October Update: Moisture and Fall Cleanup

Foggy Morning on 1

Fall is well underway and with it comes both some usual and unusual complications. The usual battle against the leaves around the course continues. Sometimes we finish the day feeling like we accomplished a lot in terms of cleanup and other days we loose the battle against the wind and leaves. Regardless we have been very happy with how the crew has performed this fall with cleanup. Last night the course received around 0.25 inches of rain. That brings our rain total for the month of October to 0.95 inches of rain with the rain totals for September not being much better. With these drought conditions we have been trying to put moisture into the ground before our scheduled time to blow out the irrigation system. We are scheduled to blow out the irrigation system on November 14th and 15th.

Trying to get some needed moisture into the soil while we still can:

4th Hole:

The ornamental mulch beds behind the 4th green have been removed and will be cleaned out and prepped to be seeded or sodded next spring. This work was requested by the HOA and was also on our agenda. It will improve the first impression as you enter the property.

Four pine trees along the left edge of the fourth hole have also been recently removed. These trees were removed after numerous discussions with the Ipswich Greens Committee. The first large pine on the left removed had been heavily damaged in a storm last winter. The tree had visibly declined in health since and was removed for safety concerns to golfers and the fairway. The next large pine had a large visible cavity of rot forming at its base. If this tree was left to fall on its own most of it would have landed in the fairway and caused extensive turf damage. This pine and another nearby pine were also greatly impacting turf quality in the fairway exit area of the hole. Removing these pines will allow the Agronomy team to significantly improve the conditions of the rough. The last pine next to the bunker was a constant source of contamination into the bunker and had already caused damage to the bunker liner from its roots. Plans of future greenside bunker renovations would have required the removal of this tree to proceed. The two hardwoods will be remaining and will be pruned of sucker growth and dead wood at a later point. Ultimately we believe the removal of these trees will benefit the 4th hole now and into the future. Two dead trees were also recently removed from the left of 15. Below are some pictures of the removal process.

Before:

Removals:

After: Later images show the rot infecting the first two pines.

1st Hole:

The right rough of the 1st gold/blue tee is being prepped for sod. This area is one of two along the right-side of the tee surround that will be sodded in the future. We are mainly picking away at this prep work on frosty mornings. This is in a continued effort to improve our first impression with all the work to the first hole. We also took the opportunity to install a new irrigation quick coupler in this area for the gold/blue tee.

Well on 6th:

The well to the left of the 6th forward tee is most likely only a few weeks away from being operational. We are currently waiting for the electrical work to be completed before installing the run of pipe above ground. For clarification this well will not feed into the pond at the start of the 6th fairway, but will pump into the main irrigation pond on 5.

Crew busy blowing leaves

Pictures taken a week apart shows how fast some trees have been loosing their leaves

Seed Work:

A few areas around the course were also seeded in the last few weeks. A portion of the 15th tee surround was composted and seeded. Behind the 10th green was similarly composted and seeded.

Driving Range Net:

The driving range net along the right side of the range field will be being replaced in the next few weeks. We are waiting for the contractor to give us the exact day they will be able to start, but it will likely be sometime during the first week of November. This work will require the range to be closed for three-five days. How long the process will take will be effected mainly by weather conditions such as the cold or wind.

We even had a little bit of snowfall Monday morning.