Here are a couple of photos of some of the minor things that have been going on around the club so far this winter. We have been making a number of upgrades to the pool bathrooms. The two most major changes are new paint and the removal of a vintage urinal in the boy's bathroom. We replaced the oldest urinal in town with a new one.

Of course the change ment we needed to make a few changes to the plumbing so the new urinal could flush. We also added new toilets and dispensers. New and additional lights will be installed soon and each bathroom will be getting fans. I need to add a few hangers and hang a couple of new mirrors, but I will wait for temperatures to get above freezing again.

The other photo is of a small project to save some space in the breakroom and keep our time clock computer a little less dusty. I also needed a place to put our new training manuals which I expect employees to read with a fever. And I also want to track how many hours certain jobs are taking this season so I needed a place to hold some of that information. Specifically I am looking for an accurate measurment of just how many hours walk mowing greens requires.

Snow mold and equipment care........

So today I finished up the snow mold prevention application on the greens. I also tank mixed a plant protectant to help prevent winter dessication. I usually have this down by Thanksgiving but the weather before Thanksgiving was really nice and then the week after Thanksgiving I handwatered greens instead. Then we got some snow and I had to wait for that to melt to put the finishing touches on the golf course for the winter.

I also picked up the front nine flags and some other stray furniture which makes the course open for winter play only. That means no carts and no play on the front side.

When we bring these pieces in for cleaning it has become quite the process. This sprayer will take about 12 hours to clean. The tank gets cleaned with muriatic acid. If I cleaned something at my house I would use acid; it works pretty good to get rid of chemical stains.

During the cleaning, especially on the sprayer, I make notes of parts that need to be repaired or fixed. The sprayer this year will get all new spray tips and I repaired a function that I have been living without during the season, but kinda missed it. I also have a part to replace that I got caught on a tree limb back in August and a few inexpensive parts to fix on the booms. Otherwise this piece of equipment has been running very well for us and is heading into its 8th year with just short of 1000 hours.

winter work

During the winter the cutting units on the mowers are taken apart, cleaned, de-greased, and moving parts are replaced if needed. After the reels are reassembled we grind the reel and bedknife.

We have 35+ reels here and each reel is in a maintenance rotation because the work is time consuming and we have found that a tear down is required every 3 years except on certain pieces which get the treatment everyother year.

All the reels get sharpened during the offseason and our maintenance schedule seems to find problems before they are problems saving us from in season breakdowns.

winter?

Usually by Thanksgiving we have gotten enough weather in either snow or rain form to shut the course down for the winter. But this year the nice weather just keeps coming and unfortunatly your grass really needs some rain.

Today I am out handwatering the new sod and starting a few greens. Each green gets about 500 gallons of water or more and that should give us another two to three week window to wait for either rain or snow. Tank watering is a painfully slow way to water.

Irrigation blowout.............

Next week Monday we will be starting the annual irrigation blowout. The process takes about 3.5 days.

This week we mowed all the short grass one last time and then pulled all the reels off of the traction units. So I dont plan to mow anymore this season. The bathrooms should be winterized and shut down for the season by the weekend. Most of the rakes, t-signs, tee markers, ballwashers, etc. have been brought indoors too.

Following blowout we still need to make our snowmold application and topdress the greens. We also will be working on the leaf harvest, but that has been a waiting game as the trees are not dropping leaves real fast yet.

New tees????

Here are some new locations for ladies tees in 2012. Hole #6 could be 50+ yards shorter (125 yards) and #16 could be as much as 60 yards shorter (120 yards) than the current tee boxes if this project is approved.

I have often believed that the ladies tees were positioned too far back and also believe that the tee space on our par 3's is too small. The construction of new tee's on these two par 3's allow for more tee space for the men and a more comfortable hole for the ladies.

My plan is to cut these areas down to tee height (did that today as you can see in the pictures) and when construction begins save the sod so the tee can be put into play as soon as possible. We want to excavate a larger area then you see in the picture so we can elevate the tee slightly and of course be left with a flat tee.

No time table is set for this project because it has not been approved yet. I would like to get #16 done early in the summer and #6 (requires more fill) completed late summer or early fall.

#8 drainage project complete.................

The drainage project on #8 is complete. The fairway lines have been adjusted and we will be evaluating the playability of the new fairway lines through the spring of next year. My current plan is to maintain this area at 1 and 1/4 inch.

We are also working on building 1 and maybe 2 new tees next year on #6 and #16 for the women. While nothing is approved I will be working on exact placement, size, and distance heading into the winter months.