Spring is finally here!

I believe we have finally made it to Spring, with the next two days feeling a little like Summer.  Greens have healed from aerification and bermudagrass is finally growing.  There is some disease on the bermuda.  It isn't damaging anything, it's just unattractive.  Large patch is something that we get a little bit of every year, but with the cool, wet spring that we have had, there seems to be quite a bit more than usual.  As the temperature goes up, the bermuda will grow right out of it.

 

 

This week, the installation of the fan on seven was finally finished.  We are waiting on Dominion Power to make their connections and we should have power within the next seven days.

 

 

 

On Monday, we had the chance to demo a couple of new pieces of equipment.  The first was a verti-cutter/flail mower/vacuum.  The Wiedenmann Super-Vac 600 has the ability to verti-cut our fine maintained turf or mow down our native areas.  While performing either of these tasks, it vacuums up all of the debris at the same time.  This allows us to eliminate one part of the process and golfers don't have to deal with the delay in cleanup time. 

 

As you can see, there is nothing left to clean up

 

The second piece that we were able to demo was a deep tine aerifier.  This aerifier will be able to break through our very hard, clay soils to a depth of 11".  Aerifying that deep helps greatly with compaction and rooting.  It will help with drainage, as well.  When our soils dry out, there is nowhere for the water to go.  These deep channels will help get water into the soil, instead of just running off to the low areas around the course. 

 

When using solid tines, there is very little disruption to the playing surface

We have been very busy over the last couple of weeks and our summer help can't get here soon enough! 







Construction update

The last week has been great!  A lot of progress has been made on the construction of the new nine holes.  The Nicklaus architect was here for two days this week.  While he was here he put his stamp on #6 green and #7 green, fairway and tee.  We look forward to him coming back at the beginning of May. 





Most of #7 fairway has been shaped.  Drainage is being installed on #7 fairway.  Drainage will be installed on #7 green this week.  Tees have been shaped and cored out.  Drainage will be installed in the tees this week, as well.  The next step is to get approval on the entire hole and start installing irrigation.

Drainage being installed on #7 fairway

 

The black tee on #7 after it's been cored. Waiting on drainage and sand

 

#6 green has been shaped and is ready for drainage this week.  The tees are currently being shaped and we will get started on the fairway this week. 

#5 was also started last week.  The green complex was rough graded.  That includes the green, bunkers and other features around the green.  This seems to be a really cool green surround.  I don't think it's going to be easy, but it looks good. 

My helpers giving some perspective on the depth of the greenside bunker on #5. My youngest is in the middle of the bunker and his older brother is on the top of the bunker.

 

 

 

This week looks like it will be another productive week.  We dodged a storm this weekend.  If we could dodge another this week, we will be able to get a bunch accomplished.  As always, if anyone has any questions, just let Chad or me know.  

Construction update and Green bermudagrass!!

Last week was a great week for construction. The crew was able to get 6 and 7 green surrounds finished. They are now waiting on approval from the architect. Number five green surround will also be finished this week. Tee complexes and bunkers will be shaped before the architect makes another visit next week. Once he approves an entire hole, the irrigation is then installed and we wait for the weather to cooperate and we start grassing those holes.

#6 green surround

#7 green surround

After a few warm days last week, we have some green bermudagrass!!!  It's not a lot, but we will take whatever we can get.  With the inch of rain we got yesterday and with a low of 60 last night, we should start to see quite a bit more popping up this week.  It looks like no freezing temperatures in the next ten days, so hopefully no setbacks.  Last week we also got greens aerified and a bulk lime application was made.  We pulled 5/8" cores on a 2" spacing.  This helps reduce the amount of organic material that is built up throughout the year and also creates channels to let water, oxygen and nutrients move into the rootzone.  The greens are healing nicely and should be in great shape by the beginning of next week. 

This picture was taken the day after aerification





Construction has begun!

Last week, Sanders Golf arrived to start construction on the new nine holes. Unfortunately, so did the weather. The beginning of the week was a little slow, but we were able get a few things accomplished once the sun came out.

All of the irrigation heads and valves that were installed on #8 and #9 during the original construction have been found and removed. All of these will be inspected and used if they are good. During the first construction, the greens and tees on #8 and #9 were basically built. The gravel and mix was installed along with the irrigation and drainage. The mix and gravel were contaminated, so it all needed to be removed. As you can see in the first picture, there were pine trees growing out of the green and bunker cavity.

On the existing holes, we were also busy. We finally finished applying our Round Up and pre-emergent herbicide. The tees and approaches were also painted this week. This gives them a nice look and it also helps to warm up the soil. This will help these areas green up quicker this Spring. After the winter that we have had, the bermudagrass needs every advantage that we can give it.

Construction Update

The turf care staff is about to be very busy! The construction crew will be here Monday to begin construction on the other nine holes. We will start off with some selective clearing on the borders of each hole. Chain saws and mini excavators will be used for this process. Tees and green surrounds will start taking shape very quickly. Once we get a hole approved by the architect, we will then start installing the irrigation on that hole.

We also have our aerification scheduled for March 31. The course will be closed for the day. Unless we have setbacks from Mother Nature, we will only be closed for one day. During this process, we will be pulling 5/8" cores from the greens and collars. These cores will be collected and topdressed with sand. Once the sand has dried, we drag the greens to fill the aerification holes with sand. Along with the aerification, there will be fertilizer and other amendments added. While we are closed, we will be making a bulk lime application to the entire golf course. Southern States makes this application for us. They are able to get on and off of the course in about four hours. With as much material that we are applying, it would take us about two days to finish.

I will be sure to keep everyone updated on the construction process. You can also follow me on twitter @jaywadeIII and Chad @WesthamGC_Turf. We will be posting as many pictures as we can all summer. Have a great weekend and hope that we are finished with winter!

More winter work

Winter still has a good hold on Virginia. It looks like we have a big storm heading our way this week. At this point, I think everyone is ready for Spring, especially the turf care crew!! We are ready to start and finish building the rest of this golf course! Everything is moving along great, so far. The area where the new pond is being built has been cleared and the dam is ready to start being built.

The project manager will be here Friday to meet with us to go over final details and get a firm start date for the golf course construction. We will begin construction at the beginning of March and the golf course construction company will probably be wrapping by the end of August. At that point, we will just need to finish growing in the course.

So far this Winter, we have finished mowing down the wetlands and bunker surrounds. I think the bunkers have turned out really nice. We have received a lot of good feedback. During the upcoming season, we will continue to maintain the surrounds in a similar fashion. The areas that shoot into the bunkers will continue to be a more "native" look.

 

We are all hoping that the weather will cooperate during the upcoming season!



 



 

 

New year, same weather pattern

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great time over the Christmas break!

We have had some crazy weather over the last few weeks. A bunch of rain, sub zero wind chills and days in the 60-70 range. We have been able to keep ourselves busy though. Over the last few weeks we have been cleaning up the wetlands and bunker surrounds. Once a year, we will mow down all of the wetlands and bunker surrounds. This will give us a clean slate in these areas going into the upcoming season. Another area that we have been able to clean up is around the irrigation pond. We cut everything down to give it a cleaner look and make sure it doesn't get too overgrown.

 

Our tree removal plan has also continued. Most of the trees that we are taking down are dead or dying. These have become safety hazards and we will work as quickly as we can to get these taken care of first. There are some trees that are coming out that are shade issues. These have made it extremely difficult to maintain quality turf and need to be removed.

 

Overall, we have had a pretty good winter so far and we are looking forward to the spring.