Monday, August 21, 2017

Master Plan recap

All earth moving has been completed for the Bretton Woods Master Plan. This is a tremendous achievement for the club and the golf course. It cannot be overstated the importance in persevering through to the end of this project. No one knows this better than former Superintendent and Current Assistant General Manager/Director of Grounds, Bryan Bupp. We felt he could provide a unique perspective having been here for the entire process. Below are his thoughts on where we came from to where we stand today:

The Master Plan of Golf Course Renovations was truly a deferred maintenance program. What players notice are the enhanced design elements, but the meat of the plan has much farther reaching benefits. To illustrate some of the maintenance benefits, we have some interesting comparisons from prior to the beginning of the renovations (2005) and today.

2005                   2017

% live turf coverage in fairways Aug 15:                  < 50                     100                                                
Number of bunkers needing repair after 1” rain event:   14                  0               

Labor hours to repair damaged 
bunkers after 1” rain event:                                         12                         0

Number of bunkers holding water after 1” rain event:    32                      0

Labor hours to remove standing 
water in bunkers after 1” rain event:                             30                        0

Fairways and Tees mowing days lost after 1” rain event:    2                    <1

Average number of ducks 
swimming in 15 fairway after 1” rain event:               3                     0, no puddles to swim in

Greens maintenance days lost after 1” rain event:      1                        0 typically

Turf quality rating on 
#7 Green in August:                                          Poor to Ugly                Good to Very Good

At my first day of class as a turf student at the University of Maryland, my Turf Management 101 professor told the entire class that if anyone could give him the three most important factors in successful turf management, that student would receive and A for the semester and not have to come back to class. After a few minutes of desperate guessing, he told us that nobody was correct. He then listed these factors on the whiteboard:
1.       Drainage
2.       Drainage
3.       Drainage

The point to this is that of all the things we see and all the things we accomplished, the most enduring, most important and most successful accomplishments are Drainage, Drainage and Drainage.
There is an exciting aspect to having construction work occurring on the course during the summer. However, the Grounds department is particularly excited for the summers to come because we will be 100% focused on maintaining the course and not splitting focus with construction work. We hope you enjoy the improvements to the course.


Etiquette Reminder of the Month
Please be conscious to not cut corners with your golf cart. The inside edges of turns are easily worn out after repeated traffic.


See you on the course!
Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

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