Guardian of the Greens : Around the Course

After a long and accidental hiatus I'm finally sitting back down to write. My intentions of updating the blog monthly throughout the course of the year instantly went out the window the minute the weather broke in March. Grass was growing and there was more work than time in the day, updating the blog seemed like a distant memory. But after a whirlwind Spring, Summer, and early Fall things are finally slowing down, even if it seems like thats only because of the time change.

12 Hole the end of March

March and April were a blur, the Chicken Manure compost (3-2-3, ratio) we used in the fall as a pre-plant amendment broke down over the winter and as soon as soil temperatures came up the entire course exploded over night. We were swimming in grass clippings and doing the best we could. It was very satisfying seeing my hard work from the fall pay dividends even if it meant long hours.

11 the end of April

The other big news from March was the addition of a new Superintendent. Jim Bolinger arrived late march from Old Quarry Golf Course in Curacao. Jim brings with him 35 years experience working for the Dye family and has completed 9 successful renovations. Jim is an amazing superintendent and wonderful boss, I couldn't ask for anyone else to learn under.

May brought back the construction team and the start of completing the last 4 holes. While they were busy doing grade work and moving the last of the soil into place the maintenance team was busy with mowing and touch up seeding before summer stress. We also spent a lot of our time training new staff members. Most of the golf staff moved on to other jobs during the renovation meaning we were hiring a completely green crew in the spring. As challenging as that may have been, we have built a great staff and I'm excited to take them into next year.

9" roots!

June was similar to May with the addition of summer stress beginning. We spent a lot of time dialing in the irrigation system, adjusting heads, changing nozzles and trying to see where our pitfalls were. We also began top dressing the greens on a regular basis, smoothing them out for future play. Hard work was paying off though as shown in the picture to the left. Our roots were as healthy as can be and the greens filled in wonderfully. We left the HOC (Height Of Cut) closer to tee height for most of the summer. Doing this gave the greens a better chance of surviving summers stress and gave us a little bit of "buffer" in the balancing act that grow ins are.

Bunkers going in

July began the real start of the crazy. Cart path team was back in full force doing pours almost every day. ISI Irrigation was finishing irrigating the last 4 holes. We also contracted ISI to build all our bunkers for us and when they weren't laying pipe they were slinging sand in bunkers. Growing solutions was also on property laser grading our tees. All this on top of managing hot spots, scouting for disease, and training the crew. Despite the crazy it was rewarding to see all of the progress.

7 Tees Post Seeding

July's craziness spilled into August. We began seeding tees with 007 Bent grass behind the tee laser crew in the beginning of August and seeded the second hole the end of August. The construction team meanwhile was hard at work getting 18, 1, 2 and 5 green ready for drainage and sand and staying ahead and behind the tee and cart path crews doing prep work and finish work. By the end of August we were seeding full force and it felt like water was flying 24/7.

Hole 2 the end of August, Green Drained and Fairway seeded

As you can guess September and October were more of the same. So where are we now? All the greens have been seeded and are growing nicely, 2 fairway is nearly filled in, 18, 1 and 5 fairways are quickly filling and the rough is nearly ready to mow. The only major area left to seed is 2 and 5 tees, which were both delayed due to the steady rain we've been getting nearly every week the past 2 months. The photos below will show how far we've come this year.