Grateful and busy

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

I have not been busy blogging because we have been so busy on the golf course.  I am very grateful to our staff for the wonderful work that our team has accomplished this spring.  We are barreling into the summer and our tournament season.  I am excited and proud of the golf course and all of the progress we have made this spring.  So what has been going on?

Normal maintenance has included fertilizing and slicing of fairways to promote growth and recover from Spring Dead Spot.  Dave McCall, PhD Candidate at VT is still working on his fan research this year but will also include a new Spring Dead Spot study.  He is GPS mapping the spots on 2 and 16 to quantify the progress we are making from year to year.  We have gotten into a very regular mowing pattern and our seasonal maintenance of greens and bunkers.  We have been busy fine tuning the irrigation system.  As the system gets older, we have more and more work to keep it operating at an optimum level.  The staff has also been through bunkers several times to add and redistribute sand to maintain proper bunker depths.

Our project work has been close to normal.  We sodded the winterkill damage around greens and in a few fairways.  We did use a new variety around greens to try and combat the issues we have every year.  This variety should be wore cold and traffic tolerant.  As normal, we will be on an aggressive aeration and fertility program in these high traffic areas.  We will continue to do some sod work to improve the area between 13/14 this summer.   We have installed four new Willow Oaks this year as well as steps to the 11th green tee and a new butterfly garden on 16.  As of today, the fans on 2, 14, 5 and the Driving Range green will be fully functional.  Our team has been hard at work spreading mulch and pine straw and removing weeds/woody plants from around the ponds.

Mr. and Mrs. Pierce donated this Willow Oak on #18.  Our team has since sodded around the mulch bed.  Many thanks to the Pierce's for their generous donation.

The most unusual/painful experience was a tree falling on #10 green.  I am very grateful to our team for the quick cleanup of the tree and repair to the green.  An unfortunate martyr in this event was the large TurfBreeze fan that took a direct hit.  It may have softened the blow to the green but the fan was destroyed.  Our team has already set the ground pole for the replacement.  We lost a few more trees and large limbs during these heavy storms but our team has been swift to clean up these areas.

The large pine tree behind #10 green fell during a quick, very strong storm.  This is another good reason to keep trees as far away from putting surfaces as possible.  The fan took a direct hit.  Our team had the tree cleaned up in about 2.5 hours.  

                       

The tree's limbs did the most damage when they pierced directly into the green.  Huge limbs made large holes and divots.  Luckily the fan and hillside kept the large trunk off of the green.  Our team had the green plugged and repaired by noon the following day.  A new fan will be installed in the next 7-10 days.

Once again, this has been a very busy spring and one that our team is quite proud of.  The golf course is coming together very well and we look forward to more improvements to surrounding areas this summer.  One reason that we have been so busy is the fact that our lead assistant superintendent, Kevin Mark took a new job in Pennsylvania this week.  Kevin was a real leader on our team and an even better person.  We wish Kevin the best of luck back home in PA at Carlisle Country Club.  Carlisle will be very luck to have him.

Have a great weekend,

Jordan Booth
jbooth@willowoakscc.org