Course Update
Water and Rainfall: We finished our 2014-15 annual water contract with the city of Waco with no issues. Our new contract renewed April 1. Like last year, we will closely monitor our water usage and follow our "water budget". For more information on our water budget and allotment take a look at this post from July of 2013 -
Ridgewood Water Budget. Since installing our new weather station on 2/28 we have recieved 6.24" of rain. The recent rains have certainly benefited the course and Lake Waco - elevation is almost back to normal. Current elevation is 461.73 compared to a normal of 462.
Course Work: We have been busy working on several areas of the course. Check out the list below:
- Driving range tee work (see below)
- Completed Planet Air applications to greens on 3/23 and 4/13. These critical aeration procedures will help our greens survive the summer months
- Fairways, tees, and most roughs were fertilized on 4/13 and all preventative weed control was completed in mid-March
- Drainage has been added to the right side of #1 green.
- Goss Tree Service has continued their work on several trees around the club - including major work near the Tennis Courts
- We are currently preparing the area between 10 tee and main driving range tee for planting to Tall Fescue. These are will recieve further improvements beginning June 1st as part of the larger driving range project
- Steady progress is being made on our irrigation audit. We are now in the process of updating our maps and making wiring changes at controllers.
- The old gravel was removed from the parking lot islands and mulch was added in its place - providing a much needed aesthetic improvement
- Coming soon: aligning tees, spring flower change out, edging cart paths, bunker work
Other Notes:
- We are constantly working to ensure our bunkers are the proper depth. We recently added a significant amount of sand to right hand bunker on #3. The purpose of adding the sand to this bunker is to help prevent balls from rolling all the way to the far edge by the lake. The additional sand bunker may play a little bit softer than the rest but will hopefully result in less difficult shots.
One of our best grass for heavily shaded areas is tall fescue. This is a cool season grass that can be difficult to establish. However, once established it is able to survive the Texas heat as long as traffic is limited and it receives adequate irrigation. During the summer of 2011, severe drought prevented RCC from irrigating many of our tall fescue areas along the main entrance road resulting in major loss of tall fescue. Assistant Superintendent Duane Kemp has done a great job of working to re-establish tall fescue in many of these areas.
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| Duane's hard work has paid off and the tall fescue looks better than ever. |
Driving Range Tee Update:
The renovations to the practice tees located at the teaching building and to the right of #9 fairway are in full swing. Weather has delayed us a bit, but we are on schedule and look forward to getting these tees open for play as soon as possible. As I mentioned in last month's post, the goal is to have these tees in great shape prior to closing the main tee for renovations on June 1st. Check out the overall project timeline by scrolling down to last month's post or by clicking here
Driving Range Timeline. Our basic process in renovating the teaching and #9 practice tees is as follows: 1) Strip old grass, 2) Lightly till the top 3 inches of the teeing surface, 3) Add top soil, 4) Rough grade, pack, and level, 5) Add drainage and/or irrigation where needed, 6) Laser Level tees, 7) Fine grade and sod preparation, 8) Plant, smooth and roll sod - Celebration bermudagrass, 10) Grow in sod- top-dress, aerate, and steadily lower mowing heights. By tomorrow we should have all of the sod planted and will beginning the "Grow In" phase on all of these tees. The photos below illustrate a few of these steps.
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| The Teaching Building Tee after tilling |
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| Sergio Zapata adds topsoil while Joe Nava (rear) smooths and levels the tee box |
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| Joe Nava did a great job of preparing the tees on #9 for laser leveling |
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| Jacob Nava adds much needed drainage to the rear of the tee |
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| Greg Smith using a Laser Level to put the finishing touches on the added tee to the #9 side. We now have three teeing areas on this side of the range. |
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| Greg Smith of Greensmith Golf uses a Laser Level to complete the final grade. |
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| Greg Smith uses our new bunker rake with a homemade attachment to put the finishing touches on the tee |
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| The crew works on planting the new sod |
