Divot Party

The divot repair party was a huge success. The members had a great time on the golf course and helped our staff by filling in all the divots on the fairways and tees.

I have had quite a few members ask me if I prefer that divots are filled with sand or to replace the pelt. It is a great question and I always answer it the same.a I feel that repairing the divot is best done with sand and seed.

 

A divot that has the pelt replaced is prone to failing unless it is a large enough piece of sod to stay in the hole. The fairway mowers will most likely pull the replaced turf out of its hole. The blower will also blow replaced divots out of their hole as well. Sand and seed performs best in both situations.

 

I would also like to address the driving range divots. I have sen a few blog posts from other superintendents showing divot patterns that they have requested at their golf courses for quicker healing. Taking divots in rows or strips will help the grass fill in quicker. Below are a couple of pictures to show you the difference.

 

The top picture show a strip of divots. Then the next strip was started yet leaving some grass between the two strips. This has a much quicker healing time. The bottom picture shows a more traditional pattern. It makes for a long recover time when a large area like this is removed. The grass has a long way to go to get to the middle of that area and seed has less protection from the elements and mowers.

 

If you can please try to take divots in strips this would help with the recovery time and help us utilize our range more efficiently.

 

If you have any questions about the divot party or the range divot patterns please contact me.

 

Justinr@indiansummergolf.com

 

 

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Cart Path Extensions

The storm damage clean up has taken its toll on areas of the golf course. We have worked on trying to clean up most of the damage. In the case of hole 2, we have made the decision to extend the cart path out to avoid the extremely wet area next to the lake.

We decided to do this work because the areas was already torn up from the tractor needing access to the trees along this hole. The turf was completely torn up. We just had to remove a few inches of the torn up turf to allow for concrete installation.

 
If you notice in the picture of the new concrete installation we began to turn the cart path to run along the fence. The overall goal is to get most of the cart paths extended or completed to have the ability to run carts throughout the winter on cart paths only when the weather makes the course wet enough to not allow cart traffic.

If you have any questions or comments about the cart path work please contact me.
Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Spring Sting

Believe it or not the first day of spring was today. I know it was hard to tell with the snow mixed with rain. Although yesterday it was sunny while the snow fell. So that has to be the sign that spring is here. Well another good barometer for judging the arrival of spring is the germination of annual plants. Stinging Nettle is one that we have a lot of during the season along the border of the golf course.

Stinging Nettle seems to be everywhere. The plant is apparent in fertile soils that have been recently disturbed. Makes pretty good sense. When the golf course was built there was some good amount of disturbance along the border of the golf course along along the wooded areas. It seems to be like a wall of Nettles in some places. Since we have done a lot of storm clean up along the border of the course, the additional disturbance I felt would produce a generous crop of the nettles.

This spring we are trying to act while the plant is young and control the weed with a selective herbicide to give us some relief. If the plant rubs against your skin most people feel a stinging sensation that becomes very itchy later. This is not an ideal situation for a golfer that would like to look for a shot that rolls just off the border of the turf. We are trying to act early to catch the plant young and also avoid the time at which new leaves begin to start on the shadowing trees.

If you have any questions about our weed control strategy or if you have any comments about the course please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG

Justinr@indiansummergolf.com

 

Storm Damage Vol. 3

Hope you enjoy the video.  It hardly shows the danger of the job, but if you watch closely you can see how close some of the logs that weighed over 2000lbs came very close to the climbers head and at one point started to push the chainsaw toward his head.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Winter Storm Vol. 1

The winter storm we just experience left many people out of power for several days. The aftermath has left the state in need of clean up and repair. The club was no exception. The snow storm hit and then an ice storm followed.  The added weight to the already snow covered branches was the culprit. The added weight broke the branches near the top.  The weight the branch could no longer hold was transferred to the next branch down the tree and so on.  There are some trees with just the trunk that remained and all the branches were sheared off.

We are left with a lot of clean up and some repair. There will definitely be some different looks to the course once we can open for play.  Please bear with us while we try to remove the debris and cleanup the course.

Although the course is covered with snow and closed, the restaurant and grill are open.  You are always welcome to visit us.


 Here are some pictures of some of the damage that we sustained during the storm:




The Cherry Trees around the clubhouse were all heavily damaged.











The range net was pulled down by the weight of the ice.














A 100 year old White Oak fell onto the back side of the clubhouse.  This tree will hopefully be removed with a crane this week.

The Maple tree on #12 had a large branch split off of the side.  This will make the hole look a little different next time you are able to play.






If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com