On Hold

The weather is playing tricks with our scheduled project. Good news is that the ground is not frozen, yet. Bad news is that the snow has covered all the trench line markings. I am going out later today and plow off some areas to see if we can continue. A little help from Mother Nature to melt the snow would be nice. Stay tuned.

Work on Hole 6

We were able to get 350' of drain tile installed yesterday on the left side of Hole 6. What this has accomplished is that we can now drain the holding pond at the dogleg back toward the tee area where it goes off into the woods. We will also be able to dry up the area at the beginning of the fairway that seams to hold water even on the sloped area.

This picture shows part of the area that will be drying up the beginning of the 6th fairway. Also note the green trailer that we will be using to help install the pea gravel into the trench.

Now that winter has arrived, we will continue to install tile as weather permits. There are some drier areas that we can continue on and will push onward and upward until the ground is too frozen to trench.

Here We Go

We are back after it again. Finally, after much planning and discussion, along with puting the course to bed, the drainage project has finally started. I actually began last week with some exporatory digging finding existing tile lines to use and opening up areas that needed work. We are using a trencher on loan from Pat McCabe and yesterday tied in some drain tiles on 14. This will help in collecying and transporting the collected water and moving it over to 15 and off the course. We then began hole 7 by trenching from the pond to the fairway to a catch area and then will start at this point with the rental equipment. We then began trenching on Hole 6 by the trees on the left at the dogleg. The intention here is to drain the low area back toward the tee. We got about 100' and the chain fell fell off. After a 2 hour wrestling match, we were able to put the chain back in place. We got a good start to the project. and will update today with pictures.

New Project

It has been awile since I have posted. The completion of the greens project was agreat benefit to the Luck golfers. I thouroughly enjoyed the project even on the days where it seemed to be an impossible venture. So now what's next? Well, we are just finishing up our aerification this week. All greens and fairways are done with the tees to be done as time permits. We chase leaves everyday and should be done by early November, when all the leaves are done falling.

The big project will be starting next week when we begin to add drainage to fairways 2,4,6,7,& 14. We will be removing some old drainage and installing some new. We have a trencher and materials onsite and will begin as weather permits. I plan to rent a specialized trencher and trailer to help with the install. Once again, a big thanks to Dennis Frandsen and Chuck Torrance for the donation to make this project possible. I will update and show pictitures as we progress.

We Made It

After several months of a lot of effort and work, the 4 new greens along with the practice green, are now being maintained like the others. With the excemption of green 7, it is hard to find any seams or irregularities on the surfaces. Green 7 will need a bit more time to fill in completely, but we are coming into the best growing conditions of the year. This green has also come the furthest since the beginging of the year. Just in case you can't remember, pictures dont lie.

I have a recent photo to show but the computer gremlins are not allowing me to post them. But if you are reading this, most likely you are playing the course so you know first hand what the conditions are. There will be some more continual maintenance activities going on but for the most part, the greens have finally made it.

Now it is August

The heat of summer has come and gone (for now) and this recent cool stretch has made my life a lot easier. The one week of uncomfortable weather set the new greens back a bit. What happens is the high humidity will make the thatch layer swell or as I term it “puff” and the result is the mowers will scalp the canopy and leave unsightly marks. If corrective action is not taken immediately then the damaged areas will soon die. I was able to see the scalp marks right away and for the next few days skipped mowing and just rolled the greens. I raised the height of cut about .040” and began alternating mowing and rolling. After about a week, the weather cooled, and we were out of the danger zone. No turf was loss, but the progression towards matching the other greens was sent backwards. A couple of topdressings later, the new greens are now once again very near the quality of the existing greens.

As for the “Dog Days of Summer”, the staff has caught up on mowing and completed several projects. We did finally finish burning the pile of brush on the Ravenholt property and now can look foreword to burning our new pile on golf course property. So far this year, the equipment and the irrigation have been holding up fairly well, but the various pump motors we have seem to be failing. The sump pump on hole 2 went out this spring but since we got it repaired, the rains have stopped. Over the last few weeks, the fountain on 9 pond died and is presently being repaired. Then, the fountain on pond 7 stopped working and I am working on getting that repaired as well. I did have the pond on 7 sprayed and should be cleaning up shortly.

Other then the above mentioned items, daily routines are nice and comforting. It makes the transition into the next season easy. Until next month………..

Progress

The 2 pictures below show remarkable progress on #7 green. Continued regular topdressings and rolling have smoothed out the surface and aerifying and overseeding has helped tremendously to fill in the voids. We will be going out this week and put forth the last of the sod plugs in any remaining bare spots. We only have a limited amount of plugs but we will use it all up. The 4th green has responded nicely to a change in mowers and additional supplemental nutrional products. The other greens, 15, 12, and the practice green, will be back online with the regular greens by the Member Guest on July 15. It sure has been a painstaking slow progress to complete the grow in and I thank you all on your patience. The timetable to get greens 4 & 7 online with the others will of course be, weather dependent. Have a happy 4th!