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 is In The Air

The week ended well with a good dose of vitamin D. The grass is starting to grow a little quicker on the golf course. We are trying to get the golf course ready for the Masters Tournament that will be played in a couple weeks.

The greens are doing well but we are going to be patient with and height of cut changes until the weather warms up a little more. (Although the greens were surprisingly fast, last Thursday.) We are still experiencing frost any morning it is not raining. If we get to impatient it could hurt us coming into aerification.
Here are a few recent pictures of the course.

If you have any question please feel free to 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. 2 (Oak Removal)

Here is some pictures to illustrate the removal of the Oak tree that had fallen against the clubhouse.  It was quite a project. The crane carried the guy up to get in place to begin making strategic cuts for the crane to lift pieces off of the tree and reduce the weight of the tree.

It was a tedious job and took most of the day to position the crane and make the proper cuts.  To give you an idea the tree weighed rough 60,000 lbs and the crane could safely lift around 2000-3000 lbs at a time.
The trunk of the tree measured about 12 ft in circumference at the base.  A guess at the age of the tree was roughly 150 yrs old.

If you have any questions or comments about the tree removal or would like to know about the clean up that is happening on the golf course over the next few weeks please 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