New Tees In Preparation for the Web.com Tour

With the PGA bringing its Web.com tour to Lakewood CC, a few minor modifications are being made to the course.  These changes will not affect members playability, but will make the course more challenging for the tour players in the event.  A new Tee is being built on #2 that will add another 50 yards to the hole, and #3 black tee has been moved to the right just a little and expanded considerably.  #3 will also be able to be played at 200 yards now.  Below are photos of the projects currently in progress.

#2

#3

Putting Green Update

I will try to post an update once a week on the progress of the new putting green.  We began seeing germination of the seed on day 7, and have had good growth and more germination everyday since.  Today is day 11 since seed went down.  Below are photos of day 9 and day 11.

Day 9

Day 11

LCC's New Putting Green

As most of you are aware, construction of the new putting green is complete.  We are very pleased with the finished product.  It was a lot of work, but with a great LCC crew, and a great local contractor Mike O'Donnell (Precision Construction), the whole project was a great success.  Being local allowed Mike O'Donnell to come on site and bid the project accordingly.  With Mike knowing the abilities of our crew, he was comfortable with us doing the Irrigation, final grade around the perimeter, and laying all the sod.  Bellow are some pictures from bare ground to finished product.  This partnership not only produced a great product, but also saved an enormous amount of money.

Greens Aerification

Aerification went great this week.  We had a great turn out from our staff Monday evening, and the weather could not of been better.  We were able to get 10 greens finished in about 3.5 hours.  Tuesdays weather was even better in that there was no dew in the morning.  Dragging the sand into aerification holes requires it to be dry.  When there is no dew, it allows us to begin top dressing while it is still cool out. Dragging the sand in bruises the turf, and it is harder on the plant when this is done in warmer temperatures.  So the turf was put under a little less stress this year.  Our forecast looks decent, so recovery should come in the next 14 day give or take a few.  Smoothness will begin returning next week, but speed will be a bit longer of a process.  We thank everyone for their cooperation.  We hate doing this as much as you hate us doing it, but it is just too important of a practice to put off.

New White Tee on 10

Here is the new white tee on #10.  We were able to use soil from the old putting green for the final grade, extra clay from the contruction site for the base, and all the sod was from on site.  If weather continues to be good, we plan on putting new white tees on 6, 8, and 18 as well.  All these tees are on the master plan, but never done to keep the cost of  the renovation under budget.  

Thick Spring Rough

This time of year we typically hear comments about the rough being too difficult to play out of.  With rapid growth of cool season turf in the spring, and projects being worked on, it is very difficult to keep the rough at a height golfers like.  We mow the rough twice a week, and mow selected spots through the course three time per week.  Once soil temperatures rise and we have consistently warm temps, the rough will become more manageable.  There is a graph below showing the growth habits of cool season turf.  You can see in the graph how much more growth the turf has in the spring.  The link below is a good article from the USGA explaining this topic.

http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/midatlantic/Spring-Rough-Is-Rough!---June-2010/

Several Updates

The past month has really been busy for the grounds crew.  We filled our irrigation system last week, and had 6 sections of old pipe blow out.  There is this blue pipe we run across occasionally, and it was not happy coming up to pressure this year.  Three of the six breaks we encountered were this blue pipe.  We were able to get everything repaired, and the system seems to be holding pressure well.  The FCC's mandate of going from wide band to narrow band also went into effect beginning this year, so instead of going to a narrow band remote system we purchased 2 MI licenses from Rainbird.  These licences allow us to control our irrigation from our smart phones or Ipad, and saved us thousands of dollars.
The memorial bridge on 18 has also been completed, and looks really nice.  With the dryer weather we have been able to get weeds sprayed, and all the stump holes filled and seeded.  We have four new white tees planned, and hope to get these started soon.  As many of you have noticed, there are some odd looking circles on some of the greens.  This is called Waitea Patch.  It pops up every spring, and usually fades away on its own, but this year it dug its teeth in a little deeper.  It has heeled up on all the greens but 5.  It is no longer active, and we are seeing good recovery.  I think we may actually be out of the cold weather, finally!

Spring Aerification is Done!

We wrapped up our core pulling (aerification) yesterday.  We brought in a little extra help so we could complete the fairways over a two day period.  Other than a couple equipment breakdowns on the first day, everything went really smooth.  Its been 18 days since greens were done, and they are completely recovered.  We give the greens a week to recover and let the sand settle into the canopy of the plant before mowing, then we will mow with some older mowers for 7-10 days so we don't dull our good mowers too bad.  We just began getting into our mowing and rolling routine, so the greens should be getting back into their true form shortly.  Below are several videos of our fairway aerification process.

New Walking Bridge on 18

Work has begun on the new walking bridge in honor of Jim Walsh.  Footers were poured yesterday, and the culvert was put in place today.

The Course Is Actually Opening

A majority of our grounds staff returned today.  With things drying out, and temperatures climbing we are hoping Thursday will be the day.  Our staff was able to get a lot of debris cleaned up, tees mowed, and approaches mowed.  We will begin mowing fairways tomorrow.  The amount of clippings we got on approaches was amazing, so fairways could end up taking a little more than 1 day.  We will cut the greens for the second time Thursday, and we should be good to go.  Bunkers take a lot of maintenance in the spring, so we hope to have back in good condition by next week some time.  Stay tuned for the official word for Thursday.  Our first official grounds tweet will be to inform you that we are opening the greens.

1 Tee

                                                                          1 Approach

Mother Nature Is Not Cooperating

As we are wrapping up some final equipment details, Mother Nature apparently has different ideas about getting the golf season started.

Winter Update

     The reel grinding has finally been completed, and the machines are almost all put back together.  Our mechanic Mel is very happy with the job Mike has done grinding all the reels.  We are continuing repairs and maintenance to the equipment fleet (brakes, batteries, hydraulic leaks, oil leaks, engine repairs/replacements, and anything else that needs attention) in order to give ourselves a smooth start to the season.
     We have also been able to take down 11 trees that were approved for removal.  There is still some debris to be picked up from the tree removal that will be taken care of once the ground freezes back up.  If the forecast holds up, we should be able to be out next week picking up the logs and branches still remaining.
     We have also set up a Twitter account for the grounds department this year.  We will be sending out tweets informing those following us of what's happening on the course in real time.  whether it is course conditions, or witnessing a member hit a hole in one, I think this will be a fun way to keep all of you informed of the little things happening at the club.  Just go to twitter.com and sign up.  Once you're signed up just search for LakewoodCC Greens@LCC_Supt and choose to follow us.  Download the Twitter App on your smart phone, and you will have constant access to our twitter feeds.  If you have any questions about this, please feel free to send me an email (dan@lakewoodcountryclub.com) or just stop me and ask.

Winter Reel Grinding Extravaganza

The question I wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, "What do you do during the winter".  Without question, the most time consuming project is reel grinding.  There is a total of 71 reels in our shop, and 58 of the 71 need to be ground this winter.  The grinding process begins with the mower being broken down into three pieces; engine, reel assembly, and the handle bar assembly.  If it's a reel off a riding mower, the reel assembly is simply removed from the mower and taken to the breakdown station.  Next the reel assembly is completely broken down.  All the bearings are replaced, and packed with fresh grease, and the unit is reassembled.  The reel is then ground so all blades are even, and sharp enough to cut newspaper.  The bedknife and front roller are then put back on, and the height of cut adjusted.  Finally the mower is put back together and ready to cut as soon as mother nature decides it's time.  This is also the time that other parts of the mower that need repair or replacement are done.  This is a process that will typically take 5-6 weeks.  We will probably take closer to 7-8 weeks this winter with only one mechanic and one less employee.  We can all be assured that the reels will be producing great conditions as Mike Martic the Assistant Superintendent has taken over the grinding duties.
If conditions allow, we will be getting out on the course to remove some trees that are inhibiting play, or no longer are safe, healthy, or aesthetically appealing.  We will also be trying to get a little more drainage done if possible.  I will post weekly updates this winter with our progress in the shop, and any outdoor projects that are able to get done.