Week of Feb. 13th
- matthewbehl
- Feb 17, 2023
- 2 min read
It was another busy week for the agronomy team on the golf course. The week started with a little brush work to the left of the 6th tee complex. While completing the work lead assistant Kevin Bird stumbled upon an electrical box buried in debris.
This pull box is a crucial find in getting the electrical needed to get the old well by the 6th tee complex functioning again. The electrician that is working on the well has already looked at the pull box and believes the conduit is good. We should be able to install a secondary feeder and meter for the new well pump without having to do any excavation! This is a big step forward in possibly adding another water source for our irrigation needs.
A majority of the week the agronomy team removed the chip piles on the course. These were the piles we created from the chipping of the winter tree work/storm damage that was accomplished last week. We were able to get all of these piles picked up and to the compost area this week.
All of the stumps on the golf course were also ground this week. Stump grinding took place on holes 1,2,3,4,9,13,14, and 17 this week. The clean up of the stump grindings will be started next week and will continue as weather permits. After the clean up process we generally need to bring the stump grinder back in to touch up areas that were missed or not deep enough. This is very common as no matter how thorough the operator there are always areas that get covered in shavings and missed.
Stump shavings on 3:
The agronomy team's goal is to have all touch up stump work and stump shavings cleaned by April 1. Ideally we would have started some of the loam work as well, but we can't predict the weather we will experience over the next 6 weeks.
Assistant Michael Curtin and Irrigation Tech Marcelo Barrios have taken advantage of the warm conditions and soft upper layer of soil and are performing valve box maintenance to the golf course. While not a "flashy" project, valve boxes over time have soil wash over them. Turf will also often grow and spread over the cover making locating them very difficult. Locating all valve boxes and cutting back around the covers is a part of maintaining the irrigation system. Having all valve boxes readily visible saves valuable time when a leak occurs or a repair needs to be made. Holes 1-6 were completed last winter and work is being completed to holes 7 forward now.
The agronomy team has ended winter projects for the time being. Our focus will now be on cleaning up the stump shavings and starting to prep the golf course for the possibility of an early opening. There are a lot of variables at play and mother nature also plays a strong role in opening. Regardless of what happens focus needs to be shifted from project mode to prep mode with the amount of cleanup that is ahead of us.
I will end with a couple of pet pictures:
