We are well under way with our spring work on the golf courses and in the clubhouse grounds area.
Landscapes Unlimited is slated to be here late next week to finish the renovation project. They have 1 bunker on #14 green, 5 bunkers on #16 and the bunker at the chipping green to finish up. All of these bunkers have been shaped and drain tile has been installed up to them. LUI had to wait until the sod producer was able to cut sod and we had to have the irrigation system up and operational to water the sod. Once bunkers are completed and we do a walk through and then 4 years of renovation construction will be complete. I am sure we are all glad about having that work in our rear view mirrors!
We have been very busy on the golf courses this spring. One of our prime focus areas has been the pruning of the trees. We use to do a little pruning work every fall or spring. However with all of the construction work that consumed our time the past 4 years, we have fallen behind in our pruning efforts. We are now very busy cutting some low limbs or some weak limbs to get them out of the way. The turf should really benefit from these pruning efforts, allowing more sunlight to the turf canopy. We will be chipping those limbs next week to get them out of your way.
On frosty morning our crews have worked very hard to remove the volunteer trees that have grown up into our property line fence. We spent a couple of weeks removing that vegetation out of our fence line on holes 5, 13, 14, and 16 on the South course. It looks much cleaner not having that growth up through our fences.
Bunker maintenance will always consume more of our maintenance time. 20 years ago bunkers were hazards and very little was done to them except rake them, today bunkers are one of the most costly items in any superintendent’s budget. We all strive to have clean, consistent, good appearance and playable bunkers. This requires us to check sand depths, redistributing sand in the bunker or adding new sand to the bunkers. It takes a tremendous amount of time and labor to work the bunkers in the spring of the year. One golf course crew is working on bunkers and the other crew is focusing on pruning. Once completed they will change work/equipment and do vice versa. Hopefully you will understand what is going on if you see 10 guys working on a bunker or branches laying around under a lot of trees.
We are also working very hard doing infrastructure items for the upcoming Solheim Cup this August. The installation of the fiber optic network is almost completed. Splicing of the fiber should be completed next week and then it will be up to the techno gurus to get it all turned on and operational. Once completed we will see a huge impact on the internet service here at the club. It will be a very high speed system that will work much faster.
We never seem to be project free here in the maintenance department. We will soon start the work on installing a new equipment wash pad area. We currently do not have a good area to wash and clean off our equipment. Having this new area will greatly improve how we clean up after mowing and using our equipment.
We will also be installing a new retaining wall on the walkway to the lower level of the clubhouse. The railroad tie wall that has been there for years is in dire need of replacement. We will be starting that project very soon and during our construction that walkway will be closed for your safety. Thank you for understanding.
