Skip to main content

Mother nature, weather and a team that can't be beat...

The reality of managing a golf course is that we need to deal with mother nature both in good times and in bad. This past weekend was our 2015 Best Ball tournament and I would suggest that we were arguably in the best shape of the season to date.  Tournament season is a lot of work but is also very rewarding as we are able to groom the golf  course to challenge both members and guests. Everyone on our team pitches in in their own special way to produce a great product...This is also the case when things go sideways. On Monday night a rather large thunderstorm rolled through HCC dropping close to 3" of rain and a considerable amount of debris left in it's path. I am happy to say that within 12 hours the golf course was able to be opened to walkers for play. The tremendous amount of rough and fairway drainage that has been installed is proving itself worthy by leaps and bounds. As of today (within 36 hours) we are able to mow all surfaces and allow golf carts out, whereas in years past a storm like that could have wiped out a few days of play and maintenance.
The largest maintenance issue as a result of the storm is our bunkers. This dramatic storm completely washed out and destroyed most of our bunkers. Our team spent the entire day pumping, bailing and shovelling out water and contamination as a result. Today the team (9 employees) is putting for a effort to groom, shovel and rake the green side bunkers. This will take the entire day to get them able to be put into play. Once all of the bunkers are "playable" new sand will be added in areas were sand was removed during cleaning. Fairway bunkers will be addressed on Thursday prior to the Senior Invitational. As our team works through this process, the patience and understanding of our membership and guest is greatly appreciated. Below are a couple of pictures to depict what we saw on Tuesday morning upon arrival....

 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finish Grading on #2 & #12 Tees

With the great weather that we have had the last two days, we were able to get the tees shaped and all of the tee mix out to the tees. In this picture here, Derek Vergeer (our contractor) is finish grading #2 Tee to be ready for sod. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain the next couple of days and could hold us up for a bit. We are doing out best to complete these projects in a timely manner, of course with this blog we will keep you updated.
2 comments
Read more

Greens Cultural Management Practices Schedule

The fall is a great time to perform a number of necessary cultural practices. Our goal is to amend the upper portion of the greens surface with enough sand to help insulate the crown through the winter as well as removing and diluting organic matter. Below you will find a schedule of cultural practices that we aim to complete before the covers go on and the snow flies!!! Wednesday, Sept. 30th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt Tuesday, Wednesday October 13/14-Course Closure full core aeration with heavy topdressing. October 19th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt October 26th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 2nd- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 9th- Deep Verticut, followed by a sufficient topdressing. November 16th- Post Course Closure, Heavy topdressing followed by Deep tine aeration. Of course this is all in hope that the weather cooperates...happy fall!
Post a Comment
Read more

Golf Course Update

As our season slowly comes to a end our department has been working away at year end projects. We installed drainage in a few areas of the practice range and short game area. These areas were perpetually wet and caused turf and aesthetic issues. We have also been chipping away at the bunkers on #17, smoothing out the faces and recreating the grass edges. These bunkers suffered some severe frost heaving in the faces during the winter after they were built. Our team has removed a number of trees and brush from around our maintenance facility to allow some expansion of our operation. We are working away at clearing space to install aggregate bins and sufficient staff parking. This will also allow delivery trucks and semi's to access our facility without any issues. We are also removing the fallen trees and brush from the woodlot on the right side of #16 fairway. This is a challenging area to work as it is a peat bog and remains wet even in the hottest and driest of summers (like 2010)...
1 comment
Read more