Seasons Greetings from the HMGC Maintenance Staff

The maintenance staff is off for the holidays, but we would like to wish all the members, guests, and friends of the club the best this holiday season.  We will be back, and the blog will continue after the new year. 

Here's looking forward to a great 2011!

December 10th Green Section Record

The top article in this weeks USGA Green Section Record is a nice look at doing projects 'in-house' versus hiring outside contractors. This is something we always debate when considering upgrades or improvements. It's often a delicate balance between saving money and getting things done properly in a reasonable amount of time.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/USGA-Green-Section-Record--December-10--2010.html?soid=1103157499740&aid=M-88R_ZhjOs

Winter work continues.

With the course covered in snow and frigid temperatures, the staff continues to deal with the indoor winter tasks.  Needing to use up the remainder of their paid time off, the staff will be on vacation by the end of this week.  We take advantage of the shop being empty for a couple of weeks to clean, de-grease, and paint the shop floor.  This makes it much easier to clean, more functional, and bright for the long winter months spent crawling around on it.  Also, Gary has begun the arduous task of refinishing each and every tee marker.

Jason prepping the floor for paint.

Floor is prepped and shiny.  We will paint our way out of the shop the very last thing Wednesday.  No doubt someone will forget their car keys and have to repaint their footprints.





Ratty marker first gets sanded down.

Freshly sanded and ready for stain.

Re-stained and prepped for the color paint on the ends.

Voila!  One down, only 160 or so to go!

Freak accident on a golf course in Florida that we can learn from.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/florida-golf-club-worker-dies-from-injuries-suffered-1073887.html

Was browsing through my usual industry-related news headlines, and stumbled across the above article from Florida.  A worker on the course was struck by a golf ball and ultimately died.  This may seem like a 'freak occurence', and rare, but it made me think about things I see every year.

There are many times when I am on the course and need to stop for players.  Lo and behold, there can be workers in their line of play, and often times, I see the players make a conscious decision to hit, even though the employee is in range. 

We train our employees to be diligent and aware of where play is, and put it on them to get out of the way.  Every now and again, a worker will get so into their work that they might forget to check for golfers.  MOST members I know will whistle, yell, or even drive their carts up to make sure the employee is aware of them before they hit.  From time to time, however, I see members deliberately hit into the unsuspecting worker.  We try hard to be aware and put the blame on the employee when they say they almost got hit.  Every now and then, we need a little help from the players to keep ourselves safe.  We will work hard to make sure something like what happened in Florida will never happen here.

USGA Green Section Record December 3rd

USGA has an overly descriptive article on ball-mark repair and some other interesting articles in this weeks newsletter. Also some good articles on how some courses are trying to be more 'green'.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/USGA-Green-Section-Record.html?soid=1103157499740&aid=g3PM0n_dtYc

The winter work has begun

  Probably the #1 question I get asked this time of year is "what do you do all winter?"  Well, this year, I plan to answer that.  I will document your maintenance staff operations this winter and occasionally post pictures and information to give a little insight into how we keep busy while the golf course hibernates. 
  We are 90% finished with our end-of-season pesticide applications, but we need weather above freezing for the sprayer to function properly. With temperatures at or below freezing for the next week or so, the staff has been forced inside to begin the winter chores. 
  Basically, we break up into two groups.  Under the watchful eye of my shop/equipment manager Art, the assistants Dave and Jason begin tearing equipment down and replacing all the necessary wear parts such as bearings and seals, while doing oil changes and servicing all units big and small, right down to the last weedeater.  The second portion of the work is prepping and refinishing all the accessories on the course such as tee markers, ball washers, stakes, and benches.  Here's a few pics to show where we are at currently.

Once all the utility vehicles are serviced, we start with the walking greens mowers.  Here, Jason has removed the engine for grinding purposes and is changing the oil.

All the greens mower engines ready to be serviced.

Here's Dave grinding the 'bedknife' or the blade on the bottom of the machine that stands the grass up before the 'reel' clips the grass.

Dave is now grinding the reel to ensure a sharp outer edge on the blade.

To grind the top edge of the reel blades, we put the mower on a machine that I believe is older than the golf course itself.

In our makeshift painting area, all the tee markers are assembled for stripping and refinishing.

Ball washer bases have been pressure washed and painted.

Gary has started on the always exciting task of cleaning and painting every single hazard stake on the course.  He often tells me how much fun he has while he is doing this.