Weeks of Feb 5th and 12th: Cleanup begins

The Blizzard of 2024

As of the early morning hours of Tuesday the 13th Ipswich was forecasted to receive 4-8 inches of snow. Just the day before forecasts were talking about snow amounts potentially reaching over 10 inches. With temperatures for the next few weeks also being forecasted as low, the Agronomy team here at Ipswich was not looking forward to being stuck inside. We have recently started to focus most of our efforts towards beginning initial cleanup efforts around the course. Thankfully we had almost no accumulated snowfall Tuesday and most of what did stick had melted by the next snowfall Thursday night. The course received about an inch of snow Thursday night, but will be gone shortly and cleanup will resume.

9th Hole Friday the 16th Morning

Blowers Heading Out

Pine on 13 Cleanup

Piles Being Staged

For the first time since the end of last season we had multiple of our tow behind blowers cleaning up areas of the course. Our focus was on piling up debris in the rough along the edges of the course. While we had the course very clean at the end of the season, there has been a tremendous pine cone drop this year. Our cleanups efforts have focused on these heavy concentrations of pine cones. For now we are staying off of the short grass surfaces like greens and fairways, but they currently are not particularly messy. We will begin picking up these piles in the coming weeks.

Tree Work:

Leaning Pine above path

Tree Clean Up

Leaning Tree on 6

Tree and Low Limbs removed

Another leaning pine tree was also removed from the course. This pine was hanging above the path leading to the 5th bathroom. A heavily leaning hardwood along the 6th hole path was also removed due to concerns of it showing signs of uprooting. Some low hanging branches were also pruned along the left side of the path.

Mechanic Work:

Worn arms and pins

Gear Oil being Changed

Mechanic Glenn Skelly continues to work his way through every piece of equipment we have here at Ipswich. Some machines require more work then others as is the case with our Toro 4000 rough cutting unit. This is one of our largest pieces of mowing equipment and is responsible for cutting the majority of the rough around the course. As such it sees a tremendous amount of use and has many worn out components in need of replacing or repair.

Fungicide Applications:

Granular Fungicide on 3 green

Range Floor Sprayed

We took the opportunity of the warm weather Monday before the forecasted "snow storm" Tuesday to put out a few additional fungicide applications. The entire range floor was sprayed and a few greens that tend to hold snow longer received an application of a granular fungicide. These applications were done as extra preventative measures and to help ensure the new range floor is in the best shape moving into the coming season.

Bathroom Remodel Completed:

Bathroom Remodel

The renovation to the shop bathroom has been completed. Thanks to Jim and Juan for all the work they put into this project. We have a new mirror and cabinet on order for the bathroom as well. Over the last few off seasons we have done a few shop renovations to make our maintenance facility a nice and comfortable place for our employees.