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| Flooding of the back nine and Marina on 5.31.15. Photo courtesy of Arron Jetelina. |
It has been an exceptionally busy start to summer for our golf operations thanks to record rainfall, flooding, a busy tournament schedule, and our driving range tee renovation project. Overall things are going well on the course and our maintenance crew has done a great job keeping things rolling in the right direction. The Chaparral Member/Guest and the Starburst Invitational tournaments went well and we are looking forward to getting the main driving range tee open as soon as possible. We are also looking to getting back to accomplishing some of our traditional summer maintenance and cultural practices. Take a look at the photos and lists below to see some of happenings over the last month or so.
Driving Range Tee
The renovations to the main driving range tee are coming along nicely. All of the concrete work is complete and work on the retaining wall will begin in the next week. The new curbing handled yesterday's rain great and should be a long term fix to the erosion problems in the area. Once the retaining wall is finished the final soil preparation begin. Soon afterwards, we will finish the irrigation and begin planting grass. Without further rain delays we are on schedule to have everything complete by July 1st and hoping to open the tee for play by the first part of August. To see more pictures of the range work click
HERE
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| Aerial view of the work on 6.14.15 |
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| The new parking area and curbing |
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| The new parking area and curbing. |
Flooding
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| You don't see this radar everyday! |
The recent heavy rains in Waco and surrounding areas caused the level of Lake Waco to begin rising on May 24th. By May 30th the lake reached its highest point this year of 479 ft. Currently the lake has receded to a level of 468 ft, however the 4" of rain that we received on June 17th has the water slowly rising again. The flooding littered the course with a ton of debris, ruined the sand in several bunkers, and has caused significant damage to #1 green and to our new nursery green. We were however able to get all three rounds of our annual Member/Guest tournament completed - albeit on a modified course - #1 was skipped, and #18 was played as a par 3 from the back of 14 tee box. To see more pictures of all of the flooding please click
HERE
#1 Green - Our #1 green remained underwater for 18 days. The dirty water, and high amount of silt deposits restricted light and air to the grass. This combined with the warm temperatures caused considerable damage. We are still evaluating whether or not we will be able to save the this green and get it back into playing condition this summer. Immediately after the water receded we began working to remove the algae, silt, and debris. After the green was cleared, we repeatedly lightly aerated the green using a spiker and walking aerator. In addition, we have reseeded the green. The problem with getting this green back is mostly due to the time of year. Bentgrass does not experience much recovery during the months of July and August. We are doing everything possible to give this green a chance. In the meantime, we are also evaluating our replanting options including planting sod or reseeding in the fall. Stay tuned for more updates on #1 green. The new nursery green is in about the same condition as #1 green. We are trying the same practices with it.
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| #1 Green on May 24 - before going underwater |
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| Aerial shot of #1 green on 6.14 |
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| #1 Green on June 14 - the day the water receded |
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| Randy and Pat washing the "slime" off of the nursery |
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| Jacob aerating #1 on 6.14 |
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| #1 Green showing the seed, spiking, and aeration |
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| Duane using a field microscope to check for viable plants |
Debris Cleanup- Large amounts of tree limbs, driftwood, trash, and other materials accumulated along the Marina, shop yard, #1, #2, #16, #17, and #18. The crew has done a great job collecting all of this material. The trash was separated from "organic" debris and gathered into several burn piles. We are approximately 85 percent complete on cleanup.
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| Debris on #1 Fairway |
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| Debris on 18 Fairway |
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| Duane and Jose putting our tractors to work between #1 and #2 |
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| The crew works on #17 approach |
Bunker Damage- In addition to repairing the bunkers several times a week in May and June we had to completely replace the sand in the bunkers on #1, #9, and #16.
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| Contaminated bunkers on #9 |
Moving Out- As the water continued to rise, we made the decision to move all of our equipment and products out of our maintenance facility. We based out operations out of the old basketball court near the pool for the final day of Member/Guest.
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| Duane moving the portable restroom out of the Marina |
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| Our temporary Maintenance Facility |
Erosion Control- We were able successfully use some erosion control rolls and mats to help with traditionally bad areas. The Curlex mats worked great to get seed established in the "triangle area" behind the new parking area. Now that the curbs are poured we have removed the rolls along the sides. We also used similar materials on #11 near the green. The crew did a great job with the installation and the products handled the 4" of rain yesterday with no problems.
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| Erosion conrol at behind the new parking area at the driving range |
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| Right of 11 Green. This area is normally covered in mud after a rain. |
Other Course Work and Updates
- Greens- Overall the greens are handling the weather well. In order to help with the high humidity and temperatures, we have slightly raised the mowing height and are not rolling as frequently. As a result putting speeds have slowed slightly over the last couple weeks. We also have rescheduled our June 1st Planet Air procedure to June 22nd. This will likely be our last major aeration until cooler temperatures return
- Sod Work- We were able to replant a good deal of the sod from the main driving range tee before construction started. Weak areas around the course and a few spots on the driving range were sodded. We also transplanted the tall fescue planted on #6 and #7 to the shaded area behind #3 green. This should help keep balls from rolling off the green and into Mr. Branch's backyard. The area on #6 and #7 was replanted with sod from the driving range tee.
- Irrigation- We have remained busy with routine irrigation repairs and improvements. Our crew is also handling the irrigation work with for the driving range project. We are also taking advantage of the high lake level by sending our transfer pump off for service.
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| Randy helping pull the transfer pump to shore |
- Fairways- The entire golf course was fertilized on June 8th including fairways. We are also mowing in a reverse direction in order to help control grain.
- Coming Soon
- Aerating tees, collars, approaches, fairways
- Adjusting mowing patterns
- Preparation for Texas Women's Amateur in July
- Additional driving range work
- Vertical mowing of tees and fairways
- More bunker work on #1
- Burning of flood debris
LET'S EAT!
Big thanks to Jeff Mathis with C&M Golf and Grounds for providing a hard earned steak lunch to the crew during the Member/Guest tournament. The steaks were awesome!
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| The crew digs in to Jeff's steaks on Friday May 29th. |
