Cart Abuse and Greens Closing

After a long holiday week, we are back at it here in the maintenance department.  I apologize for the length of time between posts, but with the holiday I figured people would be busy.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and managed to survive Black Friday (or completely avoid it if you are smart he he).  Black Friday was a great day for golf and we did almost 80 rounds here at the club.

Anyways, there is still much to do to the golf course before we are "put to bed" for the winter.  Unfortunately, the heavy rains have put a stop to all of it.  We are still hoping to topdress and fertilize the greens once before the ground freezes, but with conditions as soft as they are, we are unlikely to get that done anytime soon.  Up to 3 more inches of rain appear to be headed our way over the course of this week.

With that, we will instead spend some quality time indoors putting a dent in our winter cart maintenance chores.  Every year, our cart fleet is brought in for winter service.  We will start with a good pressure washing followed with checking and cleaning the front end, brakes and brake pedals.  Afterwards, we will remove all batteries, clean out the battery box, clean the batteries and check the water levels.  Once this is complete, the carts will be put to bed for the year.

Along with this, I would like to comment on the condition of the carts.  I usually spend time talking about the abuse that misused carts can do to the turf, but must turn the tides a bit now.  Your money bought this fleet brand new this year, and with just the FIRST THREE CARTS we brought into the shop, there was significant body damage to the likely tune of a few hundred dollars!!!  I was amazed all season at the regular abuse of carts by our membership.  Bag holders, sand and seed boxes, body panels, and fenders were replaced on many carts this past season, and it seems that there are further damages leftover for the winter. Please take care of your carts while using them on the course!  We will get them fixed this winter, but we should be wary to cause unnecessary damage to our carts as it takes money away from more important things!

Speaking of more important things, the greens will be officially closed as of Monday, December 5th.

Allright, now that I have fininshed ranting, enjoy the rest of Cyber Monday!\



With the batteries removed, there is significant debris, garbage, and battery acid present in these boxes.



Using battery cleaner neutralizes any acid that has built up on the batteries to prevent corrosion and unwanted battery discharge.

After just one season, this battery hold-down rod is already corroded.  Maintenance like this is essential to keep these carts in the best working order possible.

It's always a big team effort to get through 50 carts with this degree of maintenance.

TISK TISK!!  A small hole such as this will require the entire body section to be replaced.

This cart obviously took a heavy hit as the side panels and main body section are no longer aligned.  This and the above picture were the first two in the shop selected at random!!!  There was one more that came in damaged, so the percentages seem to be high for damage this winter. 

"Airzilla"

Sadly, we are getting ever closer to the end of the season.  Just yesterday, we were able to beat the rain and successfully blow out the irrigation system.  As you may or may not know, every year we rent the biggest, nastiest, meanest and most powerful air compressor you can get your hands on, hook it up to our sprinkler system, and blow all of the water out of the pipes.  This will (hopefully) prevent any issues from winter freezing and thawing that may damage our underground pipes.

A look at "Airzilla".  Our 2-ton dump truck struggles to tow it, but it gets the job done in good time.

RIP Sammy Ciralsky. Your spirit will be missed.

Click Here to read Sam's Obituary in the Toledo Blade

Sam Ciralsky, a great person and an employee of Highland Meadows the past three seasons, died last night.  He was battling various health issues, but was an absolute inspiration to our crew.

Sam was a Toledo Golf-Turf mainstay.  He was the owner of Toledo Turf, which supplied parts, service, and golf turf equipment to the Toledo area.  In retirement, he sought me out to find part time work.  He mowed fairways and rough, and was an absolute pleasure to have in the shop.  Despite his sometimes poor health, he always smiled, and would often spend time in the lunchroom telling stories from the good old days. 

A few weeks ago, Sam was forced to leave his position to take care of some health issues, but always swore he would return.  Just two weeks after his surgery was the last time I spoke with him, and he made sure to remind me that he would be back in no time to help us put the course to bed.  Sam wasn't one to tell us all the details of his condition, he wanted things to be happy and fun all the time.

Sam will be missed.  His spirit was amazing.  He was an active family man, a hard worker, and he brightened all of our lives here at Highland Meadows.  Sammy, we will miss you.

The Donald

Well, I apologize for not blogging much over the last couple of weeks.  We have been suprisingly busy here in the maintenance department.  Fairways have been punched, the sun has been shining (until today) and while golf rounds are high, my staff is pretty low.  We have only a handful of guys left for the season, so you may spot me on a tractor now and again.

Also, one of my suppliers took me out of town for 3 days to visit a production facility, meet with other superintendents using their products, visit some top-notch golf courses, and network with peers from the Carolinas to Canada.  It was an interesting and educational trip.  I won't bore you with all the 'turf nerd' stuff from the trip, but one of the facilities we toured was Trump National Golf Club.  Overall, a spectacular facility built on the rolling estate of former automotive mogul John Delorean.  The club (using Delorean's old mansion and outbuildings) and golf course were amazing.  My favorite part of the trip had to be when we toured their maintenance facility, I found out that Donald Trump will put his name on everything, even spray equipment.  (See pic below)

Gotta love the Donald.  For better or worse, he keeps it interesting.

Squish Squish

It seems the fall has decided to mimic the spring in terms of weather.  Continued wet stretches of weather have all but crippled efforts to get our usual fall work done without damaging the golf course.  Conditions have forced us thus far to postpone fairway aerification, mowing, and other cleanup tasks.  We are always cautious this time of year since any damage will likely persist until spring.

While you are getting in your last few rounds of golf for the year, please bear with us while we are hindered by these conditions.  Combined with a smaller staff and mornings shortened by frost, it can be difficult to get everything done to the course that we would like to make for perfect playing conditions.  Bunkers cannot be fully raked daily, and we are only able to mow fairways, tees, and greens when conditions allow.

Let's just all hope for some better weather so we can all get out and enjoy the course.

A little fall tree work

Fall tree work began today.  Thanks again to our little insect friend the Emerald Ash Borer, there were a few dead ash trees remaining on the golf course that needed to come down.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to get these things on the ground as they pose a serious threat to the golfers, neighbors, and golf course structures.  The trees we took down today were all dead except for one seriously decayed sassafrass tree that obstructed our ability to remove the dead tree.  These trees had been dead for at least 2 seasons, and they were all in key areas from a safety standpoint.  Fortunately, none of them were trees that impacted the play of the course in any way.

Trees were removed on 2, 3, 15, 6, and along our maintenance drive near #8.  The trees on #2 and #3 were along the fenceline and leaned towards our neighbors.  I needn't remind you that dead trees are a legal liability which the club would be accountable for should they fall and destroy a structure or worse yet hurt somebody.  The dead tree on the left of 15 was leaning towards the green, and the tree between #6 and 16 tees was very large and had already dropped a dead limb right onto the cart path ealier this season which made for an obvious safety concern.  Overall, the trees will not be missed as integral golf course features.  We are finally on the downhill side of our ash removal.  Most of the dead ash trees that remain reside in our perimeter wooded areas.

After this batch is cleaned up, we will make our usual tour of the golf course and remove a handfull of dead pines as well.  The most obvious will be #9 and #16, which have been obvious eyesores for the majority of the season.

The tree on 3 leaning towards the fence line.

The telltale bark discoloration from the ash borer.

The base of the tree rotted and covered with ash borer 'trails'

The crazy tree company hanging from the boom.

The tree on #6 was tricky and took the full length of the boom to access it.  Several limbs had to be removed from neighboring trees since it was grown up through several of them.

Reaching the dead tree on #6 tee.

Evidence of insect destruction.

Tree company way up on #3

17 approach - revisited.

I'm told that there used to be a nice, mowed approach to #17 that was removed for some strange reason.  Well now it's back the way it was intended, and the result from both a playability and aesthetic perspective is awesome in my opinion.  Get out to the course and have a look, or see the pics below for the new "old" look.

The approach is fairly steep and the sod is loose, so for the time being, please DO NOT walk on the approach until it has had time to heal and knit in.  I have clearly marked all the areas as 'ground under repair' and it will need to be played as such until the sod is safe to walk on.  Please use the bunker rakes or your golf club to get your ball from these areas.

Also, please avoid walking in the new bunkers if at all possible until the sod has time to solidify.  We are pretty close to ready, but it will be late next week before I consider letting the area get traffic.

While all that sod work was going on, the crew is still busying itself with the normal fall routine.  The last of the bare areas in the rough are being 'slit-seeded'.  Also try to avoid these areas as much as possible to give the seed the best chance to take this fall.

Leaves are also starting to ramp up their annual plunge, and the majority of crew activity will likely be centered around leaf cleanup and general tree work for the next few weeks.



#17 approach in the process of being sodded with bentgrass from our nursery.  A nice throat to run up a second shot (or catch a slightly short tee shot and run it down to the bottom!)

Hard to see in my cruddy pic, but the new approach invites you to the green while the bunkers loom deadly.  Best effect is to come out and see it in person.

Our sweeper-vac taking care of the leaves. 

If you see these areas on the course, do your best to avoid them.

Aerification and the traps continue to progress

I apologize for not posting sooner.  It has been a wave of activity here in the maintenance department.  Between 15 tee, 17 traps, and aerification, the crew is pooped.  We crammed a lot of projects and maintenance into a three week period.  Fortunately, Mother Nature has helped with some favorable weather!

Aerification was completed Monday and Tuesday of this week.  We used almost the exact same protocol as the last two times.  We did not "pull a core" as is traditional, instead using a serious of deep- and conventional-solid tines to puncture lots of holes, some as deep as 10".  We then topped them all off with a generous helping of sand, brooms, and elbow grease.

I won't bore you with the details as I did last October, but feel free to ask me any questions.  I realize it is both unfortunate AND fortunate that we aerified on such a nice week of weather.  Even though the greens are messed up now, this great weather will help them heal much sooner.

17 traps are also progressing.  We have edged them out and are in the process of compacting and preparing the floor of the traps to receive sand.  We will allow the sod to have a chance to "knit in" a little more, and hope to have the hole completely open before the end of October.  In the meantime, please be very careful when retrieving balls as the subsoil and sod are still quite unstable. 

Thanks for your patience!

At this point the green has already been verticut, deep-tined (see small holes on far left of photo), and covered with sand.  This machine is using 3/4" solid tines about 4" deep to pound the sand into the profile. 

A tow-behind brush does most of the work to get the sand into the holes.

It doesn't quite get all of the holes filled perfectly.

A little hand work is necessary to get absolutely every hole filled.

We then roll the greens until they cry for mercy.  It takes 3-4 good rollings to get the surface back in relatively acceptable playing condition.

Meanwhile, we are still edging out and prepping the traps for sand.

With such a mix of materials (ie rock, clay, topsoil, sand) it will be essential to pack the floors of the trap to ensure we get as little debris/soil as possible getting up into the sand.

We will go over this several times to get the trap just right.

#17 bunkers day 2 and 3

The traps on 17 have been shaped and sodded, and all that remains is to edge, compact the floors, and add sand. It's been a whirlwind few days with the maintenance staff working sun-up to sun-down to get the project finished on time.

The rain has not been very cooperative, but despite that, we were able to finish most of the sod work before the big rain came.  This is important to protect the newly formed banks from eroding.  Unfortunately, the rain did prevent us from finishing the work on the trap floors, which must be completed before we can think about putting sand in.  Still not all bad for 3 days work.

Everybody wants to know when they will open.  We will have the area play as ground under repair for the next little while, but hopefully you will get to enjoy (or curse) the new traps before the golf season is over.  We have opened up the hole to play, but please DO NOT walk on the new sod and especially the steep faces.  Below are a few more pics from the weeks work.

Here, Simon is delicately forming the face of the bunker.

After the shaping is finished, we dug the drainage trenches with the backhoe.  Difficult with all the rock in the subgrade.

The trench is shot with a transit and lined with gravel.  Here the crew is installing the double-walled drain tile.

While we button up the right trap, Simon starts building the left trap.

Another shot of Simon putting some finishing touches on the right trap.

The drain line was trenched and tied in to our existing drain line.

Drain tile being covered with pea gravel.

All of the bunker faces were finished by hand-tamping.  The crew has a lot of sore shoulders this week.

Finishing the sod over the new drain line.

Meanwhile, the left trap excavation continues.

The pile in the center is the infant pile of bedrock that would end up being almost 10 feet tall.

And finally, the first piece of sod hits the ground.

Crew getting tired.  Aaron wants to go home.  No dice.

Simon had to literally chisel the last bit of bedrock out of the trap.  It made a cloud of dust while he was pounding away.

Sod work continues.

To move the last of the waste material, we worked well into the night and in the rain.

Day three had its own obstacles.  Our old steel pipe irrigation system reared its ugly head while digging the trench for the drains.  A few minutes of delay and an acetylene torch later, and we were back in business.

Drainage trench on the left side trap.

Face is tamped smooth and gravel going in the drain line.

With the severity of the slope, the sod work was difficult.

At one point we even needed a ladder to install the sod staples.