds for 2013. One
course will be open daily as the weather permits until it is unplayable due to
weather conditions.
The golf course
maintenance staff has accomplished many goals set forth August 1st
when I arrived here at Quail. As I look
back at my initial notes and goals from that time, there were 10 things that I
wanted to get done in a short amount of time. They are listed below.
1. Irrigation
leaks – We have fixed over 25 leaks since August, and the system is pretty well
buttoned up. We will have some issues
arise when we prime the system back up in March/April, but we are in much
better shape than we were. ClubCorp also
fixed one of the broken pumps that was the cause of some of the leaks and are
now in place.
2. Drainage finish
work – Areas have been fixed, sodded, and drain how they are supposed to in
most areas. #16Devlin and #3Devlin Tee
area will be projects this winter.
3. ForeFront
Construction has fixed all areas that they damaged and resodded #3 Tee Box
which will be in perfect shape when we open back up in the spring.
4. New TeeBoxes –
With some extra fertilizer, topdressing, aerating, tee placement, and seeding,
the new tee boxes are in good shape heading into winter.
5. Fairways – The
fairways have all healed in from the heat stress this summer and were in very
good condition this fall. We sodded many
areas, so there are no major bare dirt areas in any of the fairways.
6. Greens – Greens
rolled true and were quicker for much of the fall. The past few weeks before the weather hit,
the Devlin greens were as good as any around.
7. Wet area caused
by RedHawk – No longer affects the golf course; it just needs finish work for
aesthetics.
8. Details – The
staff has done much better with details – e.g. Cup cutting, bunker edging,
traffic control, divots on tees, driving range setup.
9. Holes and bare
spots – over 100 yards of topsoil were spread and seeded in the last 12
weeks. Many areas were sodded as
well. We will do much more of this in
the spring.
10. Wetland
trimming – was taken care of immediately.
We are now down to our winter staff and we will
be continuing to clean up leaves, getting final mowing done, and applying our
winter plant protectants to the greens, tees, and fairways. Other than some of the projects mentioned
above, if the weather allows, we will be continuing with the reinvention
project at #1 Tee. That area will look
much better for the 2014 golfing season.
The small chipping area by the driving range needs a facelift as well as
creating a bentgrass fairway nursery behind #3 Devlin green. That is an area we need to utilize the best
we can as irrigation and good soil is present there. We will be servicing and repairing all
equipment, grinding reels, adding drainage to fairways, rough and bunkers, dead
tree removal as well as any other things that arise in addition to our duties
in snow plow removal.
This has been an exciting last few months, and I
am very happy to be here at Quail to see these goals met. We still have much work to be done, but we
are headed in a positive direction. If
you see any of the maintenance staff, please thank them for their efforts as
they have adapted to the changes that have been implemented with positive
results. Please feel free to contact me
with any questions and visit the GCM blog all winter long for updates at http://qhccgrounds.blogspot.com.
Sam Leatherberry
Director of Golf Course Maintenance
No comments:
Post a Comment