Golf Season 2017 in Front of Us

Since my last post, winter has come(sort of) and winter has gone(kinda). But the good news is that worked continued on the course to improve the overall playability. We had the woodcutters come back out to remove trees and brush to the left of Holes 14 and 15. We will now be able to identify the out of bounds/property lines in those areas. The view from the 15th tee will now allow one to follow their ball into the trees on the left but will be able to locate it quickly again and continue play.

This week, tree trimming was completed on holes 13 and 17. The large old oaks had the dead wood removed, low branches trimmed up, and a general cleaning of the canopy was performed. There were 2 oaks at the beginning of the 13th fairway but near the road were removed due severe health issues and liability. You will not miss them.

I was reminded of a tree to trim by the golf commission that was forgotten last year. It was located at the beginning of the 18th fairway on the right. The ash tree was trimmed along with 2 oaks near it.

The maintenance staff over this past fall and winter did remove a few trees that had the dreaded "Red Ring Disease". One notable tree was a large oak to the right of the 4th green that played havoc with the putting surface. Thought I had a picture of it but apparently I don't. It is currently resting behind the green awaiting clean up.

Our first order of business when the staff gets back in a week or so is to clean and pick up a lot of branches. Remeber the rain/windstorm at Christmas? Well, there was a lot of debris that came down. Oh and to add to that, those high winds a few weeks back? Yep, they added to the mess. We should have everything cleaned up by the time we open sometime in April. Until then, stay out of trouble.

Golf Season 2016 in the Rear View Mirror

It has been 2 weeks since we closed doors on the 2016 season. The golf year goes by very quickly and if it wasn't for cell phones with cameras, it might all be forgotten. So without any further explanations, here is the year in review.

Back in March, we hired out some tree pruning and broken branch removal.

We got some Jr muscle from the high school to help in the clean up.

Updates to the clubhouse included this new railing, along with stairs,lighting, plumbing, floor tiling, grille area, kitchen upgrades, parking lot crack sealing and painting, and new HVAC.

We did some fairway expansions on holes 10, 14, and this on 17.

New cart paths were installed at the driving range and on holes 7 and 14. Cart paths were resurfaced on holes 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, and 18.

This fall, we started to open up the area behind 14 green and to the right of 15 tee.

And finally, we got a good start to building the forward tee on hole 2. This picture doesn't show the additional fill that was hauled.  We will let it settle over winter and finish first thing in the spring.

With that, everybody enjoy the off season. I will update this blog when the woodcutters begin their work on holes 14 and 15.

Course Improvements Continue

I apologize. It's been awhile since I've updated the goings on at the course. No excuses, being too busy is part of everybody's life. We all need to put balance in our lives. It is just easier said than done.

We have completed these 9 repair projects around the clubhouse: replaced hand and deck rails on the upper deck, installed drains upstairs in the kitchen and in the Men's bathroom, purchased a new ice machine, purchased a new gas range for the upstairs kitchen ( I need to sell the old one ), corrected all of the lighting in the main clubhouse area, tiled the hallway from the bathrooms to the main area, replaced/repaired all of the outside stairs, purchased a new grille and installed a small patio on the north side of the clubhouse, and we had our parking lot crack sealed and the lower lot striped. All of these items were well needed.

Our last 2 projects are currently under way. We are installing new HVAC on the bar side of the upper level. The current unit is nearly 30 years old. We will plan to upgrade the dinning room side in the near future. The other project is adding 3 new path areas and then remove and install new asphalt to several existing paths. Taylor Paving began on Wednesday and dug in the new paths on the Driving Range Tee, 7th green, and the right on 13 green. They were also able to install the gravel base material before the heavy rains came.

This is the path extension by the green on 7.

This is the path to the right of the 13th green.

This is the wet spot at the beginning of the 2nd fairway. We hauled all of the excavation to raise the area so it will drain naturally. We will bring in some more material to shape a new green tee. Just killing 2 birds with one stone.

Stay tuned for more timely updates, I promise.

Clubhouse Improvements

The golf season is moving along as well as several planned upgrades. Almost all of these improvements will be noticed right away. Back in February and March, we installed drains in the bathrooms and upstairs kitchen to correct some plumbing issues. At that same time, we upgraded all of our inside lighting to ensure all lights work. Before we opened, we replaced the carpeting in the hallway with tile that looks wonderful.

Now that it has warmed up, work was done to outside projects that were indeed needed. The railing on the upstairs deck was removed and a new one installed using aluminum spindles. We have received many compliments.

We finished 3 stair projects. The first one was to remove and cement the top step on the west stairs coming up from the parking lot. A new hand railing will soon be installed there as well. The second project was to replace the steps on the south side of the 10th tee with a new one along with a railing.

The third stair project was the removal and replacement of the stairs going down to the cart staging area. It was completed this week and is outstanding.

We had a small patio built on the north side of the clubhouse so we can grille away from customers. Also included in this was the purchase of a new commercial grille.

Meanwhile, back inside, a new ice machine was installed by Bernicks Pepsi. The old machine will reside in the maintenance building ready to go for backup or on heavy use days. A grille was purchased for the upstairs to replace the old one. Currently the grille is in transit.

And finally, improvements to the lower parking lot were done by crack sealing and line painting for organized car parking.

Overall, the needed repairs and improvements went very smoothly. The new feel will not only add to the customers' experience but the safety aspect was accomplished.

Expansions

If you have been able to get out and play, you probably noticed some bronzed colored grass. What this is really, is the turf being mowed at a lower height of cut. Over time, mowing patterns change and edges seem to wander away from normal. In other cases, it is a playability issue as we strive to provide a user friendly approach.

There are several approaches shown here that we expanded to allow greater ball roll toward the green. This also allows a different chipping technique or putting stroke to get on to the green.

                                           This shows us widening the approach to 17.

                                           The back collar is larger on green 6.

We also moved the fairway on 14 to the right of the tree. This gives a bit of forgiveness on tee shots.

 Part of the winter work is still evident as there is a brush pile to the left of the landing area. This will be burnt as soon as the burning restrictions are lifted.

Later in the summer, we will finish cleaning out the remaining brush to the OB stakes and plant grass. Not only will this make the playability better it will also speed up play.

This is a small part of our efforts to make Luck Golf Course the best it can be.

Ready to go

We're waiting on the weather to cooperate so we can begin our golf maintenance. This is one of the few years where we are ready to go but Mother Nature is delaying the beginning. As I write this, the temperature is 10 degrees. Forecast is for 60's by Wednesday and continuing for a while. The equipment is prepped as well as the accessories. There are a few benches in need of fresh paint and I will see to that they get done. As I stated previously, the course is mostly cleaned up. A day or two with the blower and mulching mowers should finalize the clean up. We will begin mowing this week and slowly get back to regular maintenance practises. A little patience this time of year helps as doing nothing to the turf is actually one of the best things when there are extremes in temperatures as we have experienced the past few weeks.

Stretch yourself out and get ready to play!

Final Clean up

With some help from some "Jr. Muscle" aka Luck-Frederic Baseball Team, we were able to remove branches and rake up debris along holes 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8. The boys did a great job for us which lightened up the workload for the maintenance staff.

On Tuesday, 6 "Sr Muscle" volunteers showed up to help our staff clean up the branches along 11, 17, and 18. I would insert pictures here and mention names, but my phone stayed in my pocket and thus the omission. Thanks to Roger Swanson to initiate and lead the charge.

The staff is working diligently to remove the final trees and branches this week despite the not so spring like weather.We will blow off the course and mulch the remaining leaves and branches next week. The course will open tomorrow April 1, no fooling! See you out on the links!