For the Birds!!

Brian Beckner, who we affectionately refer to as "Bird Man", did his year end Birdhouse Survey on Friday.  You can see his findings below.  There's not much activity right now as it is summer time and most birds have flown north.  But I have seen a few shorebirds lately on the Bobcat course so my wife and I went over and inspected the lake on the right side of 6.  We managed to count 15 different species of birds which included 2 whistling ducks with 10 ducklings, and two coots with 3 newborns.  And as always, its nice to see a roseate spoonbill in the mix.

 

Bear Course Irrigation Leaks

We have had several leaks in the past week on the Bear Course.  Four to be exact.  There were two 2" lines leaking.  One on #1 and one on the range tee.  Both were due to faulty welds.  The other two were at #5 tee.  Both were 8" main lines.  One leak was due to a faulty weld in the pipe.  The other was due to a failure in the pipe itself.  Fortunately, due to a fantastic staff, these issues are behind us now.  Jeff and Orlando made short work of them on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Here you can see Orlando cleaning the pipe before installing the fix on hole #1.

This is beside 5 tee at the cart path.  This was one of the 8" main line leaks.

This is the leak from above.  

This is the repair clamp for the leak above.

Above and below is the second 8" main line leak on #5.  Jeff and Orlando make up a large part of a small team.  There hard work and dedication is very much appreciated!!

Below is another look at just how big the hole had to be to repair the leak at 5 tee.  The second hole, which is behind the tee, is actually quite larger.

Clubhouse Project

Here you see the grass in the circle in front of the clubhouse being sprayed with a herbicide.  We are just starting a project where we are changing the turf from St Augustine to Zoysiagrass.  Zoysiagrass is the found around the bocce ball courts right now.  It will look a lot better a provide a more formal presentation to club when finished.  

The process to kill off the existing grass will take 4-6 weeks.  We will spray it at least twice to get a good kill and maybe even three times at two week intervals.  So if you see the front lawn totally brown, that's actually a good thing right now!!

Bear Course Greens Update

Here's a quick snapshot of 2 Bear green today, nine days after aerification.  Compare it to four days after aerification on the bottom.  We are moving in the right direction and will continue rolling and mowing to get them smoothed our for opening.  Light topdressings will continue next week as well to fill any imperfections.

Soil Amendments

This week we are making a soil amendment to the tees and some of the fairways on the Bear Course.  This product is basically a compost.  It will provide better water and nutrient holding capabilities to the sandy tees and high spots on the fairways.

Here you can see it being applied to the beginning of #11 fairway.

 We covered all of #6 fairway.  This should provide for a denser and healthier turf.  This particular fairway could take five times more water than others just due to the fact that it is sandier than most. 

You can see it being applied to 11 tee here.  Afterwards it was dragged into the canopy with a steel drag mat.

Driving Range Tee Aerification

On Monday we aerified the west side of the driving range.  During this time we were able to keep the east side of the tee open for members to continue to warm up before play.  

 Mondays aerification of the west side of the tee.

Here you can see the stands set up on the west side for play after being aerified on Moday.

Bear Course Greens Update

Here's a quick snapshot of #9 green on day 4.  They are healing nicely!!