#15 drainage revisited

 It was roughly a year ago when we tackled a drainage project on the 15th fairway.  The fairway was extremely wet in the landing area.  To resolve the problem we install a herringbone drainage system in the landing area that would move the excess water into the nearby lake.

The fairway turned out very well.  In the past we had to shut the fairway down to all traffic from the 150 yard marker to the green each winter.

This year we were able to keep the fairway open and mowed all winter.  Some days were pretty wet, but the difference was the rate at which the fairway drained.

Here is a video of the water flowing from the fairway into the lake.

If you have any questions or concerns about the golf course please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG

justinr@indiansummergolf.com

January Newsletter

Course Condition

The winter weather has slowed the growth of the grass down.  You will notice the rough turning a bronze color from the cold frozen weather we experienced late last year.  The rough is going partially dormant.

Completed Items

This winter we are focusing on clean up.  As the winds pick up and the debris comes down our priority is getting the course ready for play. 

We have done some clean up at our shop as well.  Geoff, our mechanic has work hard to rebuild equipment, stripe the garage for more efficient use and organize the parts area that he inherited when he started last year.  I believe if we can start out the day organized and clean then we can transfer these practices to our daily tasks.

 

We have also repaired the waterfall pump for the big waterfall on the second hole.  It will be running once the season starts in June.  Last season the pump failed and needed some fabrication to the motor seal and the windings repaired.  To give you a picture of the enormity of this pump; the average 4 person household uses roughly 110 thousand gallons a year, the waterfall pump can move that amount of water in one hour.

Current Affairs

We are currently in the process of edging bunkers.  We are reclaiming the edge to as close as we can determine.  It will give us a frresh look for 2014.

We are also monitoring the greens for possible signs of pythium and spraying trouble greens as necessary.  This was a problem a few years ago, but superintendents overall are much more informed about the once elusive disease.  We have done our due diligence and sprayed when the conditions became favorable before the last freeze and since other courses are starting to see symptoms we have applied another application to curb any problems before they arise.

Upcoming Events

This coming season we are considering early aerifcation of the greens and then follow up with aerification across tees and fairways.  We have usually gone at the end of April or the start of May, but weather permitted we should be able to complete the projects within a month.  We will follow up the aerfication process with sand and fertilizer.

We are looking to bring the seasonal team on earlier this year to accommodate the large aerification project that we are scheduling.  This will help us move through the aerification project before the mowing practices are in full force.

Please take the time to follow my blog.  You can view it on the course webpage under the course maintenance page www.indiansummergolf.com  or straight to the blog at  www.indiansummergolf.blogspot.com

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

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG

justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Fairway Plan

This fall we were planning on aerifying the fairways but with the weather turning colder and the summer staff going away for the winter months we have decided to take a different approach.  This fall we are going to solid tine to reduce the amount of labor needed for the cleanup and then follow with sand.  We will continue to topdress the fairways to keep our outstanding winter playability.

The spring will be the time we turn to wall to wall aerification.  To help us get this project done in a timely manner we will hire in a contracted company to help with the process.  The weather in the spring is always intermittent so we will try to communicate the dates the best we can as we get closer to time.  This year we aerified greens in early May.  We will try to get the fairways done well before we do the greens in 2014.

If you have any questions about the upcoming processes please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Drainage #15

It has been a busy winter.  We have been trying to get a few projects done this winter to prepare the course for the spring and summer season.  One of the projects that I had been talking about was drainage.  We got one section of drainage done on #15.  It was right in the landing area where golfers were having a lot of trouble during the wet months of the year.

The project took us a little longer than expected because just as we were wrapping up the pipe installation we had a two week cold snap.  This kept the area frozen and hard to work with.  Once the freeze lifted we were able to put the project to bed and start working on other areas of the course.


The picture on the left is the final look after we laid the sod back.  The area has already begin to dry up and the drainage has been working well.

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

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com