tee adjustment............

Wednesday we repainted and adjusted some tees around the course. Some of them have become much to small and even though they are free form tees a couple of them were a little too "free form."

10 or more years ago when I was here it would take me 4 and 1/2 hours to mow tees and collars and now it is taking people 3 hours. Something must have changed and it isn't the mower. This picture is of #6 and I know that it excites everyone that this tee got moved back another 5 yards but if this adjustment allows us to use more of the existing tee then we have accomplished our goal. Our goal is to have flat tees, good grass to hit from, and be able to follow the basic rules for tee setup. One of those rules being the tees should be placed no closer to the back of the tee than two club lengths.

Wednesday we trenched a new drainage line from the wash pad to another "drain field" or ditch. The area around the wash pad was not draining and all the water was starting to limit access to the shop and ruin the surrounding turf. This project should be finished up soon. To further improve the drainage we might add some drainage units to catch the grass clippings before the go into our drainage system.

#1 cart path exit............

The cart path exit on #1 was more than a little rough so at a member's request we fixed it. First we saw cut the end and then we used some of these old pavers that were donated to the club some time ago. We still have enough of these pavers to fix the exit on #2 cart path.

some small fall projects...............

our bentgrass nursery - The stripped area in the picture will be put into bluegrass this fall which we will be used for some fairway leveling next spring and early summer.

#11 collar repair - This year we are using bentgrass from our L-93 nursery which might help our success rate as this particular spot gets very hot in the summer. This coming week we will be finishing some fairway aerification and overseeding, sodding a small area on #12 collar, making a fall broadleaf application around bunkers and the perimeters of the golf course, and detailing trees for the final time this season.

#14 fairway regrade and sod project

On Wednesday we were able to get sod and finish the fairway project on #14. I also ordered enough sod to sod the new cart path edge on #17. The project went well and in a few weeks we will start the work on #8 which will include sub-surface drainage, surface drainage, and more sod. Big rolls of sod cost $1.05 per yard plus about $100 for delivery if we can keep the amount small enough to avoid the semi.

The remainder of the season this area will be mowed to 1 and 1/4 inch and next year in the spring we will re-draw the fairway to include this new area.

Once the sod is healed in along the cart path traffic will be able to continue as normal, but for now the best option is for cart traffic to vary the entry points and avoid the wettest parts of the new sod.

On Monday we will be deep-tining the greens and the course will be closed. The remainder of the week will be spent monitoring green recovery and repairing a few bad spots on collars #12 and #11 with our nursery bentgrass. If time allows I will also be addressing the exit point on #1 and #2 cart paths. We have a pallet of old pavers left over from a project and we will use those to make a smooth transition from path to turf.

Green adjustments........

This week we started to adjust some of our green edges and fairway edges. Most green edges were adjusted to the outside by 2 to 6 inches depending on the green. The process is simple. I take a 5 foot piece of pvc and put it on the edge of the bluegrass or perimeter cut and put a paint dot on the green. In a perfect world the mowers would never miss their line and the adjustments would not be needed, but its hard to mow good on Saturday and Sunday morning when you slept in the parking lot.

The fairway adjustment are a little more abstract. I am trying to put each row of irrigation heads in the fairway. This is not possible on all the holes, but most fairways are being expanded in one spot or another.

We will also be going through all the tee complexes this fall to make any needed changes to the free flowing tees here at Hillcrest.

#14 fairway project...............

I could not take it anymore and decided I had to repair the uneven areas on #14 fairway that hold water way too long after even small rains. The areas hold water for so long ducks were starting to gather. Still on the late summer project list are repairs to a couple of collar areas, some more fairway interseeding, a number of stump holes to either seed or sod, and a couple of very small green surrounds to sod. I had to squeeze #14 in somewhere and this was the week.

October is reserved for adding sub surface drainage and re grading #8 fairway.

The lay of the land didnt leave a lot of options as far as subsurface drainage is concerned so basically we raised the area by about 3 inches and graded the section smooth with the surrounding fairway. On Friday we will be laying the sod.

This was a trial run for a couple of other areas that give us trouble coming out of spring and #14 has plenty of depressions and poorly drained areas that should be addressed, but this section is a nice start and fits our sod budget.