Ahh...Fall pt. 2

My last post lead into what it really takes to "put a course to sleep for the winter".  In this post, I'll shed some light on what we do to put a golf course to bed for the winter.  I'm assuming that some of you out there understand that there is a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure that the grass will come back healthy and vibrant once the snow is gone.  I am going to outline the basic needs of winterization, and try not to be sooooo long winded as to lose your attention.

Ahhhhh...Fall pt.1

 

 

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year.  Spring is pretty neat, but you always can count on some nasty cold, rainy days which remind you of the not too far out-of-mind winter that you just came out of hibernation from.  Fall brings a welcomed drop in the heat, not only to us humans, but to the turf we hold so close to our hearts.  Cool season grasses are aptly named just that- they grow best in the cooler, shoulder-seasons of the summer.  The turf has mainly rebounded from the various summer stresses, and you don't have that "it's so bright it hurts my eyes" sun beating down on you.  You can actually enjoy being out in the sun and your face doesn't hurt from all the squinting. 
      Another great thing about fall is around the course, there is more time to get those projects done that have been nagging you all summer. 






     Here at Wildflower, we had an "interesting" pressurization, to say the least.  Two major breaks isolating loops in our system that were altogether, around 400 feet.  It was so convenient that BOTH of the breaks happened to be under cart paths, so I decided this spring to isolate them and come back to them at a later date.
   This is the beginning stages of our 250' irrigation re-build.  I can't say for sure that all of the 250' of pipe looked like this guy here, but I do know that we dug up just by the gate valve by the cart path and it was shattered right up to the cart path.  On the other side, towards 15, we dug a trench 40 feet long and all of that pipe met the same fate, completely shattered pipe with razor sharp edges. 

As you can see, it did go RIGHT under the cart path by 16 Tee box, so we rented a Demo saw and a ditch witch.  With a little planning, we were able to knock out both fixes in a day.  Today was mainly spent gluing the pipe together and working on the angles to make the pipe fit just right.

 With the last few days being in the 70's, there has been a decent amount of golf and we really appreciate your patronage.  This time of the year is always tough to make decisions because you are basing your reason for the decision on the weather.  We could be buried under 2 feet of snow by tomorrow; you just never know.  There are a lot of things that we need to still get done here at Wildflower in order to keep us ahead of the game in the spring, mostly being leaf removal and fungicide applications.  The difficult decision to close the course is always being asked and we will stay open as long as we can.  I feel we owe it to our members who lost the better half of the spring to inclement weather, but if the weather is going to change here soon, I don't think too many of us will be knocking down the door to go out and play in 40 degree weather that's super windy.  I'm going to wrap this post up, but it leads right into my next post...