Clubhouse Project Officially Started!

Monday marked the first day in which the permits were in hand and the project is now in full swing.  Our staff was responsible for removing the landscaping materials around the construction sites, as well as dismantling the Men's Grill Patio.  Take a look at the pictures and you will see what I mean.

Our staff helped to remove all the brick pavers that made up the patio, so they could be used for the enlargement of the patio on the other side of the Clubhouse.  But more on that project later.  Now that the site is prepared the work of building the new Mountain View Lounge can begin!

This is another picture of where we had to remove more plants.  There will be a nice, new set of stairs that come down from the 2nd floor, and all the plants in this picture were in the way.  You will see in the next picture what it looks like now!

Moving the Maple

Today our crew got to do something we don't do very often, relocate a Japanese Maple tree at the Clubhouse.  This tree was in danger of being removed because of the construction associated with the new Mountain View Lounge project.  One aspect of the Clubhouse project, building a new set of steps behind the Clubhouse down to the back patio, will be located right on top of where this tree was currently sitting.  A mature Japanese Maple tree of this size is valued at several thousand dollars, so we wanted to take a chance and re-plant it rather than just cutting it down and throwing it away!  Here is a picture below of us digging the tree out of the ground to remove it.

This is a picture of us lifting up the tree and loading it in the trailer.  We then hauled the tree around to the front of the Clubhouse to re-plant it new, safe area.  You can see in the photo below where we planted it.

The spot we chose to plant the Japanese Maple is between the front door of the Clubhouse and the sidewalk to the Tennis Center.  We feel this will be a nice place for the tree to be seen in the future for many years to come!

Course Closed Tuesday, Range is Open

Due to ice and snow remaining on the frozen greens and for the safety of the membership the Golf Course will be Closed on Tuesday, January 10th.  Several greens remain frozen and covered in ice and snow, as seen in the picture below.  This photo was taken Monday afternoon of #6 Overlook green.  You can see the front portion of green grass where the sunlight has been shining, the back completely frozen.

The freezing and thawing of the snow over the last few days has caused an ice layer to form on the greens.  Those greens that receive a good amount of sunlight have thawed, but some greens remain covered in ice.  Bridges and cart paths in some shady areas are also iced over and will need another day to fully thaw and dry out.  The Driving Range and putting greens will be open for normal use.

Winter Projects

The leaves are almost done falling, and the grass has gone brown and is completely dormant, that means only one thing, Winter is officially here!  Today, December 21st, is the winter solstice.  This day is significant because not only does it announce that winter has arrived, but this is also the shortest day of sunlight all year.  The one good thing is after today, all the days slowly get a little longer and Spring is the next season to come.  While Winter time makes is much less enjoyable to be outside, our grounds crew has a few projects we are working on this winter to make an impact on the golf course.  One project is to remove trees in certain areas around the golf course.  We have started to remove trees to the short left of #14 green.  This grove of trees is in play if a golfer hits short left of the green and currently we are unable to grow any grass near the trees at all.  This makes for a difficult lie if you are to hit your ball in this area.  Take a look at the pictures to see a little better what I am talking about.

Our plan is to remove all the trees you see in this picture above, and then sod all the dirt and thin areas this spring to make it all grass "rough".  This new grass will be installed across all the dirt and exposed area of the existing bed, all the way to the edge of #14/#16 pond edge.  We think you will like the new open look, and no doubt it will be a much better place to play a chip shot to the green from rather than hitting off dirt trying to avoid the trees!  We will continue to update you on other Winter projects as they come about, as this is only one of the many we plan to get finished over the next few cold months!

New Arrival! Callie Sophia Hayes!

It is with great pride and joy that I announce the arrival of Callie Sophia Hayes!  She was born on December 14th at 3:31pm and weighed 5 pounds and 14 ounces!  Baby and mommy are now at home resting and trying to learn our new schedule.  We are so blessed to have a healthy baby and a great start to our little family.  We look forward to bringing Callie to the Club when she gets a little older to meet all her new friends and MCC family! 

Buddy has been excited and comforting to the baby, but still a little puzzled as to what happened!  He is no longer #1 in our household, but I think he is going to be just fine with that!

Santa Claus Open!!!!!

The S.S. Kneen is back in the water and that could only mean one thing.....Santa Claus Open!  We hope everyone had a lot of fun playing this year!  Even though it was a little bit Chilly!

Test Bunkers

The Test Bunkers on #4, #9, #13, and #14 finally got a chance to show their abilities when it rains.  After finally receiving  2 heavy downpours totaling 3.25 inches of rain on the golf course this week, we got to see how well the new bunker liner and sand handled the rain.  As expected, the new Capillary Concrete liner which we installed to replace the cloth liner reduced washouts tremendously.  Take a look at the pictures below for proof.

 These are pictures of one of the Greenside Bunkers on #5 after the heavy rain Monday.  This is pretty typical conditions of most of the bunkers after a heavy rain event.  Notice the washouts on the edges of the bunker and the displacement of sand.  Our crew has to go through and shovel sand back up to fill in voids on the edges, and then use a mechanical rake to get the bunker smooth again.  One bunker is not too bad, but when you have over 50 to do across all 27 holes is gets to be a lot of labor to fix. 

 These two pictures show the Test Bunker on #4.  You will see how there is only one slight washout on the right side of the bunker.  Most of the sand just needs to be raked, as we do with daily maintenance.  The washout will be easy to fix and will not take any more labor than normal.  This bunker on #4 has a very steep face which is hard to hold sand, much steeper than the bunker on #5 pictured above.  This bunker typically  washed out just as bad if not worse than #5 before we renovated it.

This new construction of bunkers will save us a lot of labor in the future!