Course Update

I'll start off by saying that there has been some spectacular weather recently and the mornings on the course have been beautiful.  At this point we have aerified the fairways, tees and greens.  Deposited over 40 tons of sand onto these surfaces, fertilized all the course and begun restoration of the range area.

The foxes have been very active in the bunkers recently.   They dig all the way to the soil and gravel layer below bringing up all kinds of material which can make for quite a mess.  This leaves the bunker with a lot of gravel and very uneven.  Many times we do not have the time to adequately repair all the damage.  We start to fix only to find them torn apart the next day to an even worse condition.  

 Speaking of bunkers we hope to begin our normal refurbishment of bunker sand.  This is a regular fall project where we remove the sand from the worst bunkers and replace, checking the drainage, the layering, sod if needed and replace with fresh sand.  We prefer the fall for this operation as the bunkers are not frozen, the fall and winter rains can naturally pack and firm the sand to make it more uniform for next playing season.  Last winter was so early and lasted so long we did not get to perform this process and several bunkers ended up with less sand than normal over the course of the season.

Many times when we find a low bunker, it has become contaminated with gravel from the drainage, fox digging and soil from rainstorm washouts.  We remove all the sand and start fresh.  In the case of the bunker shown below, this happens to be the left green side bunker from 15, we find that a buildup of sand from play has radically altered the original contour and shape of the bunker.

The area at the rake shows a nearly 18" build up of sand towards the green, which must be removed, the area contoured back to the original soil line and sod replaced.  In this case, we will have to strip this all the way to the green to find the original soil lines and strip between the bunkers due to this buildup.

This is what we normally see after a year or two at the practice green bunker, but you can see what the effects are of play over the years from bunkers.  Many wonder why the sand in bunkers gets so low, well here is the visual proof of where it goes.  Normal bunker sand is usually 4-6 inches deep so that buildup is over three times the depth of the original bunker contents!



Speaking of our work on the range, we aerified the range, seeded, limed and fertilized the soil.  In addition we used cores from the aeration process to fill in may of the poorer soil areas.  The picture below shows a small sample of the rocks removed from the surface in the middle of the range.  The constant wear from the range picker, coupled with a range that was built from poor fill may help you to understand how hard it is to provide a quality surface when the ingredients are so poor.  We will continue to work as much as possible to improve this issue, but poor soil and drainage combined in a small space with heavy use work against us.

Below is a picture of the walk on to the 8th green.  We have experienced several times over the past few years the walk on to the green getting water saturated.  Why this happens continues to puzzle us.  There are no leaks, it goes a year without any issues then suddenly it becomes a quagmire.  Interesting that immediately below the surface everything is dry.  We strip the sod yet the soil an inch down is dry.  Irrigation has been turned off to rule out leaks and sprinklers checked to make sure none are stuck in a position that drowns the area.  It is fairly compacted from all the cart traffic (yes people park there) and shade and walk on traffic, so the grass is not deeply rooted.  But, it is a phenomenon that puzzles us and seems to have no rhyme or reason for its occurrence.  We will strip the area, try to let it dry for a day then sod again and see what happens.  We may have to resort to drains but the issue remains a mystery to us.

The saga of the 16th green

One of my favorite greens here at WGCC is the 16th green.  A beautiful surface that has great character.  Normally a green we we love with its bountiful sunshine, great air movement and abundent drainage, but this year it has proved a struggle.

You may have seen me at various times, poking and prodding at the green, several times with pathologists, superintednents and others walking the surface.   It's had it's share of samples taken from it and sent to labs all over the area.  I began to notice small irregular patches of dysfunticonal turf in several areas at the start of summer.  At the time it was diagnosed as a variety of poa annua that was not adapting to the climate at the time.

I had some samples sent off to look at chemical and physical composition of the soil and for any lingering disease.  All came back normal and the green bounced back.  As it started again, I sent more samples off looking at physical structure to determine if the sands we have been topdressing with had been causing any layering issues or dry down irregularities.  Again nothing found,  so I sent off some pictures to another friend of mine, a former turf professor now working as an advisor to a chemical company.  He wondered if we had tested for nematodes.

Now nematods are a small microscopic worm that inhabits all root systems and can cause injury.  Normally found in sandy soils in the south and problematic in the hot summer time, these worms feast off the roots structure weaking them when the plant is under stress.  Our 16th green is in a great growing environment, not under any undue stress and not a sandy soil.  Well as you can tell by now the samples I sent off to Virginia Tech came back with a high count of nematodes.

The soil aways contains nematodes, there are at least 25,000 species, and only certain ones cause issues, so trying to define how many and what type in any one location is difficult.

The chemistries to eradicate the worm is no longer on the market due to EPA issues.  So we are left to using a variety of methods re: "witches brews", to fight these parasites.  Anyway, everything seemed to be moving the right direction, to where most people never noticed any issues.

Well with this weekends high temperatures, the picture below show the damage in those stressed areas from the nematode presence.

We have applied more of the various brews to the soil (all natural) in the hopes of stemming the impact and will be researching all known practices this fall to work up a plan for next year.   We have tested several greens and recieved various counts, which even with todays science cannot define if we will have a problem or not down the road.  So when you see me kneeling down on the green with my knife in my hand, I'm not going crazy, just trying to stay ahead of whatever nature has tossed our way.

A beautiful start, then watch out for the downhill!

It was a glorious start to the day.  It is a wonderful place to be early in the morning as the sun rises over the 2nd green

As the sun rose we began to notice a few things that I want to alert you to as you play the course.  As I mentioned the downhill in the title is the one on the 8th hole.  When we make decisions as to determining the cart path rule, many assume it is just the very lowest areas that are affected.  Well recently we have seen a large increase in cart damage to the 8th hole.

As you can see above and below, long skids have torn the turf from the ground.  This not only impacts all the players, but is very difficult to remedy.  Bentgrass must be stripped and sodded, this results in mowing issues and playability issues.  Staked areas are then in play, carts continue to travel over the sod and in general it makes the aesthetics and playability poor overall.

We may have to resort to staking off the hill to all cart traffic if we cannot control this abuse.  Please exercise caution when starting down the hill, avoid sharp turns and lightly tap the brakes.  Use just as much caution when trying to climb the hill.  Many times you may not notice the tires spinning as you try to gain traction in your attempt to get back to your partners ball.  I recommend travelling down the rough until you are at the bottom of the hill then crossing the fairway at a 90 degree angle over to your ball.

Fall Projects

Well it seems like summer just started and now we are talking about fall projects.  I will be adding some updates on things you may have noticed playing this summer, but for now I want to focus on what we are looking at for this fall.

The biggest change will be a renovation of the 2nd tee.  The supporting timber wall has been deteriorating for awhile.  Many designs have been evaluated in solving the problem, and been discussed by the appropriate committees.  The option moving forward is to remove the timber walls entirely, lower the back tee by a few feet and place it closer to the fence which allows a cart path to be placed between the tee and green for easier access to the first green.

This eliminates a long term issue for both the wall and stairs in this area.  In addition the middle tee will be lowered slightly, which will also create enough fill to increase the size of a new forward tee.  Even with lowering the tees, they will still be above the green height, and the expanded space and leveling will make all the tee area useable.

The new cart path will be done in concrete as a test for future cart path construction for the entire course.   In addition a cart path of a new material will be constructed to the left of the pine trees near the green to help with safety from the tee shots on 18.  This path will be out of play for 2, and will blend into the pine straw bed so as to not detract from the scenic nature of the hole.

The drawing below is a design sketch of the new tees.  Work will commence the first week of November.  We will have to shut down the tees during construction, but we are making plans to have a temporary set in several locations to allow the green to stay open.  Once the tees are finished we will evaluate the use of a mat on the new teeing areas while the sod knits in for an anticipated Spring opening.

We also are planning for drainage projects on the 3rd, 4th, 8th and 12th holes.  The largest of these projects will be on the 4th hole, as both the side toward the tee and the side toward the green will get new drainage to handle the abundant water that flows down this hole.

The tee side will have a large underground pipe connecting to several catch basins to remove surface water the emanates from the homes along the left side down into the storm basin at the beginning of the fairway.  These basins will be surface mounted so as to not collect shots into swales.

The green side will have a series of "french style" drains to capture water from both sides and move it down into the drains nearer the green.  In addition some work will be performed around the cross bunker to move water around it so we do not lose all the sand every time we receive a large downpour.

This work will commence shortly after the 2nd tee, and will require some alternate tee placements while the work is in progress.  This area will be back in play as soon as the project is complete and crews off site.

If it's the fourth of July then there must be a storm

As usual whenever the 4th of July rolls around it means fireworks, both at the club and in the skies.  Once again we saw a beautiful night for the annual fireworks, and the night before we saw a bigger natural light display with high winds and storms that once again split a few trees and damaged some beyond repair.  One pine in particular on 16 was torn apart and required the assistance of a crew to remove the remnants.

In addition to the tree we had another mishap that added to the lore of events on the 4th.  One of the mortars used in the fireworks display misfired and landed in the WGCC shrubs and caught fire.  How extensive the damage is has yet to be determined, but the short term effect is a nasty scar along the top of the G.

One of the tell tale signs of summer for us is the heat and the bright sun.  Turf stress begins to show symptoms due to the weather.  It also gives clues to the stress seen by golfers.  If you notice you can see two footprints in green with surrounding brown turf.  The damaged turf is from using spray sunscreen to coat your legs and the overspray burns the turf.  We promote the use of sunscreen to protect yourself from the harmful effects of the sun, but to avoid this turf damage apply when standing on a cart path or other hard pan area.  Your skin will be protected and turf damage can be avoided.

Many have inquired about the browned out grass area on the newly constructed bed above the 11th green.  When we developed this area we choose Zoysia sod to give us a low maintenance but attractive turf to reduce erosion on this hillside.  We also chose this warm season grass for its ability to take the southern exposure during the summer heat.  Unfortunately the first season we installed it was also one of the coldest winters in a long time.  The effects of a cold winter are seen in the picture below.  

Zoysia is a slow growing grass, and it would most likely recover in a year or two, but painfully slow for our needs.  We will be replacing this with a newer style Bermuda grass later this summer and try that approach.  Bermuda has the same tough characteristics and summer tolerance but with a hardier tolerance for extremes.  We will harvest the zoysia for use somewhere else on the course in an area that the slow recovery will not be so visible.

Rough, yes it is.

Well it is again that time of year to tune up your game and start to complain about the rough.  It is a universal truth that rough grass grows almost out of control at this time of year.  One of the challenges for us is the variety of grass in the rough, specifically Poa annua.  If you've played in the past week, or even had a drink on the back patio looking down on 18 it is a sea of patchy white looking grass.

All those white things are seed heads.  Similar to what we see on the greens, this grass is one of the few that will seed at our normal cutting heights.  It's the primary reason this grass is so tough to overcome is it's the ability to put out a tremendous amount of seed.  So much that it can overwhelm all our efforts to over-seed the rough.   In the fall we attempt to seed in desirable grasses, but at the same time we are opening the soil for new grass varieties we also make the soil available for all the Poa seeds to become planted as well.

In the case of this past fall, after we over-seeded the course the weather turned cool and wet.  These are perfect conditions for Poa annua, and since it was present as well as the tall fescue seeds, they thrived in conditions better suited for this obnoxious turf.  It germinates faster and establishes quicker, and the slow cool spring favored its development even more.

Products that attempt to take out Poa are available and we have them here, but imagine if we had damaged only 50% of the Poa, we would be playing on lots of bare ground.  Spring seeding is an iffy practice with the need to apply chemicals to prohibit crabgrass and goosegrass.  A timing conundrum,  over-seed and be overcome by weeds or wait and watch Poa take over. 

Sod is the best way to change out the turf, eliminate the competition and then treat the Poa when it is only a small percentage of the population.  An example of this change is behind the 14th green.

14th green  dark green is tall fescue

Tall fescue ringing the 3rd, look a the straight line short of the bunker and behind the green.

Some ask why don't we just cut the rough shorter.  Well Poa would still seed, just like the greens.  In addition we need to preserve as much root reserves for the desirable plants before summer stress begins.  All the other cool season grasses we have all want to be grown in the 2.5-3.5" range.  We mow regularly but during this period of cool, wet weather, the grass grows faster than we can keep up, especially as play and the golf calendar gets cranked up.  This flush of growth is not due to fertilizer applied this year but last falls applications to make the rough healthier.

There are many factors that go into the rough equation, but time and labor are the primary ones when the lush wet growth of spring begins.  Although we are busy with many aspects of a late arriving season, we are not neglecting mowing.  We are very aware of the conditions and putting as much manpower as possible into the operation.  It's a process we monitor very closely as golfers, neighbors and staff all have to occupy the same space for a limited number of hours and weather conditions.  Its a difficult puzzle to solve but we are working hard to make it one that everyone can enjoy.

Winter... Spring .... and Now?

Well since my last post the weather map has looked like a combination of a years worth of weather. All over the map so to speak.  Downright cool, then some sun, enough to bring the shorts out, then windy with now some tremendous rain.  Later this week it look like the thermometer might peak at 90.  Tough to  figure out which way we are going, which translated to the course makes decision making hard.

We recently aerified greens and didn't quite finish when it started the two day 5 inch rain event. We then tried to play catch up with all the wash outs and soft conditions.  Still on the schedule is finishing the last few greens, a few tees, then we will begin aerating the rough.  All these operations are 6-8 weeks behind schedule due to the weather, something we can only monitor and then plan to use the best days without impacting the golf calendar.  There are bound to be some conflicts but we will work hard to make them as minimal as possible.

One of the casualties of winter was the area at 5 tee.  We have been experimenting with some new varieties of Bermuda on several  high traffic tees and last year we tried a different hybrid in some rough areas at the surround of 4 green and 5 tee.  This compact area carries a lot of traffic and one of the most extreme microclimates we have on the course.  Both cool and warm season thrive in a very small area.

This walk up to 4 green was already combination of common bermuda, tall fescue, poa annua, and ryegrass.   The walkway from 5 back tee was the same combination and was a real mess in the narrow valley behind 4 green, which also serves as the main drainage for the area.

The hybrid bermuda we tried for this area can be seen as the brown river of grass.  Unfortunately the cold winter has killed most of the trial bermuda.  We will be replacing this along with some other turf in the area with tall fescue sod hopefully in the next week.  We began experimenting with a herbicide last year that has shown promise in eliminating bermuda.  So our goal will be to slowly return all this grass to tall fescue along with some ryegrass and hope to keep the bermuda at bay.  Not all of this work will be done at one time as we want to make the area as playable as possible, but we plan to turn this entire complex back to cool season turf.  We still are evaluating the bermuda for use on tees, but would like to reduce the amount of it in all the other playing areas.

Another bermuda experiment was on the back tee at 11, it will be aerified this week and re-seeded to ryegress and bentgrass for this season.  Sometimes we have to experiment to see what is possible, unfortunately for us it takes one to several seasons to see the results, but we are usually trying to solve a problem that requires us to think outside of the box.

As we are already making fall plans, you can see that we are very busy trying to finish mulching the various beds around the course, and we have a major landscaping undertaking at the tennis facility which will also take up some of our manpower.  It's a busy time for the maintenance staff with more projects than hours in the day, but we look forward to the challenges and are excited to out and about as everyone is to take advantage of the great spring weather as long as it lasts.

Divots Bottles for Walkers

As you might have seen in a recent email blast we are going to implement a new program for walking members.  Divots bottles to use during your round.  We have been experimenting with various bottles, shapes, sizes and styles.  In conjunction we have had to work on the type of sand mix that will flow freely from these devices.  We also hoped to be able to use this bottle to fill 4-8 divots between refills

Well, we have settled on a 20 oz gatorade bottle that fits nicely into most modern carry bags pouch for water bottle storage.  The gatorade bottles also offer a wide mouth, easy turn cap and most importantly, inexpensive to purchase.

We will roll out this program on opening day April 5th.  The bottles will be offered at the pro shop to begin.  We will have bottle replacements at all the current water bottle stations at tees 6,9,12,16.  As with most programs we will review the operation after a few weeks to see what additional tweaks need to be made.  The grounds staff will replace the bottles with fresh mix in the mornings and the pro shop staff will check the course for needs during the afternoon hours.

New lids on the water bottle stations will now read  Water  and Divot Bottles.  I don't recommend you drink the green sand.  Empty bottles can be placed into the same container and will be picked up for refill later.  Always remember, replacing your divot is the best way to help the course.

Work to Do....Snow or no Snow!

We have been trying all winter to work on a few jobs that we feel are important to the playability of the course.  The one shown here is a drainage project on the lower tee at 4.  This tee sees  lot of traffic from golfers as well as the range.  In addition it is squeezed in between two large stands of trees, and struggles for sunshine.  As though that is not enough, it's primary struggle is with water.... too much water.  The cart path and parking lot funnel water onto the back of this tee in large amounts.

This water logged condition coupled with the other environmental factors can stress out any grass introduced.  We had always had a plan for the 4th and 9th tee to be rebuilt so we held off working on this area.  With those plans delayed and possibly pushed out several more years we decided to revamp the walk on, range walkway and back of the tee.  Unfortunately winter struck, and we could never find sufficient time to work all the issues.   Well here again we hoped to get started, install drains, move soil and sod,  but as you can see the best laid plans are still dictated by nature.

After we dug the drains it snowed.  The gravel company then could not deliver the stone.  Next the delivery of sod was moved due to more snow in Deleware, so here we are waiting on grass to finish part of the project.  We hoped to start grading of the walkway, but now 2" of rain is forecasted so that will be put off as well.

The guys are still working hard to get work done to to prepare for the next phase

This kind of work is not fun, but we need to make progress before the grass starts to grow and take the rest of our time.  The lower tee should be mostly sodded next week to bent grass.  After it roots for a few weeks, we will slowly move play onto those sections and sod out the rest of the tee.   Thanks again for your patience as we continue to make improvements to this wonderful old course.

Air.... Whats water got to do with it!

Now that the yo-yo pattern of spring is starting , some wonder why we don't open at the first sign of a thaw.  When snow melt and temperatures rise we all get the itch to swing a club.   After all, that's why we are here.  When we close the course due to wetness it always begins and ends with the greens.

Wet conditions rarely stop us from opening the course,  after all we put golf carts on the paths and away we go.  Not so fast, the greens are the most important and most expensive part of the course.  With our multi-constructed greens,  many drain slower than a bad sink in a teenagers bathroom.  The few sand greens drain quickly after a thaw, but the soil greens are very slow.  The importance is to remember the 3 things all greens ( and most plants) require.... Sunlight, air and water.  Well the only part we have in these conditions is water.

The soil needs to have as much air as possible for the plant and roots to thrive.  After a cold  wet period the soil fills with water and occupies all the air spaces, leaving no room for the plant to breathe.  We see this in the picture below, a putting cup full of water.

So we use this indicator to determine if and when we will allow play on to the greens.  The roots in the soil greens are relatively shallow compared to the sand greens, so we need this water level to move to the bottom of the cup before we put traffic that further squeezes air in the top layer out of the system.

How long this takes depends on the conditions,  will we see it dry out, how long has it been filled with water ( termed " field capacity"), is the plant actively growing, etc.  There are never any hard and fast rules, since everything depends on multiple factors.

Be assured we know you want to get out and get some exercise, but these greens are a delicate balance and a day or two of rest at the right time can mean the difference in starting out with better performing greens over the long haul of the season. 

A big Thank You

I know most of us are longing for some spring time weather and the feel of the warm sun on our faces.  It has been a long time since we have opened our windows and let the fresh air in, no matter if it's your house , your car or just your lungs.

Since this is not the case,  and it continues to snow, I want to take this opportunity to recognize my team and the incredible job they have done this winter to clear the snow after every storm.  These men have braved every storm,  navigated crusty roads and snarled traffic to get here early and stay late to plow, shovel and scrape our campus clean.  Most of our staff do not live nearby, drive SUV's or even have the latest North Face gear, yet they continue to arrive as best as they can and work hard to get the club open.  I can attest it is cold hard work, and most times the next day or two your back and body aches but they continue to smile and work together to get the job done.

What we lack in perfection, we make up in hard honest work to get the best job done under the circumstances.  The picture below shows us enjoying a nice, very cold day, but I can assure you the 3 am call to arms and frigid biting winds these guys have endured tells more than one picture can convey.  Thanks to them for their dedication and hard work.  They are the unsung heroes of this winter and continue to show up and put their best foot forward to improve this club every day they arrive.

My deepest gratitude to Ronald, Daniel (Tony), Johnny, Marcello, Pedro, Rimberte, Javier, Jose, Marco, Victor, Jorge, Dino, Daniel, Augusto, Salas, Angel and of course Trevor, who plans everything and Rick our mechanic to help keep things running and organized.

Wintertime musings

Well I thought with another batch of uncertain weather on the way, I would discuss what this means to the course and maybe what to expect when we start to thaw out.  If you know me, I always begin with "it depends on what mother nature has in store".

Right now some wonder if this winter has been a blessing to the course.  First off, repeated freeze thaws do not benefit anything.  Cart paths get worse, runoff erodes areas, freezing crowns of plants get trampled in the snow and ice which sets back growth.  The only real benefit is a lack of play, but in the same vein, nothing has grown to overcome the traffic when we were open.  A wash so to speak.

What happens now is the soon to come thaw will create saturated conditions that make areas very wet, prone to compaction, and if the subsoil stays a little frozen, shearing of roots that are in the frozen soil while the top 1 inch softens.  Most notably the soil is very cold, so all growth (even poa annua) will be delayed due a slow soil warm up.  Now I do expect crocus, daffodils and other bulbs to begin the steady climb out of the soil, but more likely where the suns shines most of the day.

This weather pattern has also has created uncertainty on the timing of the poa seed head control.  We employ degree day counting to time the emergence of these green speed wreckers, and the timing of the spray is very critical to reducing their impact.  Unfortunately when we get very warm for 3 straight days then cold for 2 weeks it is difficult to gauge when we time our applications to prevent seed heads.

We have several areas we are trying to plant trees but with the frozen soil trying to get them here and installed is frustrating to say the least.  We are working on a plan to provide divot bottles to the walking golfers this year so look for that notice in the next few weeks on it's implementation.  In the meantime we are working to comply with around 100 new EPA regulations and a complete change to the reporting of chemicals applied as well as documentation that concerns the safety of their use.

Lastly many wonder how do we determine the schedule for opening the course.  Well it's a mostly wait and see decision, which makes planning difficult for everyone.  Determining how fast snow melts, how deep is the frozen layer, and how quick the warm up develops cannot be forecast.  We have to be on the ground monitoring situations, so trying to say "Satuday at 10" on Thursday afternoon is really a guess.

The playability of the greens is the determining factor for opening and they do not all react the same. Shade, location (high or low) and composition (sand or clay) all play a part.  Too soft conditions can spell disaster later in the spring.   I wish I had some better prediction for the opening and closing, but as you know " it depends on what mother nature has in store".

Brrrr......6 Degrees this morning

The wall on Military Road

You may have noticed the missing stones on the wall that separates the 8th tee from Military Road.  This wall was constructed back when Arlington County widened the road in the 60-70's.  During the latest freeze thaw cycles the wall lost several large stones from this wall thus destabilizing this section, requiring us to use cones and tape to close the sidewalk.

Sometime in the past Dominion Power installed a support pole and wires for the power transmission poles across the street.  This support pole was tied to a post buried in the wall.  Over time, weather and loads have now caused the wall to fail where this support is located.  We are in contact with both the county, who does not like closed sidewalks, and Dominion Power.  We hope to have some resolution within the next few weeks on how this repair work gets completed.

Missing stones, support post in the wall can be seen to the right

Areas of missing mortar and loose stones

Shade...before the storm

Before the next day or two fills the course with snow again, I wanted to post a couple of pictures illustrating shade and turf relationships.  As most people know shade and healthy grass do not play well together.  This can be helped by limiting the shade to allow for multiple angles of light to get to the turf during the day.  Simply illustrated grass grows around individual trees but not well in the forest.   Properly spaced trees to allow the sun to move around the tree thus we have sun and shade but at different times of the day, where the forest filters most of the useable light most of the day.

Turf and trees can coexist

I bring this up as we look at how to improve certain areas of the course.  As you can see below, the main landing area of 3 is shaded.  So much that even after all the snow has melted there is still lingering snow and ice in this heavily trafficked area.  We will need to improve this sun /shade ratio if we hope to make this area more playable.  Over time trees continue to not only grow tall, but spread out and as the picture shows, we have a significant shade issue.  Back to the basics, grass does not do well in a forest and essentially that is the effect we have created in the landing area at 3.   Filling divots, limiting traffic, adding more drainage all help but it will be hard pressed to overcome the basic biology of the suns impact on turf health.

Hole 3 landing area

We love our trees, but sometimes the purpose of planting a lot of trees to make an impact when small, needs to be followed with proper cultivation as they grow.  The idea of "plant thick, thin quick" is meant to make pruning and removal a natural process,  and ensures the best health for the trees as they mature and develop.  After all we play the game on grass and that should be our first priority when deciding any course of action.

Winters tale.....cold and colder...

Whenever these hiccups of nature occur, we do have plans in place to keep us busy.   With the forecasts moving toward cold we brought all the hardware (birdhouses, benches, tee markers, signs etc) inside to stage for winter refurbishment.

  In the meantime we busied ourselves outside pruning limbs from the last storm, installing some drainage and repair of others around the clubhouse.  On the warmer days we had a chance to put the bunkers back into shape after all the washouts.  Seem strange to talk of rain after all this cold weather,  almost makes me miss rain.

The area around the Kirchner tree has been cleaned up, the stump ground and the wood moved to the bottom of the hill.  We have been using the small pile for firewood.  So any split firewood you see in the bin is from the Kirchner tree.

The next time we see ground we will begin to dismantle the wall, shape the soil leaving a smaller mound where the tree lived.  The area will be sodded and left in place, while everyone adjusts to the view.   Plans then can be developed on how best to make use of the space.

As I mentioned, with the current cold weather we begin the long process of refurbishment.  The staff painstakingly strips, sands and reinforces every piece of "stuff" that resides on the course.  The benches get completely stripped before several coats of stain are applied.  The purple martin birdhouses are meticulously disassembled, rebuilt and carefully painted.  Several staff are assigned to this process and they take great pride in the finished product.  Tee markers, water containers, divot buckets, signs all receive the same process of strip, rebuild and restore.  The continuous exposure to the elements and member use really puts a toll on these items and it's important to get as much life as we can from these functional pieces.

Even the bunker rakes are collected, inspected and a new heat dry vinyl is installed over the handles to make them good as new.  This saves the costs associated with buying new handles every year and protects your hands when the fiberglass begins to splinter....ouch.

Inside work takes over normal equipment storage areas

Tee markers stripped before stain and a new paint color is applied 

Pedro poses before one of his finished creations, very proud!  They rebuild all the wood railings and supports every year.

The last item today is an update on the bridge at 8.  We are looking at four options.  These are rebuild the bridge in place, install a pre-constructed engineered bridge, remove and replace with a smaller crossing, think the stone St. Andrews bridge on 18, and lastly remove and not replace.

There may not be enough space to outline all the pros and cons, but we are looking at all the options before advancing the costs and benefits to the appropriate committees.  Needless to say this is not as simple as replacing a few boards when it concerns the safety of members.   I will continue to update this as we gain more information.

131'  span

A Winters Day

Hard to believe a week ago we were seeing temperatures near 70 and golf was in the air!  Looks like a yo-yo winter but wanted to share some pictures from the morning after.

 Happy New Year.