The golf course opened this week after a long long winter but we actually opened 3 days earlier then we did last year.
For the most part everything is in very good shape but we are not without some issues. One being the fact that there is still frost in the ground. This even surprised me in that our restroom on hole 13 has no water and we are sure right now that the main service from the road is frozen somewhere between the two houses next to 14 tee. In 14 years of opening the restroom I have never had the main pipe freeze. I am monitoring the situation a few times a day and will let the golf shop know right away when we can open the restroom. We also have a lot of heaved up sprinkler heads and some tee plates. Once the frost is out of the ground these should go back down. If not we will be reveling very soon. Over the last 2 weeks we have been dedicating our time to opening the golf course so we still have a few projects on the table that we will be working on in the next few weeks.
The turf in is fine shape for the most part, The main exception is the upper range tee. Over the last few years we have been slowly converting the range tees to a low mow Kentucky bluegrass. The lower range
tee seems to be filling in nicely with the bluegrass but the upper tee for some reason is not and has/ had a lot of poa annua. I looked at the tee a few weeks ago and suspected some damage but did not feel it was going to be too bad. Well, most of the poa annua did not survive the winter and we will need to reseeded the tee. There has been a lot of talk on line over the last few weeks on poa annua winter survival abilities and this is another example of how this grass just can not handle a stressful winter. On a good note we are trying to convert the tees anyway to so I will take advantage of this and seed the tee next week.
Over the last few days since opening we have had a lot of member play, I have observed just about every cart rule broken. I know everyone is excited to be back out on the golf course after this long winter but we have rules to help keep the course in good shape. I have seen so many people driving in so many places it is hard to talk to everyone. Another example of this is the bunkers. We spent a total of 100 man hours repairing the bunkers from the winter. We also moved sand to achieve the proper sand depths.
The day after we completed the greens bunkers most of the rakes were misplaced and many bunkers were not even raked. I just do not understand why this happens and why we can not take just a little time to put the course but in better shape then we left it as we were taught. It is just difficult seeing the members not taking care of the course or helping out others that may not know all the rules. The hard thing for me is what should I do in this situation In the photo to the left, I found this just a few hours after we completed the raking. What do I do put the rake back and rake the bunker myself. I feel compelled to do that because I want to leave a lasting impression on the next group through, in the photo to the right, I do even know what to say . But as of yesterday, I would have to spend the entire day fixing bunkers. I think this is why I keep on harping on this I take so much pride in Hawks and want to give everyone an enjoyable round. I will stop talking about this in the future, but I want everyone one to know that this is not happening only from outside play!
The bottom line is please help us out, enjoy your round of golf and take time to enjoy the golf course
For the most part everything is in very good shape but we are not without some issues. One being the fact that there is still frost in the ground. This even surprised me in that our restroom on hole 13 has no water and we are sure right now that the main service from the road is frozen somewhere between the two houses next to 14 tee. In 14 years of opening the restroom I have never had the main pipe freeze. I am monitoring the situation a few times a day and will let the golf shop know right away when we can open the restroom. We also have a lot of heaved up sprinkler heads and some tee plates. Once the frost is out of the ground these should go back down. If not we will be reveling very soon. Over the last 2 weeks we have been dedicating our time to opening the golf course so we still have a few projects on the table that we will be working on in the next few weeks.
The turf in is fine shape for the most part, The main exception is the upper range tee. Over the last few years we have been slowly converting the range tees to a low mow Kentucky bluegrass. The lower range tee seems to be filling in nicely with the bluegrass but the upper tee for some reason is not and has/ had a lot of poa annua. I looked at the tee a few weeks ago and suspected some damage but did not feel it was going to be too bad. Well, most of the poa annua did not survive the winter and we will need to reseeded the tee. There has been a lot of talk on line over the last few weeks on poa annua winter survival abilities and this is another example of how this grass just can not handle a stressful winter. On a good note we are trying to convert the tees anyway to so I will take advantage of this and seed the tee next week.
Over the last few days since opening we have had a lot of member play, I have observed just about every cart rule broken. I know everyone is excited to be back out on the golf course after this long winter but we have rules to help keep the course in good shape. I have seen so many people driving in so many places it is hard to talk to everyone. Another example of this is the bunkers. We spent a total of 100 man hours repairing the bunkers from the winter. We also moved sand to achieve the proper sand depths.The day after we completed the greens bunkers most of the rakes were misplaced and many bunkers were not even raked. I just do not understand why this happens and why we can not take just a little time to put the course but in better shape then we left it as we were taught. It is just difficult seeing the members not taking care of the course or helping out others that may not know all the rules. The hard thing for me is what should I do in this situation In the photo to the left, I found this just a few hours after we completed the raking. What do I do put the rake back and rake the bunker myself. I feel compelled to do that because I want to leave a lasting impression on the next group through, in the photo to the right, I do even know what to say . But as of yesterday, I would have to spend the entire day fixing bunkers. I think this is why I keep on harping on this I take so much pride in Hawks and want to give everyone an enjoyable round. I will stop talking about this in the future, but I want everyone one to know that this is not happening only from outside play!
The bottom line is please help us out, enjoy your round of golf and take time to enjoy the golf course