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| Timeline of events for driving range renovations. Click the picture to see more detail. |
Golf Course Update
Believe it or not - spring is right around the corner. We are working hard to finish our winter projects while shifting gears into our spring practices. We have an exciting year ahead of us and we look forward to beginning a new golf season. Here is the quick list of happenings with on the course:
- Driving range renovations approved and scheduled to begin later this month (more info below)
- Plans for renovating the maintenance facility are progressing. We are hoping to submit all work to RCC, the City of Waco, and to the US Army Corps of Engineers in the coming weeks
- Tree work continues - Neil Goss with Goss Tree Service has started work trimming all of the trees near along the entrance road, clubhouse, parking lot, and swimming pool. Work will be completed mostly on Mondays. See photos below.
- Upcoming maintenance items
- First "Planet Air" procedure has been postponed to March 23rd. We are scheduled for April 13th. Depending on weather - one of these events will be a complete aeration and the other will be much lighter and less disruptive.
- Spring preventative weed control will be applied as soon as weather permits - hopefully later this week
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| Randy with his TDA License |
- Several key applications to greens will be made in the next two weeks
- Tournaments - we are excited to be hosting several important tournaments this year, including the State Women's Amateur in July.
- Irrigation Audit - To date we have inspected over 1500 irrigation stations, made dozens of repairs, and working with a professional irrigation designer to update all of our maps and plans. The next steps will include: re-programming our irrigation computer, incorporating all maps, utilizing weather data (see below), and combining all of the above data into a written Water Best Management Practices Plan for RCC. I was also able to take a day and half class at our annual education conference specific to conducting irrigation audits on golf courses.
- Education Update - Thank you for allowing Duane, Randy, and myself to take part in educational opportunities over the last couple of months. We all three attended the Texas Turfgrass Association Winter Education Conference and Trade Show in Ft. Worth in December. We received a ton of great information on wide variety of topics including: weather, fungicides, mowing practices, new products, water conservation and more. In addition, Duane and I attended the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America annual show in February. We were able to to attend more than two and half days of educational seminars that again covered a wide range of topics. Also, Randy Stewart was able to meet all state requirements is now a Licensed Pesticide Applicator in the State of Texas. We currently have four licensed operators on staff - ensuring that all pesticides are properly applied.
Photos and More Information
Driving Range
We will be leveling the upper and #9 tees later this month. Our goal is to have these re-opened by Memorial Day (before the renovations to the main tee begin). We are officially planning to start the renovations to the main driving range tee on June 1st. These renovations will make the teeing area larger, create a better parking area, and improve the surrounding area.
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| Snapshot of the construction plans for the main tee. |
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| Rendition of the new retaining wall on the main tee. |
Crazy Weather and Water
We received 2.8" of precipitation over the last 7 days. The grass on the course is just as confused as the rest of us when it comes to deciding if this is spring or winter. Don't worry we will be back in the 70's by this weekend. The rains have certainly been beneficial and lake has risen over a foot to 460ft (two feet below normal). We will also finish our current water contract at the end of this month with no issues. Our new contract begins April 1st. Take a look a few of the pictures from last week's ice and snow.
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| 18 Fairway |
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| Practice Putting Green |
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| Practice Putting Green |
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| #1 Fairway, notice river of ice |
Tree Work
I have been asked several times why we are using an outside contractor to complete the current tree work taking place around the club. The answer is that we simply do not have the tools or knowledge to safely and effectively prune some of the largest most visible trees at RCC. We met with five separate Arborists and received four quotes before choosing Goss Tree Service to complete scope of work. Goss will be focusing on eliminating safety problems, improving clearance for trucks and emergency vehicles, removing mistle toe, improving the health of the trees, obtaining clearance along power lines, and ultimately improving the overall visual appeal of our some of our most important and valuable trees. Special precautions are also being taken to reduce the risks of Oak Wilt infection.
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| Workers from Goss Service work on a group of Live Oak trees near the power lines on number one. |
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| As you can see, it takes expert climbers to safely prune some of the taller trees along the entrance road. |
Maintenance Facility Plans
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Currently we are working with RBDR to finalize a
site plan, building design, and estimated cost of completion for review by the
RCC BOD. If the BOD approves the plans then they will be submitted to the City
of Waco and the US Army Corps of Engineers for approval. We are hoping to begin
work sometime in 2016. Also, significant progress has been made on cleaning up
the entire maintenance facility area and along the 17th fairway.
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| Rendition of possible improvements |
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| One potential site plan in progress... |
General Course Work
We have been busy working on several areas of the course over the last few months. A few of the items include: irrigation audit, tree work, shop clean up, clean up on 17, mulch behind 16 green, fence work along Fish Pond and Ridgewood, refurbishing course accessories, and more. Check out a few of the photos below for more information. We are also selling a lot of materials that are no longer of use to RCC on Craigslist. Items include golf cart parts, pipe, stone, and other misc items. If you are interested in viewing any of the items please click here:
Shop Items For Sale. All proceeds will be used for our employee BBQ fund.
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| Effective immediately we are going to try using a digital level to help determine acceptable hole locations. Photo Credit - USGA Green Section Record - http://gsr.lib.msu.edu/article/hartwiger-big-2-21-2014.pdf. |
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| We recently purchased a scientific weather station. It will soon be connected to the internet and will provide real time weather conditions and historical data. This station also calculates evapotranspiration (ET) and will be used to help make irrigation decisions |
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| We recently added mulch between 16 green and 17 tee. This area is simply too shaded for grass. The mulch should help keep everyone out of the mud. |
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| Golf Irrigation Auditor Class |
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| Golf course superintendents from around the world attending the Golf Irrigation Auditor class in San Antonio |
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| Shop work continues. The crew has done a great job this winter with cleaning up our maintenance facility. Notice the before picture above taken last year. |
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| Large pieces of styrofoam are pipe are removed from the trees near 17 fairway |
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| We were able to reuse an old sink found in the shop yard as a new hand wash station for employees |
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| New cart rules signs have been installed on #1 and #10 |
