Busy week

Due to power and internet outages, this report was not posted until Monday afternoon. Therefore, it was not sent as part of the regular blog email at 10am. Thank you.

 

This past week we had a list of many small tasks to keep us busy. some of these things are minor or are of very little consequence to golfer. But many small, seemingly minor jobs added together help to improve the entire operation.

First, we cleaned and organized our chemical storage area for the season. We must wait until we are past the threat of cold temperatures before we can accomplish this (though this coming week has a couple of cold nights forecast). Once we are through the worst, we bring our liquid products from inside the warehouse and organize them by type and place them in their respective spots for easy access during the year. We also purchased another pallet rack for our dry chemical storage. We now have 2 racks that we can put our less frequently used products up on to free up more space below. Having these areas clean and organized is helpful during the season when things get hectic.

We also had a nice rain day mid-week. This was perfect timing for new sod that had been laid at the lower driving range tee and on the collars. It was also perfect timing to trim sprinklers, drains, valve boxes, and yardage plaques. Keeping sprinklers and yardage plaques trimmed and clear helps golfers to quickly gain information regarding the distance to the flag. It is also much more attractive when neatly manicured. Keeping the drains and valve boxes trimmed is more for the Grounds department’s benefit. Allowing grass to grow over the drains reduces their effectiveness and can lead to puddling and poor draining of water. The valve boxes are the locations of all the shut-off and isolation valves for the irrigation system. We keep these clear so that they are easy to locate. If we have an irrigation break and water is gushing out onto the course, we need to be able to quickly find and access the correct valve box. If it is overgrown by grass this becomes nearly impossible.

After the new sod was complete at the lower driving range tee, there was a little extra leftover. We took this opportunity to spot-sod a few locations on the property. We almost always have a list in the shop of miscellaneous areas to sod. This list comes in handy in times just like this: when another project leaves a small surplus of sod, we must quickly find a place for it so that it is not wasted. We repaired a few green surrounds areas, some tee walk-on areas, as well as 3 stump holes at tennis. We managed to find a place for all the extra sod.

Lastly, we started our annual spring bunker sand addition work. Every spring we rearrange the existing sand in bunkers so that it is evenly spread within the bunker. As part of this process, we record which bunkers need additional sand so that there is adequate depth. In most cases, nearly all greenside bunkers need at least some new sand, but we check everything to be sure. We dispersed a full load of bunker sand last week and we have 2 more coming this week to finish up.

Each of these on its own is no enormous change or improvement to the course, but taken together, along with our other practices, they can make a difference.

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

When parking your cart at a tee or green, please keep all 4 tires on the path

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org