Week Of Jan. 22 + 29 - Road Trip
- Matthew Behl
- Feb 2, 2024
- 3 min read
Most of the week of the 22nd was focused on the tree work on 1 which went extremely well. While that was occurring the agronomy team was also working hard with brush, small tree, and pruning work behind the 14th green. This work is being done to promote better air movement on this green and to help the putting surface to dry out. The 14th green was starting to become closed in (stagnant) and was starting to hold moisture. We have also started to develop a small population of poa annua (annual bluegrass) on this green. An improvement in the growing environment will help the overall health of the bentgrass and help with our poa annua (annual bluegrass) control strategies. The work will also improve the aesthetics of the area as well. When we rent a chipper to chip the debris we will also be taking down some pines in the area and just chip those as we go. Once the work to 14 is complete we will post some nice before and after's.
Gallery of the work behind 14:
The week of the 29th featured a road trip for assistant Michael Curtin and irrigation tech Marcelo Barrios. They traveled down and back to another Invited Property (Diamond Run Golf Club) in Sewickley, PA to pick up a salt broadcaster for the clubhouse parking lots. The trip down took a little over 10 hours while the trip back was only slightly shorter. I really appreciate these guys making the trip.
A couple of pictures from their travels:
While they were traveling, I decided to pull the trigger on some of the remaining tree work. The equipment needed was going to be unavailable for a period of time and there is no cold weather in the short or long term forecast. There were two extremely big pines on 13 that needed to come out. The only way to get these out would be via crane or a machine called the Fallbach. The Fallbach has a much lower ground pressure then a crane, but either way this is something we wouldn't want to do during the golf season. I decided it was now or never. The second pine on the left of 13 had heavy rot and had a large crack between leaders. It was a safety hazard and if split would have caused significant damage to a homeowner property and the fairway. We also had another large pine snap in a storm by the green that needed to be removed. The agronomy team has a small amount of damage to the haul route to deal with, but all in all not too bad. While the Fallbach was here we did some work to the 10th tee as well. This work will help improve the tee health and is also done to allow for a possible tee enlargement project for the blue, white, and forward tee.
The agronomy team will be working on getting the large pine on 13 out to the road for a log truck to remove next week.
Work at 10 tee:
Stump grinding was also started to the recently taken down trees on 10 and 13. We will be using another company to take care of the stumps on 1 as that work is more technical and involved. I hope to have the stumps on one ground before the end of February.
All other scheduled tree work (work to 4 tee and between 9 and 18) is on hold until better conditions exist. This work may need to be completed during a dry period during the golf season.
While we have been spending time working on the course over the past two weeks we have been working on a lot of shop improvements, course accessory work, and equipment work. Other then our mechanics equipment work our "inside" work is just about wrapped up and our efforts will be solely focused on the golf course starting Monday.
Some pictures from the last two weeks:
Greens looking good after recent thaw:
