Low water table

The fountains on holes 15 & 16 have been shut down due to low water levels in the ponds. The lower water levels are causing pump cavitation and sediment from the bottom to be sucked through the pumps, both of which can cause damage to the expensive units. 

The pump float on 16 is partly out of the water. 

New England, with a little Florida Perspective

This morning I am freezing. It's 22 degrees and headed for a high of 25 today just outside of Boston. I'm at Wellesley Country Club as a guest speaker at a New England Club Manager's Association meeting. I was asked to come speak on a panel about "How to Budget and Fund Clubhouse and Golf Course Improvements."

Home of the Monarch

Did you know that The Country Club of Naples is home to royalty? That's right, the Monarch Butterfly can usually be found in abundance in the Pollinator Garden by 10 tee. 

Butterflies love the nectar of beautiful flowers in the Pollinator Garden, but there's a more specific reason you'll find the Monarchs on 10. The Monarch larvae's sole food source is called milkweed, which can be found in abundance amongst the plants. These are the tall orange, yellow and red flowered plants in the Pollinator Garden. 

Monarchs are known for their distinctive orange and black markings, but also for their yearly, seemingly grueling, migrations. The butterflies fly thousands of miles from Canada, through the U.S., and down to Mexico, each year.

Due to harsh over-wintering weather in Mexico and foraging landscape loss, the King of the Butterflies has had a severe population decline in the past few years. We are fortunate to have these beautiful creatures, whimsically dancing through our back yard. We should all be very proud that we are helping to protect and preserve the Monarchs with our "Monarch Waystation."  

Taken this morning...

It's a beautiful start to a new yr

Lots of haze this morning with heavy pre-dawn fog. Don't think it will last though. 

The tee sheet is packed and it looks like it full throttle from now until May!

Trimming the tree....

During the holiday lull between Thanksgiving and New Year's is a good time to wrap up all those little extra projects around the course to get ready for the impending golf season. So took the opportunity to do a holiday tree trimming....golf maintenance style. 

One of the big oak trees just off of number one tee was dying. As you can see in the picture, the normally uniform in color tree rings have a distink black layer. This is what was slowly killing the tree. 

The rot had made its way deep into the base of the tree so just trimming off the dead parts wasn't going to save it. 

Another issue with the remaining trees just off the first tee was how much the branches were starting to overhang into line of play. While the tree crew was there I had them cut a few branches off to open up the right hand side. 

Now players that hit a draw can play the ball down the right side and bring it back into the fairway. We have a few more items to wrap up next week and should be ready for "Golf Season - 2015" no problem. 

Range tee reopened

The rye grass on the range tee has germinated and the maintenance staff mowed it for the first time yesterday. 

My staff will seed and sand the range divots Monday - Friday until the weather is warm enough that the Celebration grass can grow fast enough to recover and keep up with divot production. 

Although the rye grass germinates and grows quickly, with the amount of play and practice the small tee gets the plan is to still use the mats one week a month. The mats will help tremendously to give the range tee a reprieve so it can try to recover. 

Dont forget to fix two!

A breathing fresh air

This week the maintenance staff has started "venting" the putting surface. Venting is a new name for an old practice called winter aerification.  The new term was created because aerification is usually associated with big hole and long recovery. Wherein venting uses very small holes and there is no recovery time. 

This is a normal venting setup on a machine. The tines are 1/8 solid spikes used for just poking some vent shafts into the soil to allow air exchange and water infiltration 

This is what summer aerification is all about, soil exchange using big holes....big difference!

After the putting surfaces have been vented, a roller is used to smooth them out with no affect on playability. You might see a tiny open hole every now and then but no major surface disruption. 

The purpose of venting is increase soil gas exchange and allow better water penetration during a time when the greens are under the most stress. Benefits of the venting can be substantial. The increase in oxygen in the soil surrounding vents will trigger a massive root growth explosion...the better the roots are, the better the shoots are.  Additionally, the vent holes allow for a dramatic increase in water infiltration with allows me to better manage soil salt build up, localized dry spots and surface playability.