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