Pump House

First of all a big Thank You to everyone involved in the Pro Am. Considering some of the weather issues every went off rather smoothly. 

Saturday morning we had a couple of weather delays with lots of lightning in the area. Upon inspecting the course I found that the intake to our irrigation pump was bulging and about ready to blow up!! I am guessing this is a result of a power surge from the weather in the area. I am thinking the surge shut the pump off and caused it to lose prime, the pump than turned back on but was not able to pump water. We were futunate to have a back up intake that needed a little tweaking to work, got us back up and running.  Still checking some stuff out but so far have  found no other causes. 

The white area should be straight, not bulging. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Pro Am day 3

The final day of the Pro Am is here. Crew is done with morning prep, just one more final mow and change hole locations for the Pro's. 

Thanks again to the maintenance staff for  doing a great job this weekend. 

And yes Monday is an optional day!!!

Sunday morning mow n roll. 

Ross

Pro Am morning session #1

During the Pro am the maintenance staff will do a split shift. One in the early morning and the other starting in the late afternoon. Below is a picture of this morning's crew. 

These guys and gal did a great job this morning!!

Good luck to the players!!!

Ross

Pro Am Week

Pro Am week is here, ready or not. I think the course is in good shape considering the winter and spring we had.  Looks to to be a warm/humid weekend, the course should hold up well.

Greens are holding out good so far. The ball has been rolling out nicely, our green speed this morning was 10.5'. Not sure where it will be this afternoon or the rest of the week, weather looks to be more humid and that will effect green speed.

So what do we do to speed greens up?  First we do not lower our height, we maintain the same height of cut almost the whole season.  Plant growth regulators help us control the upward growth of the plant. We try to control moisture levels, sometimes this works other times it rains or gets real humid. Verti-cutting more than normal will increase speed, this controls thatch and eliminates horizontal growth. This week we will also double cut the greens and roll the greens more than normal. So bottom line it is a combination of various items that will assist us in getting the desired speed we want. If we push too far we will start to lose grass. 

Good luck to all Players!!!

Enjoy and respect the golf course!!

If have any questions please contact me   

Ross

Fountain

In the irrigation pond we have a bubbler and fountain type systems. The first is the bubbler system; it forces air up from the lake bottom through four air diffusers. This system adds oxygen to the water and moves moves water keeping the lake clean from algae and weeds. The second system is the fountain system. This is more of a visual system, it does not do a lot for the cleanliness of the water. 

The fountain system has stopped working. It has a short in the electric system somewhere. This most likely happened as a result of a power surge or a lightning strike. Wednesday we removed the fountain from the water and inspected the cords and connections.  We found nothing, it looks like the electric  motor is in need of repair. It will be sent in the be repaired, not sure how long this will take. 

The bubbler system is still functioning fine, the water should stay clean. We will just be missing the visual effect of the fountain in the middle. If you have any question please contact me. 

We will see you on the course!!!

Ross

Verti cutting Greens

Today we are verti cutting greens. Through out the summer we will do this 1-2 times per week. 

What verti cutting does is it stands the grass up, basically it is little saw blades on 1/2" spacing cutting little grooves and lifting the leaf blade up. This standing the blade up gives you a better quality of cut, help produce a finer leaf blade and reduce any chances of grain in the green. Once verti cut we follow with mower to mow and cleanup any left over debris. 

During real hot times you have to be careful not to verti cut too much. This could cause stress on the green, resulting in green that may not be very healthy. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

Ross

Cookout time

Monday we hosted the Wachs tournament, it was a 10 am shotgun start. So we decided it was a good time to do a cookout for the maintenance staff. We typically do these 3-4 times a summer. 

The maintenance staff has been working hard this year getting your course back into great shape. Dealing with reseeding/ growing in of tees, fairways, aprons and collars takes hard work and extra details they normally don't do. 

So a big thank you to my staff for the hard work so far this season!!!  

We will see you on the course. 

Ross

Course Inspection

Out doing a little course "inspection" this morning. It's a good way to see the course other just driving by. After taking a look, we have decided to open up some of the new tees boxes.  As always please tee off between the markers and fill or replace your divot. 

Other new tees will open as the grass matures more. 

We will see you on the course!!!

Ross

New tees

Tuesday we lower the height of cut on the new tee boxes. Most are ready for this, some it was a little too soon. We will continue this week to lower the height until we get to our desired 1/2" cut. 

Above is Mikayla mowing the tees at a 1" height. Our next step was mowing them down to 11/16", which is our fairway height of cut. Within the next few days I hope to be down to the 1/2" height of cut. As the grass now matures it will fill in quickly. 

Some of the new tees may open within a week or so, others may be a few weeks out. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Intake Cleaning

Late Wednesday afternoon we had a couple of the local scuba dive team members come and clean out the intake for our pump house. The intake is an 18" pipe that runs from the pump house out into the irrigation pond. On the end of the pipe there is a 2' square screened box. About every 7-10 years this screen becomes plugged with hard water deposits. When it starts to plug it does not allow the water to get into the pump house. 

Cleaning the intake is a pretty simple process of using a hammer and pounding all the hard water deposits off the screen.  It took a matter of about 35 minutes with two divers to get the screen clean, good for another few years. 

Have a safe 4th of July Weekend!!!

Ross

Mower Demo

Wednesday we had the opportunity to demo a small area rough mower. It was a Toro 360. Some of the features include quad steer, quick height adjustment, tier 4 emissions and a comfortable ride.  This machine is way more versatile than our current machine, may even use it the widen and improve our intermediate rough cut. 

It's always fun to see how mowers and technology have improved over the last 12 years. 

The course is in great shape so come out and enjoy !!

Ross