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.

Audubon Certification and construction update

Sorry for the lack of content lately. We have been busy the last few weeks or so.

Last week we received notice that we are now a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. We have been working very hard over the last couple of years to achieve this certification. This certification is very important to both us and Billy Casper Golf.

"The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf is an award winning education and certification program that helps golf courses protect our environment and preserve the natural heritage of the game of golf. By helping people enhance the valuable natural areas and wildlife habitats that golf courses provide, improve efficiency, and minimize potentially harmful impacts of golf course operations, the program serves as vital resource for golf courses."

 

You can learn more about Audubon International at www.auduboninternational.org.

As far as construction goes, the wetlands that are being piped and filled on the new nine holes are being done now. We have a meeting with the contractor set up on Thursday to go over details and get a start date. After this meeting, the contractor will be able to start mobilizing equipment and get started whenever they are ready. Hopefully the weather will not be what all of the long term forecasters are calling for this winter! It would be nice if Mother Nature would cooperate, but I am not holding my breath!

First frost!

It looks like the fall/winter season is here. We had our first frost of the season on Monday. The rest of this week looks like we will be on a frost delay as well.   Now we can start complaining about how cold it is and wishing it was summer again! I will be the first to complain. I hate winter!

With the cold temperatures, the bermudagrass on the course will begin to go dormant. Last year we experimented with some turf paint on #1 fairway and it was a success. This year we are going to paint all of the tees and bailouts with this turf paint. The paint will give us the definition on the course that was intended with the design before the conversion to bermudagrass in those areas. It will also help those areas come out of dormancy quicker in the Spring. #1 fairway is normally one of the last fairways to green up in the Spring. Last year, with this fairway painted, it was the first to green up by almost a month. We are hoping for similar results this coming Spring.

Have a great week and keep warm!

A visit from Nicklaus Design

What a week! We started the week being as dry as we have been all year. It seems that we are back to this years "normal". We have received almost 2" of rain in the last two days and we could see a little more in the next couple of days. The rains seem to have brought fall along with it. Leaf cleanup is now a daily task and will continue for the next month or so. The bermudagrass is starting to go dormant and we have probably made mowed tees, fairways and rough for the last time.

The architect and agronomist from Nicklaus Design spent the day with us on Tuesday. For the first half of the day, we toured the existing ten holes. The second half of the day was spent on the new eight holes. They wanted to get one last look at the property before we put the project our for bid. We will be making a decision on who will be doing the construction very soon and then we start moving dirt!

Successful aerification

Aerification was a success. This year we tried some things a little different than what I have done in the past. First of all, we went at a much later date than I am used to. Normally I would have aerified at the end of August to the beginning of September. We wanted to stay away from some of the problems that we had last year with the weather. We are in a much better place this year.

We also used a different aerifier this year. We used a tractor mounted machine called a soil reliever. The Pro Core that we normally use is a great machine, but the soil reliever goes 5"-6" deeper. You can eventually build up a layer that our roots can't get past by going the same depth time after time. This helps us bust through the layer that has been built over the last few years. This machine also has a flicking motion that breaks up any compaction that we may have.

Here is a video of the process.

 

All greens have been topdressed and all of our fertilizer and soil amendments are going out now. With the weather that we are having, the healing proccess should be quick. Have a great week!

Renovations on 4 and 5

Number 4 is finished! McDonald and Sons made quick work of the bunker project on #4 and have moved on to #5. #5 should be complete Wednesday. Here are some before, during and after pictures of #4. Please do not play from or walk on the roped off areas!!!

 

The architect from Nicklaus Design was on site Tuesday to look at the work on #4 and #5. He also made a trip back on the new nine to double check the golf course boundaries. We are going to start hauling some soil back to the wetland crossings so we can start piping and filling those areas. We are full speed ahead now! Pictures of #5 green surround will follow soon.