Why The Low H2O?

When we drained the pond on #6 down last fall we noticed the muskrat control netting had slipped down a few feet in spots and there were some burrows in the pond bank.  With everything going on this spring so far we have not had a chance to rebuild the small portion that got dug out and also install some new netting up higher on the bank.  Another issue with the pond is the gate system has rocks in the bottom of the enclosure that is preventing the bottom gate sections to seat properly and seal water off from draining out.  This coming week we will climb down and pull the rocks out, and also start to rebuild the pond bank and install new muskrat control along the pond bank.

In other news, we have been very busy tidying up the multiple projects we had left over from last fall/winter.  The tracks from the work on the irrigation pond have been cleaned up and sodded over in front of the 13th green.  The drainage on #15 & 16 has been cleaned up and prepped for seed/sod.  Some of the smaller stumps have been ground up and the holes cleaned out.  The larger ones are too big to feasibly do in-house so we will hire out their removal.  Most of the landscape beds have been cleaned out and are awaiting a fresh layer of mulch.  And to go with all of that we have already started some normal rough mowing routines and are getting closer to a regular mowing schedule on fine turf areas (kinda crazy considering it is only April 7th).

Tree Trimming

Well things have opened up a little on #15, I am sure this bit of tree trimming will please many of you. The staff has been doing a lot of trimming over the last couple of weeks and capping it all off for the season is the work that was done on #15 today. We had Landberg's Tree Service trim up a few of the oak trees along the right side of the fairway, including removing the major branch that hung low over the approach area. They also cleaned up some of the oaks next to #6 tee and a couple of ash trees to the right of #5 approach. All in all a good days work for the guys.

With the approaching winter weather it looks as though we are about done with all the course work and will concentrate on equipment and other shop duties for the remainder of the snowy months. We again surrounded the course with snow fence to help deter any wayword snowmobilers, and we also have a handful of the greens covered like last year. Everything went into winter looking really good, considering the October weather we had even #13 fairway looks good. I can say right now that it will probably be a early June opening for that hole because of the weather we had, and we will do everything we can in the spring to make it playable as soon as possible. Is it possible to be on it earlier, yeah anything is possible, but I would guess it won't be the case... We'll see in the spring.

Overall, we had another excellent year at IVGC. The weather was dry until October, but that just meant more days to golf. The turf took the drought really well, and the irrigation system played a huge roll with that. Our projects went smooth, other then the delay on #4,7, & 8. The grounds crew did a super job from top to bottom in keeping the place in great shape, my thanks to them for a job well done. There are still a few turf issues lingering that we need to address going into 2010, along with some drainage problems in a couple of areas. We are currently planning some of the smaller projects for next season, and the greens committee is always looking for input on what members think should be addressed.

I hope everyone has a good winter, and a happy holiday season. I will continue to update the blog with what is going on around the shop and course. So stay tuned...