Aerification time again!

I know, I know, I know, everyone hates the time of year!  Greens Aerification!  Yes, it is that time of year when we punch big holes in the greens and fill them with a heavy topdressing of sand.  No doubt it makes the greens look terrible, but it helps the grass to be stay healthy and strong in so many ways!  Our staff will start this process on Monday, and with a good chance of rain forecast for Tuesday night, we will push to be completely done with all 27 holes before the rain arrives!  Stay tuned for the step-by-step process over the next few days!

#17 Bridge Repairs

Last week our staff was busy trying to re-deck the bridge crossing the creek on hole #17.  The wood that spanned across the bridge was rotting badly and it was starting to be a safety concern for the people who drive across it daily.  We started by removing all the railing and boards which were used as the decking for the bridge:

 What was left after everything was removed were the main support beams as you see in the pictures below:

Since the main support beams were still in good shape, we started to re-surface the decking by anchoring into the existing beams.

By Friday afternoon we were able to replace all the decking boards, and we will work on finishing the new railing by the start of next week.  So far so good!

Cleaning out the Creek

This past week we rented a large excavator and used it to dig the silt out of the creek on holes 13 and 17.  This large machine was able to reach across the creek and easily remove the large sand bars and silt deposits that have been left over many years of washing from upstream.  We even found a tire and a Pepsi can that look like it was from the 1980s!  All this proves that the silt has been deposited over a long period of time, so let's hope our work is not all for nothing and the creek remains cleaned out for years to come!  We will still be doing more work to finish the project, but the worst stuff has been removed!

This silt deposit in front of 17 tee box was 4 feet deep!

When CPO Please Stay CPO!

While driving around the course early this morning I noticed a site that pains me inside.  During the day on Sunday while people were enjoying a round of golf, someone took it upon themselves to cut across #10 fairway.  It was apparent whoever did the damage was driving from the right side trees in the rough on #10, and drove across the fairway to connect to the cart path on the left side of the golf hole.  This caused a very unsightly mud track all the way across the fairway.  Please take a look at the pictures below to see the damage:

This is the exact reason we say Cart Path Only when the conditions are wet.  We try to be as forgiving as possible and let people go 90 degrees with the carts as much as possible, but when we must be Cart Path Only please help us out and stay on the Cart Path Only!

Here is another person who was too lazy to stay on the cart path after coming down the right hand side of #10.  Notice the 3 different low areas they drove through and the mud tracks left behind for over 50 yards!  Next time you play golf and the conditions are wet please be careful and stay on the cart path!  

New Insulation

We have finally completed the project of replacing the insulation in the Grounds building.  What an improvement in looks from what we had in the past.  The old insulation lasted 25 years, but was destined to be replaced after much wear and tear.  Take a look at the pictures and see how nice and clean it looks now!

First this is how it looked before:

Now here it is in the process of being completed.  It is very easy to see the difference before and after:

What a great investment and upgrade in our facilities!  

Stocking the Pond!

Today was a very exciting and different day on the golf course.  Because we dredged and restored our lake on holes #3 and #13, the Club was eligible to receive fish from the Georgia DNR for a very cheap fee to help re-stock our lake.  We had a crew member drive to Summerville, GA to pick up a few hundred Bass, Bluegill, and Catfish.  Once we got the fish to the lake we had to add a few gallons of  lake water to each can for the fish to get acclimated. We then released them into the pond so they can grow and reproduce!  Let's hope they survive and help fill the pond with fish in the coming years to help restore the ecosystem!

Early Budding!

It has been so abnormally warm and wet the last few weeks that some plants around the golf course have been fooled into thinking it is Spring already.  These magnolias pictured below are growing between 8 green and 11 white tee box.  These trees are usually some of the earliest bloomers on the course, but we usually see them bloom around the first of March on a typical year.  The pictures were taken on New Years Eve, and you can see how many flowers are already out and looking pretty.  Just another sign that this year is an odd one for weather, and we will more than likely see interesting reactions from the different plants as the next few months pass!