September Informer

I want to start off with a huge thanks to my staff for setting up a great golf course for Club Championship. A little rain on Sunday was more annoying then anything else, but other then that the weather was terrific and the course played great. From the comments I heard it sounded as though everyone had a great weekend, even though some golf games were not that “fun”. So with the Championship behind us we are now prepping for aerification. The greens will be aerified on the 6^th and 7^th, the Tuesday and Wednesday right after Labor Day. Tees and fairways will follow, and like in the past, that should not disrupt play much at all. With such a slow start to the season it feels like the last 2 months just flew by and it’s hard to think about fall and getting the course ready for winter. I am sure we still have 2 good months of golf ahead, and perhaps even a decent part of November if the weather holds.

Unlike last October when we were renovating 4,7, & 18, there will be no major projects going on this fall. We have some drainage work and some curb projects to tackle, and we will definitely be continuing the tree trimming. As I mentioned last month, we will be doing some major tree work on #16 in order to create a much better environment for the green and hole in general. It will start with the removal of the Oak tree closest to the green on the front right corner. The large Oak behind the green will be drastically trimmed up this fall, as well as some major trimming along the left side with some potential tree removal there also.

With the season winding down the Greens Committee will be looking for a new member very soon, so if you are interested please let them know. There are five members on the committee with 2-3 board members also sitting in. The commitment is 5 years, we meet once a month for most of the year, and tackle issues regarding all aspects of the golf course.

Enjoy the rest of the summer,

Kurt

After The Championship

( 2010_08_29 - Looking back on hole 5 )

Congratulations to all the winners this past weekend, we had a great turn out for the entire 2010 Club Championship. Last I heard there were around 195 total players from Wednesday through Sunday, pretty cool if you ask me. I want to thank my staff for a super job getting the course prepped for our biggest event of the year. We had great weather to get the place a little firm and keep the speed up. A lot of people asked me how fast the greens were, we stimped them both days around 6:30am and were able to keep them right around 11. To put that in perspective, we have been able to hold around a 10 most of the summer and rarely fell below the 9.5 mark. USGA Stimpmeter Information for those unfamiliar with what the numbers mean and how it is measured. The other thing we were able to do thanks to my staff was mow all the fine turf areas every morning from Wednesday through Sunday, this kept the golf course in top shape throughout the entire event. I really hope everyone enjoyed a great tournament...

So now that the tourney is over we will start some of the normal end-of-summer practices. Fairways and tees will be aerified soon, and this year we will just be aerifying collars around the greens because of the MGA Tournament being held at IVGC on September 27 & 28. This will most likely push us to do our normal core aerification on greens next spring and then I am considering a deep tine aerification in the fall. As usual though, we will do everything we can to keep the disruption to play at an absolute minimum. 

Also this fall, early October, Hartman Companies will be out renovating the bunkers and approach on hole #7, the tee on #8, and the tee on #4. This plan is to tier the tee box on #8 so there are two distinct teeing surfaces, and make the tee on #4 much larger while re-aligning it with the hole. The space between the two holes will be decreased to about half the size and planted with perennial grasses as a buffer between. The left fairway bunker on 7 will be renovated in its current location while the right fairway bunkers will be filled in and a new bunker will be placed near the 100 yard stake. The green side bunker on 7 will be brought around the front corner a little and built up in the back for better visibility. There is a chance that 18 fairway bunker will also be renovated at that time, but that project is currently on a wait-and-see.

I know things start to slow down around the course once school starts, but I hope everyone can keep on coming out. There is a lot of great golf weather ahead of us.

Early Morning Fog

I snapped this photo of Ron mowing the 3rd fairway on Saturday morning of the club championship. The brightness of the picture actually doesn't really relay the reality of the moment. The staff showed up at 5:15am on Saturday and Sunday so we could mow fairways, approaches, greens, and intermediate ahead of the golfers. This was a little different practice then routines in the past. Normally we mowed everything Friday and then came back and mowed everything on Saturday evening. Of course the greens were mowed each day, actually twice every morning, but the rest was just once over the weekend. I am very happy with the results of the new mowing routine. The dew was removed on all major playing areas, although it did settle back in for some of the early tee times, and the course looked great. The only thing that made this all possible was my staff. Everyone showed up on time and got straight to work, it was a terrific effort on their part to get the course in shape for everyone to play. I have to give them a huge thanks on a job well done. And for that matter, a big thanks on a great summer with little to no issues.

As the summer winds down we start to lose staff to school. As a result we start changing some of our mowing routines and we tend to tri-plex greens more then we walk mow. For the most part it probably won't be noticed, but just a reminder to you all. The main mowing stays on top of the priority list, but things like weed-whipping and raking bunkers 6-7 days a week starts to move down that list. Other odd jobs also get less frequent, but we do everything we can to make sure the course still plays in great shape. There is still a lot of golf to played in 2009...

Who Ordered The Rain?

On Wednesday we received 2.5" of rain. On Thursday we received 0.75" of rain. The golf course is very saturated at the moment to say the least. For the last couple of days we have been paths only with golf carts, and I see that continuing today. Even the maintenance staff is limiting any traffic around the course while trying to tie up loose ends before the tournament begins tomorrow morning for the bulk of the field. The championship and presidential flights were able to get their first round in yesterday, it was what you typically call 'mudding'. And though the ladies could not get their first nine of eighteen holes in on Wednesday, they will be able to get their modified championship round in today along with the juniors. While it has been wet, the course is still holding its own and playing pretty good.

Just some reminders and notes because of the weather and wet conditions:

• Please repair your ball marks and a few others. The greens are very soft and even short chips are leaving a mark. There is going to be a lot of play over the next couple of days and it is important to give everybody a good putting surface. Fix your ball marks.
• Try to stay on the paths and cross fairways at 90 degrees. There will also be signs out there to steer carts clear of wet areas, please follow them. Again, we want the course to be in great shape for everybody.
• Remember to put the bunker rakes back in the bunker when your done. Let's keep things consistent throughout the course for all the players.
• Be sure to keep the carts on the paths when around greens and tees. The areas we have sodded will be soft and prone to damage, not to mention the bare and muddy areas.
• Because of the rain there is some long rough in a couple of areas between holes that we may not be able to mow. The fairway is your best bet to keep your scores low.
• The rough around the greens is wet, thick, and may be long in spots. Try and hit the greens, another best bet for keeping your scores low.
• Have fun, be courteous, and take care of the course so everyone has a great weekend of golf.

IVGC Championship Week

We are almost off and running so to speak. The club championship starts tomorrow with the 18 hole women's division playing their back 9 round. So far everything is going smooth and the course is in great shape, the IVGC maintenance staff is doing a terrific job getting the place ready for the busy week. I took a photo of the blue heron on #6 today, not much to see on #13 fairway yet. I expect it will be a few days before we notice a difference in color. The good weather we are having should really help the RoundUp make it through the plant quick.

Last night the greens committee met to discuss and approve a plan for the renovation project on #7, 4, & 8. The gist of that plan is as follows: The bunkers on #7 will be renovated to bring them up to date. The first fairway bunker on the right will be taken out, and the second one on the right will be moved up towards the 100 yard marker. The Silver Maple will be taken out in that area to allow for proper playability and mounding around the bunker itself. The left fairway bunker will be tweaked slightly but mainly just be renovated in its current location. The green side bunker will built up similar to the one on #10 green so it is more visible from further out in the fairway. It will be slightly smaller and brought towards the approach a little bit. The soil for the project will come from re-grading the approach at about 60 yards out up to the green. This will create the much needed drainage in the area for growing a better stand of grass. It will also improve the site line up the left side of the hole, there is no plan to remove any of the ridge or right side of the fairway to open up that site line. The main reason being that it would take a very significant cut to open that view up and it would create a very manufactured looking golf hole. It would be something that would look very different to the character of the rest of the golf course. To go along with #7 we will be completely renovating the 4th tee and the back tee on 8. Using some of the soil from 7 and by cutting down the front 1/3 of #8 tee we will create enough soil to increase the size of #4. Number eight will have two separate tees instead of the single tee currently there. There is some potential to also add a little length in that area, possibly 10 yards or so. The white tees would then rotate between the new lower tee and the raised back tee. #4 will enlarged to the right, over the existing cart path, also better aligned with the golf hole. To remove the need for a retaining wall, the tee will be lowered slightly so a walkable slope can be created from the new cart path which will run below the current site of the water cooler and seed box. The committee decided to also include steps similar to #16 in the project to tie it together with #9 and 16, plus make it a little easier to get to the top. The two tee complexes will be separated by a narrow buffer zone of some type of ornamental, whether it is grasses or shrubs that is yet to be decided. It will allow groups to be aware of other groups and perhaps be more courteous to each other while teeing off. So the project is planned, and the board is currently negotiating with Hartman to see if we can get the work done in this calender year... Stay tuned.

Getting Ready!

We are getting ready for a couple of things over the next week. The Club Championship starts on Wednesday the 19th so we are giving everything that little extra shine. And the renovation project on #13 starts the following Tuesday, so we are prepping some things for that also. As noted in the picture, we have removed the willow tree next to the pond, and today we took down the two ash trees next to the fairway bunkers. The stumper should be in Friday to get everything chipped so we have plenty of time to get things clean before next week. On Monday of next week we will be spraying round-up on the 13th fairway in preparation for the renovation project. By championship weekend everything sprayed should be turning yellow and dying. This should not have any significant impact on play but mainly be a aesthetic issue. The goal is to have everything dead by Tuesday the 25th so Hartman can grade and till everything together without spreading live weeds and poa annua throughout the fairway.

To go along with the renovation on #13 this year, the 2010 renovation plans are taking shape quickly and could be tied into this year also. We plan to finish the front 9 bunkers by completing hole 7 and also completely renovating #4 and #8 tee complexes. The greens committee and board of directors are currently working together to come up with the final renovation plan and the proper financing method to get it done in this calender year. The BOD and GC feel that it is preferable to have everything done at the same time so next spring we are not digging into something and dragging out the renovation projects into the summer. The club is also hosting the MGA Senior 4-Ball championship next September so the other window for renovation would be October, which is still not being counted out... But if we can get 2010's renovation work done this year, it would mean no major construction work until 2011. And I think everyone would be on board for a nice long season (2010) without construction and renovation projects taking place. It also gives the GC plenty of time to come up with a solution for the renovation of #14 which includes soil sampling, pond, bunkers, and fairway work.

Stay tuned, I will update the blog on a daily basis starting next week to show off the championship and also the renovation progress.