All good things must come to an end this year certainly left us all with a lot of good weather to get in many November rounds of golf. We also were able to continue working outside on many little projects to get a jump start on 2016. The weather has not been without its challenges for me. We winterized the golf course irrigation system on a 70 degree day, normally its so cold by the end of the winterization you can not feel your toes, I will take a 70 degree day over the cold but we had to split up this process because of packed tee sheets. Everything worked out very well just a different way of thinking through the process. My other issue this fall has been trying to figure out when to apply our plant protectants for snow mold disease. The winds this fall have not been in our favor along with the very warm days. We did manage to get everything treated but with the rains nobody is certain we will have the best season long control. I feel fairly confident in our application but will continue to monitor the turf throughout the winter and may need to reapply if necessary. Ideally, we would apply our protectants the first or second week in November and not have to worry about things until spring.
On the other hand the weather has been ideal to work on the golf course. I am sure you have noticed
a nice addition to the back side of the club house with the addition of 5 nice pine trees. We transplanted the trees from our tree nursery on #4. 12 years ago we planted the pine trees from 6 inch plants. We still have a few more that we may move onto the course in the future.
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We also completed a few small sodding projects this month on 5,9 and 17 greens. basically, we removed worn out areas, regraded and installed new sod. #9 we worked on the rough line that was worn out from the many balls that roll back down the slope from the green. I was able to grade this area a little to help divert balls to not all roll down the same path.
The addition of our new fescue a few years ago left a few irrigation heads that are no longer needed.
This fall we removed the rest of the sprinkler heads that have been abandoned on the course. I also added a few irrigation heads to areas that are hard to water properly. My goal is to reduce to amount of supplemental irrigation water going into the fescue to the best of our ability. We will continue to adjust the sprinkler heads for better coverage. In the photo is a perfect example of this. We replaced a full circle sprinkler in the middle of 5 tee with a part circle that will only water the tee. We had to move the sprinkler with the addition of a few feet of pipe to make this work properly. There are limitations to this in that the main pipe system is placed in such a way that we will have sometimes to make major changes. Right now we are working with what we have achieve better results. These changes are saving a lot of water each year. Before we converted the rough to fescue we were averaged well over 25 millions of gallons of water for the course. This year, we used the least amount of water in 15 years just over 15 million gallons. We did have a very dry end of September and the first part of October which was very unusual for us. Our yearly total would have been much lower had we had a "normal" fall.
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Lastly, you may have noticed the "bunker" on #1 at the start of the fairway has been removed. Pretty much an eyesore for a few years. This bunker is not in play serves no real purpose other then visual so we decided to remove the bunker. I wanted to keep the visual aspect of the feature by steeping the face and creating a nicely formed slope to fit into the hillside. This area has been seeded to fecue and will serve the same purpose without the look of an unmaintained bunker.
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In a nutshell lots of work has been done to continue to improve, enhance the course. We will continue to work outside as long as possible this fall. There are a few more items that I would love to complete before the ground freezes.
I hope that you had a great year. I feel overall we had some great conditions on the course. My staff did a tremendous job this year and feel very proud of what we have been able to accomplish on the course. As my 15th season comes to an end here at Hawks its always amazes how time flies by I am already getting excited for 2016 planning and preparations for the spring. I hope to see you very soon have a healthy and happy holiday season.
On the other hand the weather has been ideal to work on the golf course. I am sure you have noticed 
This fall we removed the rest of the sprinkler heads that have been abandoned on the course. I also added a few irrigation heads to areas that are hard to water properly. My goal is to reduce to amount of supplemental irrigation water going into the fescue to the best of our ability. We will continue to adjust the sprinkler heads for better coverage. In the photo is a perfect example of this. We replaced a full circle sprinkler in the middle of 5 tee with a part circle that will only water the tee. We had to move the sprinkler with the addition of a few feet of pipe to make this work properly. There are limitations to this in that the main pipe system is placed in such a way that we will have sometimes to make major changes. Right now we are working with what we have achieve better results. These changes are saving a lot of water each year. Before we converted the rough to fescue we were averaged well over 25 millions of gallons of water for the course. This year, we used the least amount of water in 15 years just over 15 million gallons. We did have a very dry end of September and the first part of October which was very unusual for us. Our yearly total would have been much lower had we had a "normal" fall.
