More Rain is a minor setback

Well it's no surprise.  El Nino has brought more rain this past weekend.  We recorded 2.1 inches of rain Saturday morning.  The good news is that as I was leaving around noon on Sunday, the water had subsided a good bit.  Last week we received a little over 4 inches and it took about 7 days to get carts off the path.  I expect that if the week stays dry to be back in condition by Thursday.  Of course, there would be potential for more rain Wednesday and Superbowl Sunday...even sleet!

We went ahead and lined the cart paths with sod where we had done our dirt work this month.  It worked pretty well actually.  There were a few washouts, but not nearly as bad if the sod had not been there.  We'll be working on cleaning those up this week.

As we go into February, our plan is to continue with some of the drainage work that we weren't able to do in January due to the weather and excessively wet soil.  We will be doing some tree trimming in areas where some branches affect the line of play from tees.  And as the weather will inevitably begin warming up we will also begin our pre-emergent applications toward the end of the month.  I'm hoping to get pre-emergent down on the fairways, tees complexes and greens complexes twice this year.  The product that I have plans to use is hands-down the best available and provides unparalleled goosegrass and crabgrass control.

We'll follow up on activities and conditions as they occur.

Rain and more Rain

The course received about 4.25" rain this past Thursday.  I am attaching several pictures to show the extensive flooding.  Thankfully the water is slowly receding and as of Sunday afternoon the front 9 fairways are free of standing water.
Reggie spent some time on the Bobcat during the course closure to surface grade some areas and assist the drainage process.  Some of our soil work on the back 9 washed out as well, so we will re-grade those areas next week and lay some sod along the path to help stabilize the soil directly along the cart paths.

Unfortunately at this time of year there is no water uptake by the turf, so we just can not handle substantial rainfalls of that magnitude.

#2 fairway

Ponds out of their banks right of 6

#7 fairway?  Our new island green.

17 dirt work roughed in

Reggie and the crew have done an amazing job regrading the slope behind 17 green.  They added several feet of dirt to build the low areas up along the cart path.  Now during rain events, the surface run-off will run across the cart path into the low lying swamp areas and not collect along the cart path.

We have roped this dirt off, however due to it's location that would mean parking back in the fairway to access the green.  You will notice a plywood board section that we would like you to use for accessing the green.  This will help keep your shoes clean, help the flow of golfers on the hole and keep dirt off of the putting green.  Please pardon our mess as we work these low areas to drain better.

New Sprayer

Our new sprayer showed up this week.  We were very fortunate to be able to purchase a nice John Deere sprayer to replace our slowly failing older sprayer.  A few upgrades have occurred to this unit since the last one was purchased here. 

The new unit has various nozzles so that we can apply fertilizers and pesticides with the right amount of water and minimize chemical drifting to other areas or golfers. 

The new unit also has an automatic rate controller that will help us set our rates and control the application based on our speed.  This will give us a much more consistent application across the sprayed area and lead to more consistent greens color and pest protection. 

The biggest change was the addition of the "clean load" induction system.  This allows us to load the chemical concentrate in a safe working area and then mix it with the tank water and helps prevent accidental splashing and dust blowing back in our faces during the mixing operation. 

To top it all off, this is a diesel unit which will give us more years of use than a gasoline engine.

January Update

We've started our drainage project this month again.  We are going to first tackle the constantly wet areas along the cart paths and back of greens on holes 16 and 17.  The soil around the cart path is a very wet muck and the grade does not allow the water to drain to the lower side of the cart path.  We will be trucking in soil from our large pile on the driving range and then regrading the slope to get water across the paths.

Given that these areas are not in the immediate line of play, we have elected to save the cost of sod and will heavily fertilize these areas and push the bermuda grass into them.  We will likely take plugs from the surrounding areas and fill in to encourage faster regrowth.  Until these areas are filled in, they will be roped off.  We appreciate you treating these as ground under repair and staying out of them.

Root Pruning

December was a busy month for us on the golf course.  We saw unseasonably high amounts of rain fall and unseasonably low temperatures.  This is a result of the El Nino year that we have had.  The latest reports are that the trend will likely continue into February and then we will move back into a more seasonal pattern.

This past month we were conducting a practice called root pruning.  As many of you know and can see, the large pines that we have around the golf course have extended their roots into the fairways quite a distance. These roots are competing with our fairway turfs for water and nutrients.  Looking at the picture to the left, this is well documented by how green the middle of the fairway is and the drier grass along the edge.  Next year, we expect to see a significant improvement along the lines cut. 

To combat this, we used a trencher to cut the roots within the top 12 inches of the soil and give the turf a better chance for survival.  We hoped to get all of the front 9 finished in December.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be much more man power intensive than originally intended and we were able to finish holes 1, 8, and 9.  There is a wonderful piece of equipment that would take a 4 man job and make it a 1 man job, but at this time cost is a major prohibitor.  We may look into demo-ing the piece of equipment as it would make a nice addition to this necessary job.

Our plan for January is drainage along cart paths and in some fairways.  We'll accomplish some root pruning then also.

Welcome

Welcome to the Gator Lakes Golf Course maintenance blog.  We have decided to develop this blog as a means to communicate with our men and women overseas, seasonal guests, and annual members as to the events and practices happening on the golf course.

We welcome you to check in frequently as we hope to continually update with new happenings and provide insights into what we do on the golf course to provide the best facility possible for you.

Thanks for checking in and please stop in and say hello any time.