Its the end of the second week since I returned from the Golf Industry Show. Last week Florida weather followed me home and we were able to accomplish alot on the course. Greens were mowed and rolled, holes changed, and the biggie was that the bunkers were fixed and raked. I hope you took the time to enjoy the course last weekend.
This week has been rainy and seasonally tempered and most of the time has been spent back in the shop working on equipment maintenance where we have been since early December. Although there is still much to do inside before everything will be ready to go, last week was a welcome respite. If you were out last week, you may have noticed the blue paint around the tees, greens and fairways. These are my markings to guide the application of Roundup and preemergent herbicides and also to denote the new mowing patterns that I have talked about in the newsletter.
The main reason for the changes that actually began last spring is economical. Even before the downturn, I was looking for ways to improve and simplify the care of the golf course. In other words, spend the money allocated on the most important parts. Those parts are obviously greens first, then tees and fairways, and ending with bunkers and rough. Throughout the last 17 years the programs have been tailored to improve all areas usually responding to membership assessment of the area. For instance, when bunkers were drawing the most criticism, a new way of raking was embarked upon that alleviated most of the objections. However, that way of raking was too time consuming in the intervening years and had to be changed as labor was reduced sometimes causing more criticism.
Mowing is the largest task the staff does and some areas require more time and intensity than others. The intermediate rough around the tees, down to the fairways, around the fairways, and then around the greens and bunkers used to take 20-25 man hours twice per week using three mowers and men. Last year we moved the strip around the fairway to primary rough and cut 2-4 hours per mowing. This did increase the primary rough mowers but they run faster and the machines need less maintenance. This year we will be allowing the intermediate between the tees and fairways to be primary rough and also moving the areas around the greens to either collar cut or rough cut. The hope is to cut the intermediate time to around 10 man hours per mowing and only have to use 2 staff instead of three. Time to mow collars will increase as will rough mowing. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of different height of cuts to three; a. green, b. tee, collar, and fairway, c. rough. This would allow us to trade in our three expensive to maintain intermediate rough mowers and only require us to add only one more rough mower. We can not get there this year unless a new rough mower is purchased that can handle the slopes that the current mowers do and that does not appear to be economically feasible. The rough mowers are rotary cut, generally wider, and less to maintain than the reel mowers. The labor is really a small savings and will be reallocated to triming and hopefully better bunker care.
Anyway, last week let me get out and mark many of the holes with the new patterns that I have been studying on all winter and made me ready to try them out. Usually I can do a pretty fair job of visualizing in my mind how it will look and play but there is always that uncertainty. Just like writing this blog. Time to go, hope you are considering using the course more this year. Stay warm and dry.
