I would like to thank everyone for a great year and I hope that you enjoyed my blog and maybe even learned something on golf course management.
There are some very interesting facts I thought you would like to know as I close the season.
This year 48 bluebirds were hatched. Down a little from previous years, Over the last 6 years we have hatched 375 bluebirds.
This year I used a total of 92 tons of sand for topdressing the greens, and 75 tons of sand for the approaches. I think we all know the benefit of the sand in smoothing the surfaces of the turf. I also believe this helps in controlling some of the organic matter and if we can keep on this program this only means less times we have to core the greens.
I used 23 million gallons of water this year to irrigate the golf course. One interesting fact is that this year was the lowest water use since I have been keeping records. Boy it sure seems like a huge amount of water, but lets break this number down. We irrigate around 150 acres of turf, I will not bore you with the math but this number represents around 6 inches of irrigation water per acre over the course of the year. Responsible use of water is very important to our environment. we have to do our part in helping preserves this resource. It is two fold also, Saving water will also save power to run the system. I have been able to do this by expanding the use of wetting agents to help the water move more efficiently throughout the soil, and constant changes to the irrigation system run times. I have stated there is a fine line and you have to supplement with hand watering to keep the wet areas from getting too wet and just watering areas that need water. sometimes the course may be dry or hard but the benefits to the environment may in the long run be better.
We have also seen many deer, owls, hawks, turkeys, coyotes, squirrel increase in population this year. Always nice to see wildlife in the morning and throughout your round of golf.
I keep track of every hour for each job we work on the golf course. I bet you had no idea that this year we have spent 3500 hours mowing rough and just about the same hours raking and maintaining the bunkers. 3700 hours were spent mowing and rolling greens this year. A new record for these three jobs. I feel that these areas have improved this year and I hope that you have noticed also.
We have really noticed a big improvement in the amount of divots that we need to fill. The amount of hours have decreased every year since the transition to a private club. I do take into the consideration of a little less play, but 3 years ago I would send out the entire crew at least 4 times to fill all divots on the course. This year we did this just once. Big thanks to all of you.
As we come to the end of the year, I hope that you have seen some of the benefits to my program that we have here at Hawks. It is very changing but I always try to have the course play to the best that it can. We are having a impact on the environment in a good way as well. I have to wear many hats daily to accomplish the goals that I have set.
Thanks again
Neil