Maintenance Facility Tours

   Yesterday afternoon, many local golf course superintendents, assistants, and ground's teams came together to tour our maintenance facility and nearby Echo Valley Country Club's facility. This was a great opportunity for all of us to see how other facilities operate and organize their shops. Every golf course's maintenance facility is unique, so it's good for us to take some of these great ideas and implement them in our own facility.

   As always, a discussion about new products and equipment took place. We're excited to hear how the newly purchased equipment does at other local golf courses. In the coming weeks, we will be touring a couple other facilities and we look forward to gaining more ideas and bettering our department for the future!

Seminar Season

We recently attended both the Iowa Turfgrass Conference and Trade Show and the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America (GCSAA) Education Conference and Golf Industry Show.  The Iowa conference is held here in Des Moines and is a great opportunity to network with superintendents from throughout the state as well as local university researchers.  The conference consists of classes, roundtable discussions, a trade show featuring local distributors, and a pesticide re-certification course.

This year, the GCSAA show was held in San Diego, California.  The national show includes in- depth seminars given by researchers from throughout the country.  The trade show also gives us the opportunity to browse the latest golf course maintenance technology, equipment, and supplies offered by manufactures from throughout the world.  We also have the opportunity to catch- up with old colleagues.  We had the privilege to attend a motivational speech presented by Major Dan Rooney- an Air Force fighter pilot and P.G.A. Golf Professional.  Mr. Rooney is the founder of the Folds of Honor Foundation and Patriot Golf Day (in which Wakonda participates on Labor Day.)

This year, for example, we purchased two FieldScout TDR 300 Soil Moisture Meters.  This technology has the potential to pay for itself very quickly by allowing us to sample soil moisture much more accurately and efficiently which will give us a more accurate picture of soil moisture conditions.  We will undoubtedly be watering more efficiently once we master the use of this tool.

FieldScout TDR 300

Both shows help to get our minds to turn to the approaching golf season with new ideas for Wakonda and a renewed sense of optimism and excitement.

We received a broad spectrum of training in courses described below:

Iowa Turfgrass Conference & Trade Show:  January 29- 31. Des Moines, Iowa

• Golf Course Renovations

• Quality Customer Service

• Weather Modeling for Insects & Diseases of Turfgrass

• Weed Control- Latest in Poa annua Control Products

• Turfgrass Pathology- Diagnosis and New Research

• Confronting Challenges & Seizing Opportunities

• Golf Course Marking- Defining and Marking O.B. and Hazards

• Developing Internship Opportunities and Training Interns

• Pesticide Applicator Training and Continuing Education

GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show: February 4-6. San Diego, CA.

• Event Management and Tournament Preparation

• Team Motivation

• Nonverbal Communication

• Water Availability, Reductions, and Efficiency in the Golf Industry

• Biostimulants- hormones & the effectiveness of naturally derived “turf enhancers”

• Golf Course Photography

• Business Communications

• Media & Public Relations

• Turfgrass Diseases

• Data Collection and Utilization for the Golf Course

Back In The Saddle

   Another holiday season is in the books and our entire full-time staff is once again back inside the ground's shop. So far this winter, all of our small engines, such as: string-trimmers, blowers, chainsaws, etc. have been serviced and winterized. Jaret Vasey has begun to break down all the green's mower units and will begin grinding reels later this week.

Disassembled green's mower.

   We recently received our new Toro 200 gallon sprayer. During the majority of the season, this vehicle is used to spray greens, tees, and sometimes assists our larger sprayer on the fairways; however, this vehicle serves multiple purposes. This machine is also used to topdress our greens with sand. Therefore, John Phillips has mounted four brackets to the side of the sprayer so it can be easily removed and our topdresser can be installed. These leg-stands save us a tremendous amount of time when swapping our equipment back-and-forth during the season.

Leg-stands for our new sprayer.

   A large portion of our winter season is dedicated to refinishing all of the wooden equipment you see on the golf course, this includes: tee markers, benches, trash cans, bag stands,and flower pots. All of these things must be cleaned, sanded, and primed before they can be refinished. Beto Ramirez handles most of this work on his own and his attention-to-detail is a great asset to our team.

Refinishing tee markers.

   In the coming weeks, we will be venturing outside to begin our annual tree pruning. Also, we will be planning for the upcoming Principal Charity Classic. We look forward to continuing to organize and plan as this exciting event quickly approaches.

Happy Holidays

We've come to the time of year when we have to make the decision to yield to mother nature.  The golf course is closed and the grounds department has made the transition to winter work.

We had an especially busy fall with renovations taking place on the golf course.  The rock wall has been finished and all of our irrigation has been replaced surrounding the 17th green.  We were also able to regrade the area and make necessary repairs to the bunker before cold weather froze our efforts.  We will sod the approach as soon as weather permits.

The bunker progress ended for 2012 with 34 of 42 bunkers completed.  We have bunkers to complete next spring on holes: 6,7,8,9, and the chipping green. 

With the approach of the Principal Charity Classic just 5 months away, we will be especially busy this winter.  We will be utilizing any good weather we have between now and spring to get outside to do what we can to improve the golf course.

This jolly old fellow was 'donated' by a passer by a couple years back.  (We found him lying face down just inside the fence on #8 while picking up trash along the roadside.)  We are happy to have been able to clean him up and give him a new home.

17 Rock Wall and Bunker Progress

 Work to rebuild the rock wall on the 17th hole has been completed and the finished product looks fantastic!  We will be finish grading and replacing the turf in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile, the bunker project creeps towards completion.  To date we have 16 bunkers finished and hope to have holes 1- 18 done by December 1st. 

Rock wall from the tee.

 

#13 with bunkers complete

Fall Projects Continued...

  As you may have noticed, our new ProAngle bunker sand continues to steadily roll in from Ohio. To this point, we have received approximately half of our expected amount of sand. In the coming weeks, the full amount will be delivered.

Our current sand pile.

  Country Landscapes continues their work on the rock wall on #17. In the previous week, their work has been slowed by rainfall; however, yesterday they got back up to full speed.

Large rocks were placed at the base to support the new wall.

The new wall begins to take shape.

   As you may remember, last year we installed new drainage and liner in the greenside bunkers on #13 and #16. The old sand was gently removed from these bunkers by hand and then the liner was blown off with back-pack blowers. Finally, the new ProAngle sand was added to finish the bunkers. These bunkers are currently ready for play.

Cleaning the bunker liner on #16.

The new ProAngle bunker sand in #16.

  Today, we will remove sand from our final bunker before we refocus our efforts to installing the new drainage, liner, and ProAngle sand in the remaining bunkers.

Bunker Renovations

 Bunker renovations are under way.  We will describe the process with the pictures below.

We rented several pieces of equipment to expedite the process.

The first step is to scrape away the old sand.

Even with large machines much of the work is still done by hand.

We haul the old sand away using our large material handler.  The old sand will be stockpiled at various locations on the property.

We will be spreading the old sand throughout the rough  using a large sand topdresser.  Hopefully we will significantly reduce or eliminate the need pay a trucking company to haul out the old sand.

This picture shows the layering affect contaminants have on the sand.  The layering of fine soil particles prevents water infiltration- this is a one of the reasons why our bunkers did not drain!

We then remove all the old drain pipe and clean the trenches in preparation for new pipe.

We have begun purchasing many of the materials.  Pictured above is 2000' of drain pipe.

We will also make any necessary adjustments to the sub-grade to allow for optimal sand depth.

20 rolls of Sand Trapper II Bunker Liner.

We just received our first load of bunker sand.

We will be utilizing ProAngle bunker sand which is being delivered all the way from Ohio!  This sand will perform much better than our old sand and has a beautiful white color.  One semi load is 25 tons and we estimate that we will need approximately 2000 tons to complete the project.  The new sand must be delivered on concrete in the club parking lot to keep it clean of all contaminants.