Course Update

It's the end of August and things are winding down a bit.  School is back in session and a lot less golfers are out playing, mainly because of the heat wave.  We experienced Highs near 100 and heat index of 106.  On the other hand, we also experienced a few crisp mornings in the low 60's.  Fall is on the way! 


TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 2 ---Greens Aerification
The course will be closed for play on this day for us to aerify the greens.  We will be pulling a small 1/4" core and topdressing.  Recovery will be quick.  Thanks for understanding.


Congrats to our 2014 Club Champions:


Men's--Trevor Smith
Ladies--Annie Swords
Senior--Pick Parks
Super Senior--Dave Clemens


Hopefully you have seen the lake at #11 and #17.  Jay Ayers and his crew did an outstanding job building a Dam and mucking the lake.  The lake is full and holds a lot more water than in the past.  In a month or so they will grade out the dirt and we will seed it.  The road project is rolling along ahead of schedule.  I was told possibly October, instead of November, but weather dictates everything.  The area will look much better once the water is back in and the grassy weeds are submersed.


The cart paths are done and ride very smooth.  To clarify, we never planned to repave all the paths.  Many have asked why we only did certain areas, the answer is simple, Money.  It would cost over $500,000 to redo all paths.  We addressed the areas that were rough and we made them smooth.  We will continue to clean up edges.


I have hired 2 key position in my department.  David Hartfree is my new Assistant and Daniel Mims is the new mechanic.  I feel both will be great for our team.

Cart Paths, Kirby Invitational and the lake #17

Well it has begun, the milled areas on the paths are getting new asphalt.  It has been long overdue but hopefully in a week or so we will have repaired all rough spots.  Our budget only allows for the repair of spots, not everything.  Asphalt is expensive, possibly $500,000 or more if we did ALL the paths.  The crew started on #17 Wednesday July 30th and now holes 17-12 are done, minus some cleanup work.  The remaining areas have been milled and rolled and work should resume Monday August 4th. 


The 2014 Kirby Invitational was played last weekend and NCC member Trevor Smith won.  It is really neat to see so many club members in the hunt, as Carson Vaughn and Jordan Henry finished in the Top 5.  The course played tough as no one in the 146 man field broke Par.  Congrats Trevor!


If you have been out lately you may have noticed the new coffer dam on the lake at #17.  By building this it will allow us to keep the upper lake at a level we want.  Once we dry out a bit more we will begin mucking out and rebuilding our shoreline along #17-18.  In November when the county road project is complete we can the start filling both lakes.

Greens Aerification

Monday July 7 we performed a necessary agronomic practice to the greens, Aerification.  By doing this it releases gases that can be harmful to the root system and allows the greens to breath.  The process this time was to verticut 3 directions, mow, aerify using 3/8" tines, remove cores, topdress, drag sand in and roll. It could not have gone any smoother. We then fertilized and applied lime. Greens have healed very nicely and rolling good.

 

Monday July 7

 

Wednesday July 9, 2 days after 

Saturday July 12,  5 days after 

Course Update

It has been a busy few weeks.  Our tree project has wrapped up, with about 270 trees coming down.  We will replant trees in a few areas, like on the right side of #8.  Cart path work should begin in a few weeks.  The milling machine will grind and the asphalt crew will pave behind them.  Some areas will be paved and some areas will be the ground up material.  Greens will be aerified Monday July 7, weather permitting.  In the event it rains we will finish Tuesday July 8.  This is a necessary process and I expect a 2 week recovery time.  This is a great time to apply fertilizers and other product into the root zone. 


Member/Guest week went well.  The maintenance crew put in a very productive, hard week of work.  We were able to catch up on much needed detail work.  This was possible because I now have 12 guys on the crew.  It's amazing what can be accomplished with extra manpower.  Overall I was pleased with results from the tournament.  It seemed everyone had fun and enjoyed the tournament.  Bill Stemberger and Tracy Spence were the overall winners.  Congrats!


The lake project on #17 continues to move forward.  The contractor is anticipating completion in November, weather permitting.  As part of a deal we made, we have allowed the removal of dirt from the range in exchange for grading the range landing.  So from the front of the lower tee dirt will be pushed down towards the yellow flag.  They will also build a few elevated target greens to hit to.  After dirt has been moved and final grade, the contractor will hydroseed the area with bermudagrass. With all this work the range will need to be closed for up to 3 days.  Sorry for the inconvenience.


Many of you know Wayne, Equipment Manager at NCC.  He has been here for 11 years and is retiring.  His role is an extremely important one.  He does a lot behind the scenes and he will be missed.  Thanks Wayne for your service to NCC.


Also I am looking for an Assistant Superintendent as Keith is moving on as well.  Keith has done a great job and will also be missed.




Upcoming:
MGA Red, white and blue--July 4
Greens Aerification--July 7
Range Closure--July 8,9,10
Kirby Invitational--July 26-27

Course Update

Well, it's very obvious we are into the busy season.  It has been several weeks since last post.  The course is going through many changes, mainly the removal of 250+ trees.  The tree guys are making great progress, holes 10-18 are done as well as 6-9.  As we get a few weeks from completion we will begin cart path repair.  My hope is that a good portion is done by Member/Guest June 20-21.




You also may have noticed the lake on #17 is completely drained. Over the years the pipe has collapsed causing the lake level to drop.  The county has declared the overflow pipe to be in bad shape, so they took on the project and contracted the work to begin soon.  This is a major project and could finish up into the late Fall, if mother nature cooperates.
 


Greens were aerified this past Tuesday.  They desperately needed it to allow oxygen down to the root system.  The majority of the problems with our greens is a lack of aerification this season.  When aerification is not done, greens have a tendency to "seal off" meaning no nutrients, water or oxygen can effectively get down to where it needs to be.  So by punching holes it allows these very important things to happen. I have fertilized and I am expecting a 2 week turnaround.  Expect a few more aerifications this season, July and late August.




I want to wish Chris Knobloch the best as he pursues his passion of teaching.  It has been a pleasure getting to know and work with him.  The contributions he made to get NCC to where we are is remarkable.  Thank You Chris for everything you did, you will be missed.

Tree removal

Well after all the talk the last few years the day is here that trees are hitting the ground.  First area is the pool and putting green.  The trees behind the diving board were very over grown and create a huge mess for the pool so it was decided to take them and the remaining trees out.  Most of the trees were leaning towards the pool anyway.  As new landscaping is going in around the pool and clubhouse we will plant new shrubs along the new fence.  You will also notice new landscape in the front of the clubhouse.  This was long overdue and should be complete by the weekend.

As part of our two part process to repair the cartpaths, trees must come out first. I am sure you have seen the flagging tape all over the course. While a large portion of those marked are for path reasons many are for shade issues.  By opening up some areas more sunlight and air flow will allow for better turf conditions.  I also know several have expressed concerns with how many we are removing. Our tree removal commitee decided which should come out.  In the future we plan to strategically plant some non pine species. I wish I had a good estimated completion time but I don't.  I would rather the project be clean and thorough and if it takes a bit longer then so be it.  As we get closer to completion I will begin the process of path repair.  The plan is to mill everything that needs it and asphalt.  We don't plan to do 100% of the paths, just anything cracked or damaged.

Exciting and busy times at NCC!!  Come on out.

Spring is here...sort of

As I sit watching The Masters on moving day I can't help but to get excited for this golf season. For me this week always tells me Spring is here.  Another indicator is when I fertilize the golf course. The bermuda has begun to green up and it's time to feed it. This year I used 30-0-10 which will get the grass up and growing. I put out 1.25 lbs of N/m. What??? This means that for every 1000 square feet there is 1.25# of Nitrogen or 4.08# of product or 180 # product per Acre. Confused???  With more rain coming Monday/Tuesday timing is just perfect. Two weeks ago when we had temps in the low 80's was a big tease, as it has cooled off a bit. We have greened up some but are still not quite there. Bermuda needs 80's during day and 60's at night. Hopefully we are a few short weeks away from consistent warm weather.

The greens have emerged from winter very nicely. I do have a few spots of concern, #5 back and #17 back. Both are shade issues and I feel they are delayed by 2-3 weeks. We are bringing the height of cut down ever so slightly as weather dictates. They are rolling well.

Tree update.  We plan to beging removing trees Tuesday April 30, weather permitting. The crew plans to be on site working Mon-Wed each week.