Week of March 6
- matthewbehl
- Mar 10, 2023
- 2 min read
The agronomy team started the week off at the New England Regional Turf Conference and Convention. The chemical company Syngenta provided all the lodging for the Invited superintendents growing cool season turf in The Atlantic Region. The Ipswich team spent the day on Tuesday attending educational seminars for pesticide recertification credits and continuing education hours. Syngenta then provided a team networking dinner for the Invited superintendents. It was really nice to get to meet some of the other Invited superintendents. Other then zoom calls this was our first in person meeting since Covid.
The next day started with a breakfast meeting with Syngenta. The Ipswich team then spent the day on the trade show floor and took in a few more educational seminars. That evening we had some training with turf assistant which is the labor and turf management platform Invited will be using moving forward. The Ipswich team departed after the turf assistant training as we had contractors coming to finish the driving range net installation.
The net was replaced on the back section of the driving range this Thursday and Friday. Below are a few pictures of the work getting completed.
Lead Assistant Kevin Bird convinced me to take a few more trees down on the beginning right of the 4th hole. Since we were still stuck in limbo between snow and being able to start course prep a little more project work was completed. This area has been worked on all winter and is a hot spot for balls. This work will provide us with the opportunity to make improvements to the rough in this area.
One of the trees removed was actually a safety hazard and eventually would have come down on it's own.
More pictures of the work on 4
In an effort to mitigate the goose problem we experienced last season we have acquired an addling permit. This will give us the ability to addle up to 12 nest sites and prevent the eggs from hatching. We are still waiting to hear back on the depredation permit. In addition, we have just ordered a handheld laser unit that shoots a green beam. Research states these are highly successful in getting geese to leave the property. If the handheld unit provides control we plan to add solar powered laser units to the ponds as resources allow. Hopefully the use of the laser will limit the amount of addling we need to do.
Also as part of our Audubon certification we started hanging bluebird boxes on the golf course. We will have all our boxes hung by the end of next week. Once the ponds are fully iced out we will add a couple of wood duck boxes on a couple of our waterways as well.
The current plan is to start bringing some staff back on March 15th and move course preparations into full swing. Unfortunately, we are watching a large storm for early next week. Currently looks more like rain, but latest forecast says a slight shift could result in substantial snow. Fingers crossed we are all rain. My team and I are very excited at the possibility of starting course preparations.