Fall wrap-up

As the season winds down, rather than focus on just one topic this week, the Grounds blog will cover several things that have been going on in our department.

Work continues on the bunkers on #8. Cleanup of the trash material is down to the final few loads and sod work will begin in earnest this week. Sod will be completed as quickly as possible. Right now, our only hold-up is balancing labor hours between the bunker project and regular course maintenance, with blowing leaves being our biggest time consumer right now.

Speaking of leaves, we continue to battle the yearly chore of moving leaves from one place to another so that we can pick them up and get them off the course. You can read more in-depth about leaf cleanup here. The last 10 days have seen a great deal of leaves fall because of some of the blustery days we have had. This is good and bad; good: wind brings the leaves down and helps to shorten the “leaf” season. Instead of the leaves falling for two and a half months, the timeframe can be shortened. Bad: trying to move leaves around when the wind is blowing hard and constantly shifting. Sometimes it seems futile to even try. And when it is calm enough for us to blow, it usually means a cold morning.

Cold mornings mean frost. This word is hated by golfers and maintenance departments alike. Golfers don’t like to be held up and we don’t like the mad scramble that ensues trying to get the course ready. Click here to read more about fall frosts in particular. We constantly push to get the course opened as early as possible. The stressful part, though, is that we are dealing with a condition that if not handled properly, can actually kill the very grass we try desperately to keep alive and maintain. Every second and minute counts for us and the golfers when dealing with frost, too soon and we could have damage, too late and everyone is frustrated. So far we have had 4 frost delays this fall, but only one significant one. They will only get worse form here though, so please be ready on cold mornings.

Lastly, we fertilized greens this past week. Similar reasoning is involved for fertilizing the greens as was discussed for fertilizing the rough last week. While the products are different, the science behind the decision is the same. The greens have come to the end of a long summer and fall, and are due for some food. We “spoon-feed,” meaning we give tiny amounts of soluble fertilizer, during the season, but this application is for the remainder of the year and into spring.

As the seasons change, so do some of our tasks. Instead of many hours mowing and watering, now we have many hours blowing and working on projects, but we never run out of things to keep us busy.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please leave bunker rakes inside the bunkers when you are finished.

Note: Starting in November, through February, posts will be reduced to once per month. Thank you.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org