Turf News - March 2023
30 MAR 2023
We have started counting down the days to golf season. Our hiring is complete and we are working on some pre-season training with our crew. Equipment maintenance in the shop continues, along with some shop upgrades to help with flow and organization for our staff. We have been slowly working through all our tee blocks and sanding them right down to the metal. Typically over the winter we give our tee blocks a light sand and add another coat of paint. The paint build up over the years has made our tee blocks look rough, so we've decided to start fresh. Sanding down years and years of paint, priming and painting on 300 blocks is a lot of work!
On course projects continue through the winter and the starter hut is at the top of that list. This winter we have wired it up with lights and plugs, put up the ceiling and soffit, all the walls are completed and we are currently working on closing some of the smaller open areas around main beams and overhangs. Once that is complete we will add the final trim and Nancy has agreed to help us paint!
Early February we rented a 20 tonne excavator to dig out the fairway bunker along the pond on No. 10 CopperHead. This bunker has been an issue for a while since the drainage line sits at pond level and never giving the sand a chance to dry. Not to mention, if you land in that bunker you have a tough 150+ yard shot into the green over water. We have built up the pond edge where we have removed the bunker so that any balls rolling up to the pond edge should stop prior to the water with the uphill roll before entering the pond. We finished the rough grade within the week we had the excavator on rent and have been running loads of fill out of that site to one of the bunkers on the left. Trying to make as little damage as possible to the fairway, we have to be selective on the days we can haul. We agreed that winter was the best time for this project as we needed to lower the pond level and need a spring melt to get it back full. This project will continue into the spring and once the ground dries up we will be able to put a final grade on and then sod.
We have had some pretty heavy winds over the winter and have lost a few trees, we have some sod work in the spring to clean these areas up, but you know we always have some tree work going on at the club over winter. This year is on No. 8 SideWinder. We are working at cleaning up in-front of the white tee deck. Now we are able to use the entire tee deck for course set-up and you can decide how much of that fairway you want to cut off! There is almost a clear view right to the green!
As opening is right around the corner we wanted to give you an update on what to expect for your first rounds.
- Copperhead 4 has some finished sod works, changes to bent grass fairway lines and 3 new bunkers that will be out of play until our gravel and polymer can be installed. Then new sand.
- Sidewinder 6 has a fairway bunker that we began filling in last fall. It will need grade and topsoil works then sodding
- Copperhead 10 will have the right hand side pond fairway bunker removed and waiting on top soil and sod works. Also we have started filling in the left fairway bunker and this will be reshaped and new construction with the left cluster group.
- We have several tree wells that need to be graded and sodded where the winter took some mature trees.
- We have many brush piles throughout the course from our winter tree works. We hope to have all these burned prior to opening.
Its so so close!!
Bill and Christine
Superintendent and Associate Superintendent