Eco Wildlife Solutions has been working to remove Foxes and/or Coyotes from the property since Thursday Aug 22nd. As of today they have removed 2 foxes from the areas of #16 and 17. They witnessed a fox digging in the 17th green early Sunday morning. I know Foxes were here long before us and are beautiful to see but they are causing alot of damage and should be removed. They will be working for 3 weeks.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Animal Damage
We seem to have a problem with animals. Here lately something has been tearing up greens at night. I suspect a Fox or Coyote. As I investigate each area I have seen medium sized dog like prints with very long claws in nearby bunkers. Typically it has been small ripped up spots near old plugs. This morning it was as bad as I have seen. I plan to purchase a few traps and set them out.
#18 green
Close up of how severe damage was
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
2013 Club Championship, broken pipe and more rain
NCC 2013 Club Champions:
Women: Erin Packer( Defending Champ)
Men: Trevor Smith
Senior: Pick Parks( Defending Champ)
Super Senior: David Parrott
Junior: Carson Vaughn( Defending Champ)
Congrats to each of the champs for 2013. We had a great number of participants this year. The golf course was in great shape and played tough! Once again I was very proud of my Staff as we put in a Very Long work week. Also Chris and his Staff were on top of their game. The Live scoring was Awesome and a big hit with everyone. Enjoy your new well deserved Reserved Parking spots.
Sunday morning of the Championship brought an awesome surprise. As I approached #1 green I noticed 2 very large "turf bubbles". There was a broken pipe in the loop which circles the greens' irrigation. This was 20 minutes before the 1st group was to tee off. I valved the irrigation off and poked a few holes in the bubbles to drain it.
The bubbles were about knee high.
I poked 3 or 4 holes in the bubble and within an hour it had drained out.
Weather update: Currently, it is raining! Our Total is now at 56.65" and counting! That is almost 5 FEET!!! The forecast for the next 6 days include 60% chance of rain each day and highs in the 70's. Crazy.
With all this rain please keep a few things in mind. The lake repair on #10 will be put off until the area is dry enough to access with large equipment. Also the Rough is as thick as it has been since I have been here(3 seasons). We are not trying to make it impossible to play or fertilizing it. As I have told as many of you, we mow as fast as we can. Our mowers stay running until 7:00pm most days. The rain sometimes sets us back a day or two but we mow daily. Currently the Rough is mowed at 2" As much as I would like to mow Roughs twice a week and shorter, right now we do not have the equipment to do it. Our terrain is bad, as we have exposed roots, rocks and low spots in many areas.
Women: Erin Packer( Defending Champ)
Men: Trevor Smith
Senior: Pick Parks( Defending Champ)
Super Senior: David Parrott
Junior: Carson Vaughn( Defending Champ)
Congrats to each of the champs for 2013. We had a great number of participants this year. The golf course was in great shape and played tough! Once again I was very proud of my Staff as we put in a Very Long work week. Also Chris and his Staff were on top of their game. The Live scoring was Awesome and a big hit with everyone. Enjoy your new well deserved Reserved Parking spots.
Sunday morning of the Championship brought an awesome surprise. As I approached #1 green I noticed 2 very large "turf bubbles". There was a broken pipe in the loop which circles the greens' irrigation. This was 20 minutes before the 1st group was to tee off. I valved the irrigation off and poked a few holes in the bubbles to drain it.
Weather update: Currently, it is raining! Our Total is now at 56.65" and counting! That is almost 5 FEET!!! The forecast for the next 6 days include 60% chance of rain each day and highs in the 70's. Crazy.
With all this rain please keep a few things in mind. The lake repair on #10 will be put off until the area is dry enough to access with large equipment. Also the Rough is as thick as it has been since I have been here(3 seasons). We are not trying to make it impossible to play or fertilizing it. As I have told as many of you, we mow as fast as we can. Our mowers stay running until 7:00pm most days. The rain sometimes sets us back a day or two but we mow daily. Currently the Rough is mowed at 2" As much as I would like to mow Roughs twice a week and shorter, right now we do not have the equipment to do it. Our terrain is bad, as we have exposed roots, rocks and low spots in many areas.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Didn't need this....
Well another big week for us at NCC and more of the same, Rain. Since July 31 we have received close to 6" with more expected in the next few days. This is not a good week for it as it is Club Championship week. As of today around 60 golfers have signed up. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and allow us to get both rounds in. With all this rain it has really slowed my crew down. We are close to finishing up mowing of rough and we will be pumping out and repairing bunkers in the morning. I did purchase another pump today to help remove more water at a faster rate. FYI... We are approaching 60" of rainfall for the year.
Yes it rained this hard and fast and Yes that is #6 green!!
Rain came so fast it overwhelms some drains
A few pictures of what I would rather see! Blue Skies and Sunshine.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
The 2013 Kirby Invitational
The annual Kirby Invitational was this past weekend and a great field of 117 participated. Chris and his staff did an excellent job and I was proud of my staff as well. Alot of overtime was put into the week to make it great. Davin White fired a 66 Saturday but came out Sunday sluggish. With his slow start that allowed a few others to get back into the mix. Cody Sapp and Bo Burdette both played well. With a 2 shot lead over White and Burdette, Cody Sapp came to 18 looking to seal the deal. But with the Championship flights playing 18 as a Par 4 anything could happen. Cody double bogeyed and both Davin and Bo birdied the hole. Bo and Davin played #1 and 9 with Bo sinking a Par putt for the win.
Congrats to you Bo!
The winning putt
Congrats to you Bo!
Agronomic practices......explained
We do many things on the golf course which may leave you scratching your head. Why do we put sand on the greens? Why do we verticut the greens? Why did we circle cut fairways? Why do you spray greens so often? Why is the rough so thick?
These are just a few of the questions I get, so I will try to answer as best as possible.
The reason we verticut is to remove excess thatch and try to control grain. Along with verticutting we also use brushes mounted to our mowers to promote an upright plant. It is crucial to verticut greens often. During a grow in of new greens a Champion bermuda specialist told me this; If you don't verticut and topdress Champion bermuda it will grow itself to death. This grass is very aggressive and we have to control it. That statement has definatley stuck with me. This is also the reason we put sand on the greens. By doing this it fills voids in the turf canopy and helps smooth the surface, providing a better ball roll.
We circle cut fairways from time to time to get a better cut. Since we are "old school" and mow fairwys with a gang mower it is tough to truly cut all blades of grass. Our fairways aren't great, with dips and low spots which results in missed lines or "mowhawks" that the large reels just can't mow in straight lines. So we circle cut, which really cleans them up. We will have to do this once every 2 or 3 weeks during the growing season.
I know you have seen me on the red Toro sprayer driving around. It is one of our most important pieces of equipment. I prefer to "spoon feed" fertilizer and nutrients to the greens. I spray small amounts of different products on a weekly basis, usually on Thursdays. I feel as if I have more control of what greens are doing and what they need by doing this. Weekly tanks usually consist of soluble fertilizer, micronutrients, fungicides and growth regulators.
Rough. I know it's thick! I have several responses to this. We have had OVER 50" of rain through July(and it's rained an Inch this morning). Combine that with heat and BOOM, we have the healthiest rough since I've been here. Another response is the fact that our terrain is not good. Rocks, roots, low spots, high spots are many reasons we just cannot mow very low. Our equipment would be in the shop for repair on a daily basis if we tried to mow much lower.
These are just a few of the questions I get, so I will try to answer as best as possible.
The reason we verticut is to remove excess thatch and try to control grain. Along with verticutting we also use brushes mounted to our mowers to promote an upright plant. It is crucial to verticut greens often. During a grow in of new greens a Champion bermuda specialist told me this; If you don't verticut and topdress Champion bermuda it will grow itself to death. This grass is very aggressive and we have to control it. That statement has definatley stuck with me. This is also the reason we put sand on the greens. By doing this it fills voids in the turf canopy and helps smooth the surface, providing a better ball roll.
We circle cut fairways from time to time to get a better cut. Since we are "old school" and mow fairwys with a gang mower it is tough to truly cut all blades of grass. Our fairways aren't great, with dips and low spots which results in missed lines or "mowhawks" that the large reels just can't mow in straight lines. So we circle cut, which really cleans them up. We will have to do this once every 2 or 3 weeks during the growing season.
I know you have seen me on the red Toro sprayer driving around. It is one of our most important pieces of equipment. I prefer to "spoon feed" fertilizer and nutrients to the greens. I spray small amounts of different products on a weekly basis, usually on Thursdays. I feel as if I have more control of what greens are doing and what they need by doing this. Weekly tanks usually consist of soluble fertilizer, micronutrients, fungicides and growth regulators.
Rough. I know it's thick! I have several responses to this. We have had OVER 50" of rain through July(and it's rained an Inch this morning). Combine that with heat and BOOM, we have the healthiest rough since I've been here. Another response is the fact that our terrain is not good. Rocks, roots, low spots, high spots are many reasons we just cannot mow very low. Our equipment would be in the shop for repair on a daily basis if we tried to mow much lower.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Course Update
Sorry it has been so long since the last post. I was out of town last week at the beach with my family. We went to Panama City to watch my son Thomas play in a Grand Slam baseball World Series event. The boys finished 3rd in a rain shortened tournament. Despite receiving ~11" of rain for the week, it was good to get away for a little while to recharge the batteries!
My view for the week of the 4th. Hard to beat this!
Now back to reality...
Alot has happened since the last post.
We received 8" rainfall last week. That is in impressive amount of rain, especially since most fell Wednesday-Sunday. With all the rain brings flooded areas and the overflow pipe in the lake at #10/18 was damaged. It is about 6 feet below full. We hope to have it repaired soon.
Also this week we aerified the greens. This is a VITAL process that helps ensure healthy greens. We began our process with an aggressive verticut in 3 directions followed up by a mower to clean up. We then topdressed heavy and core aerified. Our new Toro machine has an attachment which pulls the cores to the edge to be picked up.
Finished product. All greens were fertilized and should bounce back quickly.
With all this recent rain grass has really grown, ALOT. We are mowing as much as we can, so please be patient as we try to get the golf course back in shape.
And by the way, it is currently raining.....
Now back to reality...
Alot has happened since the last post.
We received 8" rainfall last week. That is in impressive amount of rain, especially since most fell Wednesday-Sunday. With all the rain brings flooded areas and the overflow pipe in the lake at #10/18 was damaged. It is about 6 feet below full. We hope to have it repaired soon.
Also this week we aerified the greens. This is a VITAL process that helps ensure healthy greens. We began our process with an aggressive verticut in 3 directions followed up by a mower to clean up. We then topdressed heavy and core aerified. Our new Toro machine has an attachment which pulls the cores to the edge to be picked up.
With all this recent rain grass has really grown, ALOT. We are mowing as much as we can, so please be patient as we try to get the golf course back in shape.
And by the way, it is currently raining.....
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