- Additional ballwashers
- Expanding some of the front tee boxes
- Green speeds
Additional ballwashers
We recognize the need for additional ballwashers and are looking into possibly purchasing some additional. Along with the concern for additional washers was their placement. Upon my arrival there were many issues I had to tackle. Being my second full season is getting underway, I have been able to chip away at the more important issues and am getting into some of the details that are in need of attention; ballwashers is definitely one of those. Being that we do not have enough washers to place at the every tee box, I feel it is important to one, not be bias in our placement and two, be consistent in the placement so we all know where we can find the ballwasher. Like I said above, we are working on purchasing additional, but to fix the placement issue we have decided to move the placement of each ballwasher to a central location; this will be next to every hole sign. This past week we have cemented a ball washer post and cleat cleaners next to the hole signs on 1,3,5,6,9,10.12.14 and 16. We have not yet put the washers out, we are waiting for the cement to set. This now puts every ballwasher at a central location on each hole.
Expanding some of the front tees
We recognize the need to expand these tees. We are again working on the 1st hole to expand the front tee. It is going to take sometime, but in a few weeks it should be ready. In my opinion, we will be able to slightly expand the tee on #3 as well. The other holes of concern, will need to be placed on our Capital Improvement list. It is important that when we expand these tees we do them correctly and resources are needed to ensure this. Placing these on our CapEx list will ensure the proper resources are provided to accomplish this.
Green Speeds
I would like to reference a past blog post to discuss our green speed situation. Below is the post:
"The recurring theme at every single golf course in 2009 was green speeds. To put some perspective behind the concern, in June and August, it rained for over half the month. In June we had 15 days of all rain and August was 16 days. These weren't days that had afternoon storms or showers, it rained and it rained all day. In 2009, not counting January through March and December we had nearly 57.5" of rain. See chart below.
On the flip side, there were several comments regarding the quality of green speeds this past fall. We received a break from the rain. Once the rain had at least slowed for us, we were able to become more aggressive in our management, cutting and rolling more consistently, topdressing more frequently and brush and cutting more frequently. Each of these practices are in our yearly program, but can't be initiated when we receive this type of precipitation. To help communicate our green speeds, on a daily basis I began posting the stimp reading of a stimped green. We would stimp a different green each day to show the consistency. This also began in the fall and feel this was a success in getting out in front of concerns."
We are currently taking a very aggressive approach to our greens management. We have been able to initiate our program early in the season this year, because we have had the resources to do so. Since aerification we have rolled the greens 9 times and mowed three times. We have also applied a growth regulator and some additional fertilizers to help aid in the recovery. Overall, I am very happy with the performance of the greens this spring.
The rain challenges every course to maintain consistent green speeds. We are hoping the rain begins to cooperate with us so we can continue to remain aggressive on our management of the greens. When the greens have had some additional time to heal, I will begin posting daily stimp readings of the green. I will also provide some management programs we are initiating to achieve our speeds this growing season.
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