Winter Projects

We have started the process of going through our accessories.  We have painted all of our tee markers and our practice area flagsticks.  Next we will resurface our course flagsticks and put on new bottoms so the sticks fit tight in the cup.  We will be cleaning, polishing and repairing our ballwashers, garbage cans, and bunker rakes. 

Two of the larger indoor projects we have left to do are to refurbish our benches and do the yearly maintenance on our equipment.The wood part of the bench will be sanded and restained and the metal frames will be repainted. For the equipment we go through each piece and change fluids and filters, inspect transmissions and brakes, replace worn parts, grind and install new bedknives or blades and rebuild engines if neccessary.

This photo below is a project to improve the playing surface of our greens.  This is a brush that will help groom the turf (lift it up) so the mower can do a better job of cutting.  This will cut the grass in a more upright position, which in turn will create a smoother surface.  The smoother surface helps putts to roll more "true".  If you have ever heard the term "grain" this is what we are trying to reduce.  If you haven't heard the term it is: the grasses natural tendency to lay a certain direction.  Often times you can have turf on a playing surface that will lie in varying directions.  This should to be a great improvement and we completed the project in-house for a fraction of what it would have cost to buy!

                                                                 

   

Winter Projects

One of the projects we have been busy with this winter is the removal of Buckthorn and Boxelder trees to the right of the Out of Bounds markers as you leave the Red tee on #9 and walk over to the Driving Range.

You can see the before picture below.

Below is the after photo.

The goal with this project was to remove the evasive Buckthorn and to open the hole up and increase the pace of play.  Now if your ball is hit to the right it will not be knocked down into the Out of Bounds.  You will also be able to see the flight of your ball and be able to find it quicker. It will be much easier to know whether you ball is still in play or not.

Project Update

Course Project Update:


Stump cleanup is complete.

Stump filling should be completed by Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Tee work- Tees on #7, 8, 12 have be sodded and seeded. We will have some finish work around the bases of the tees sod cutting an edge and adding a little more sod.  Irrigation on #3 tee will go in Monday and Tuesday of next week and we will be hauling in some topsoil.  They should be ready for seed and sod by the end of the week.  The banks to the right of the tee and behind will be sodded with Bluegrass and the left side will be seeded with a blend of native type Fescues.  This is the same type as we used on #4 Blue/Black tee.

Filling of low area off of #13 tee - we have installed drainage and will be adding more soil to raise the area a few feet. This soil will be hauled in starting next week.  As with all these projects it will depend on weather.

The height of cut on #6 and #16 green is currently at .135" as compared to .125" on the rest of our greens.  It will be brought down the rest of the way to match the other greens on the golf course by wednesday of next week.

Please feel free to contact me with further questions.

Project time

   With a shortened Holiday week behind us and the addition of some summer help we will be digging into our list of projects for the summer.  We will be continuing our stump work this week with a final round of grinding and cleanup.  We will also be filling holes and prepping for sod.  We started some preliminary work on the banks of the tees and will continue our work to get those ready to be sodded.  We will also be adding some better soil to the tee tops to prepare them for seeding.  Irrigation needs to be altered on the tee on #8 and #7.  We will need to re-install irrigation in #3 tee as the old irrigation is no longer useable.
   This week we will also be making our first application of growth regulators to our fairways and greens.  This helps to keep growth consistent and under control so we can get a better quality of cut and reduce our labor.  With the peat soils in our fairways, any time we get rain we get a release of nutrients that causes a flush in growth.  Often times you can achieve good speed in the morning but as the day goes on growth slows them down.  Applications to our greens help in keeping green speeds consistent throughout the day.
   Finally, with the loss of our Mechanic we are doing our best to keep the golf course conditioning at the level you have come to expect.  We will have set backs here and there but are committed to keeping the golf course conditions and your golfing experience our top priority.  We will do our best to complete our projects in a timely fashion and with the highest workmanship possible.  We appreciate your understanding.

Spring Is Here

As courses cleared of snow cover this spring many courses in the Metro area were faced with the death of some of their playing surfaces (greens, tees, or fairways). Dellwood was not immune as we found varying degrees of damage. While our tees and fairways came through the winter in good shape our most notable damage was to the 6th and 16th greens. Most of the damage on these greens seems to have occurred where the water drains off. To speculate on how it occurred can be challenging as these areas were under snow cover for a good 4.5 months. The damage could have occurred as a result of rain back in November, prolonged ice cover, or from a thaw/freeze event in the last 6 weeks.




As we can not change the weather events of this past winter it is of utmost importance to have a recovery plan. As the damage on these two greens was extensive and found throughout the green I felt it necessary to re-seed these areas. Our nursery sod supply is limited which also played a part in deciding to seed. We have gone into these greens and vertical mowed in three directions. This removes some of the dead tissue and creates a seed bed for the Bentgrass seed. Next we seeded the greens in two directions and followed with a brushing. We followed that with a sand/peat topdressing and another brushing. To finish we fertilized with an organic slow-release fertilizer and a soil amendment to aid in establishment of the seedlings. In order for the seed to germinate it requires two things, moisture and warm soil temperatures. Moisture is the easy part of the equation as our irrigation is already charged and operational. In order to achieve the soil temperatures we need we must cover the greens with a greens cover. This is a woven, breathable blanket that will create somewhat of a greenhouse over the surface. It is green in color and will absorb sunlight and warm the soils. Unfortunately it does very little to heat or retain heat in the soils at night, but there use could be the difference between playable surfaces by the middle of May or the middle of June.

We will be taking the greens out of play and using temporary greens while the grass is re-established. Although Bentgrass is a very tough and resilient grass type the seedling stage is very fragile and does not handle traffic. Our plan is to cover these greens until the seed germinates and gets to the point of needing to be mowed. This will most likely take about two weeks depending on the weather of course. We appreciate your patience in helping us achieve the best possible outcome, which is to have our greens back to normal playing condition before summer arrives.



Growing the Game of Golf

I'm sure we have all thought of how to grow the game of golf and how to make our club more healthy financially.  I recently came across this article in the Wall Street Journal that is out side of the box but is worth pondering.  Check it out:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576136270684216848.html

New Look to #3 Tee

This past Friday we were able to get all the soil hauled in (and rough graded) that was needed for our project on #3 Tee.  We are splitting #3 tee up into 3 tees by elevating the middle third of the tee 18" and the back third 36".  This is being done to break up the "Runway tee" and to allow sight lines to the pond from any where on the tee.  The final grading, irrigation installation, and seeding will be completed this spring and the back two thirds should open for play by early summer.
We will also be adding a new blue/black tee for #12 and a new forward tee to #7.  All of this was done with the money that was donated by Stan Hollen and Mike Hilliard.

Clearing snow from the existing tee surface.

More snow clearing and attempting to strip top soil (it was too frozen).

Staking, hauling soil and shaping the middle third of the tee.

View from the 12th tee box.

Finishing the shaping of the middle third and staking the back third.

Finishing the shaping of the back third and hauling in some top soil for the both back tiers.

View from the 12th tee.