End of November

     Can you believe it's the end of November already? I hope all of you reading this had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. I was fortunate to have the last week off for a much needed vacation. It's not always easy to turn my work switch off but I really tried my hardest this time. It makes it easier when you have a great staff. 

     This last week the boys knocked out all of the mowing by Wednesday and even had time to tackle a couple of small projects. A lot of credit needs to be given to my entire staff for making my job easier and the course looking great week in and week out.

    The projects this last week included a new split-rail fence to the left of #15 green. This was another step towards eliminating the (not so)permanent rope lines on the course. The next fence project will probably be down the cart path on #4 from tee to green.

    

    The next project at the top of our list for this week was the (almost) dead pine tree down the left side of #18 fairway. This tree took a turn for the worst last winter and has slowly been losing its green needles since. We will be planting some cypress in a few locations down the left rough of #18 very shortly.

     With December right around the corner the maintenance staff all hope you get to get out and play often in the next few weeks especially with no rain in the ten-day forecast.

   

New Drain @ #1 Green

     This last week we were able to accomplish another drain down in front of #1 green. This was actually a tie-in from a catch basin along the road down to the drainage basin in the approach. When the contractors re-paved the entrance to the RV Park they installed this catch basin to help collect the water that collects and comes down the road. Tom was able to drill some hole in the side of the catch basin in the approach and slide the new drain pipe inside. This project should help to dry up a couple little areas around the parking area for the green since the water will have somewhere to go now. Thanks to my staff for doing a clean and professional looking job once again.


Catch basin in the road



New pipe installed

Finished project with sand & seed



Green Circles



     If you've played the course in the last week or so you have probably noticed green circles around the trees and wondered what are they doing? Well, we are in the process of spraying all of our tree wells with a pre-emergent herbicide and glyphosate (round-up) to eliminate all established weeds/grasses and any winter weeds that could germinate. This is another way we cut down on our winter weed-eating which allows us to put our efforts towards other important irrigation, drainage or tree trimming duties that need to get accomplished this winter season.

The State Of Our Lakes

     If you been out playing our course over the last few months you probably noticed that our lakes have not been full and there is algae growing. This is not something we are proud of and is definitely something we are trying to remedy in the future.
     The level of our lakes typically starts to drop sometime in June or July because our wells can't keep up with demand. The low lake levels will typically continue into October or November depending on the weather, rain and well production. We do have the ability to purchase water but in an effort to keep our expenses down we try to keep it to a minimum.
     This past summer was a good summer for us as we were able to get one of our wells back up and running which added another million gallons a month. We were also able to get by without purchasing any water which made our lake levels go down but our revenue go up. We also changed out 75 of our full circle sprinklers to part circle sprinklers to help cut down on the areas we are watering and the amount of water we would need. Our plan for this next winter is to keep eliminating areas that are not in play and change out another 75 sprinklers to the part circle type.

     In an effort to be more sustainable we don't really have a choice but to cut down on the areas that we do water. This will also help out our bottom line as it will be less area we have to mow, fertilize, and keep weed-free. Our hope is that these reductions in turf areas will not even be noticed by most of our clientele. More to come on this subject as we begin to make some irrigation changes throughout the winter.

New Drain Along #1 Cart Path

      As the rains come and go they always remind us of where our poorly draining areas throughout the course. The rains last week have really turned the conditions of the course around. So with the great weather that was forecast for this week we decided to knock out a drain along the cart path on #1 that has been on our radar for quite some time. The combination of soils that don't drain well and the trees down the right rough blocking the sun during most of our fall and winter we needed to be able to catch some of the water off the cart path before it ran out into the fairway.



     Even though it was a short week our assistant superintendent Tom dove right in and did all of the trenching with a mini-excavator. Jake and Jose were running around too, hauling dirt, gravel and cleaning up after Tom.  Here's a couple pictures of Tom and his handy work.



     The original idea was to try to drain the water into a larger drain that runs across the fairway towards the lake on #18 but that didn't pan out because the elevation of that drain was too high.. So for the time being we had to make a sump type drain. In the future we may have to trench back down the fairway to one of the other drains that drain back to the lake. The sump drain is not next to the cart path because some of our irrigation pipe was in the way.



One of a kind!

     As most people know, mechanics can be one of a kind. As most superintendents know it would be unbelievably difficult to not have a mechanic around from day to day. Our mechanic, Jim Bandy, has been at Monterey Pines for over 32 years. He has seen a lot and been through a lot during his tenure. Jim is our resident "Macgyver". He can fix just about anything.
     The picture below shows what most of us see when we come in the shop. That is Jim, hard at work adjusting reels after one of our fairway mowers came in to the shop.

     This last week we unfortunately had to go without Jim for a few days as he tended to his wife while she had some health issues. Jim, we are really looking forward to having you back on Monday. Though we may try to fill your shoes while you were gone we will all have a sigh of relief with your return. Thanks for all you do in and out of the shop!

New Golf Carts (Already?)

     Yes it's true, those are new carts you are driving in today. Even though they were only a little less than two years old the lease on our golf carts was up and so the ClubCar trucks showed up in our parking lot this morning and delivered a new fleet of 60 golf carts, 2 electric utility vehicles, a new range picker and a beverage cart. The new carts are very similar to the old ones and look very shiny and new. Please take good care of them!!

ClubCar Trucks from Augusta, GA

Carts without Tops

New Fleet Ready To Go!



     The GPS units will be installed very soon on the new carts for your enjoyment. A BIG THANKS to our handyman Craig for taking care of the removal of the GPS units and the switch over from the old chargers to the new ones.