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| Dogwoods blossoming on #11 |
Daffodils have emerged, trees are blossoming, and the
Bermuda grass has not gone completely dormant yet. Without a doubt, late fall
and early winter have gotten off to a mild start. Warmer than normal
temperatures and the absence of snow have also allowed the Grounds department to maximize
our time outside, and have put us ahead of schedule on our winter projects.
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| Bermuda grass divot recovering |
Following up on a previous post, the seeding we did in the
rough could not have had better weather to establish. You can read the original post here. This fall helped the
seedlings take hold and really encroach on the Bermuda grass that has escaped
into the rough. We have seen solid germination in all the areas we treated, and
the late warmth allowed more growth heading into the heart of winter than we
expected. We are excited about this going forward and expect to increase the
square footage seeded next fall.
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| Seed lines in the rough |
The warm end to the fall permitted us to continue our bunker
edge re-sodding project much later into the year than we had anticipated. We
were able to finish the bunkers on holes 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 all by the second week
of December. Now, we only have #8 left to complete in the spring and we will be
done with all of the holes that were renovated many years ago.
We also mowed down all of the tall grass native areas on the
property. This is a regular maintenance strategy to help with weed control as
well as the overall health of the native area. This past season we tried
several different strategies to minimize weeds and maintain more aesthetically
pleasing native areas, but we were not as successful as we had hoped. This year
we again have several strategies in mind and hope to show more progress.
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| Cart path edge before work began |
We were also able to adjust the throw and replace the
nozzles of all of the sprinklers that water around the greens. This was another
step in our effort to manage, minimize, and eventually end the turf loss that
occurs around the greens. The adjustments we made will ensure that all areas
will get water, and the new nozzles will help to deliver that water more
accurately and efficiently.
We completed our course-wide cart path edging project at the
end of December. We have a specialized edger that is designed for asphalt and
we spent two weeks working our way around the facility. Edging was the easy
part. What was time consuming was the cleanup. In some areas we cut the
over-grown sod back 6 inches or more. This amounted to a lot of material that
needed to be picked up. Once, we were finished, though, the clean-cut look was
worth the effort.
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| After edging, prior to cleanup |
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| Prior to cleanup |
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| After cleanup |
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| After cleanup; notice the dirt-stained asphalt indicating where sod previously extended |
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| Final product |
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| Trees down the right side of #18 prior to trimming. The pines in front of the tee have only 4-5' clearance above the ground |
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| Now there is 10-12' clearance |
Both the cart path edging and tree trimming were winter-long
goals. Having one project complete and the other nearing completion, will allow us
to tackle even more this winter. As we do every year, we will repaint and repair our
ball washers, tee markers, and other course supplies. We will also spend a
significant amount of time cleaning around our shop and disposing of any
unnecessary items.
There is never a shortage of things to do on our list, so it is great when we get the opportunity to finish some things earlier than expected; it makes it possible to get to some things that are further down the list! And Mother
Nature probably still has snow removal to add to our list before winter is
over!
Etiquette Reminder of the Month
Please do not let the flag drop on the green when removing
it to putt. This can cause damage to the turf and/or the flagstick. Please lay
the flag down gently on the turf.
See you on the course!
Joe
jvillegas@bwrc.org
