Laser precision, Dirt moving goes high tech

Laser beams and tractors are probably not a normal combination one would think of. However, when you're talking teeing grounds, it's a pretty common theme. Today at the Club, the teeing ground areas that are being enhanced went "flat line" today via a laser guided box blade. The box blade is controlled by a computer that raises and lowers the blade as needed. If the area is too high it lowers the blade to skim off some dirt, too low it raises the blade to fill in the area. After a while you have a perfectly flat surface for the new grass. 

All of the tees, including the new ones, are lasered 1% pitch from the front to the back. That's pretty normal construction. 

New Celebration sod comes on Tuesday for all the new tees. 

Aftermath of Ericka

Some small gusts of wind and 2" of rain

New WOTUS rules on hold for now...

Federal judge halts WOTUS ... for now

A federal judge in North Dakota has put the brakes on implementation of new EPA rules governing the Clean Water Act, at least temporarily.

Ruling on a suit filed by 13 states seeking to block the rules, broadly known as the "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rules, Judge Ralph Erickson of the District Court for the District of North Dakota found that those states had met the conditions necessary for a preliminary injunction, including that they would likely be harmed if the courts didn't act and that they are likely to succeed when their underlying lawsuit against the rule is decided.

"Once the rule takes effect, the states will lose their sovereignty over intrastate waters that will then be subject to the scope of the Clean Water Act," Erickson wrote in his order. 

Exactly how broad this ruling is remains a matter of interpretation. In a statement issued following the ruling, the EPA indicated that it would begin enforcing the ruling as planned today, and that yesterday's decision only applies to the 13 states involved in the suit. Others, however, disagree, saying the ruling should apply nationwide.

GCSAA and its partners on the Waters Advocacy Coalition are seeking to clarify the breadth of this ruling, and will communicate that information as soon as it becomes available.

Posted by Scott Hollister on August 28, 2015 | Permalink

The Honey-Do's never end

As promised, the tee renovations have started. The first phase is to strip the area of all the old grass so the dirt work can commence. 

Next we will haul in dirt to enlarge the tee's width and length. Then the tee will be laser leveled and grassed. 

The trees for 14/18 to replace the Poincianas came in and were planted yesterday. The remaining areas will be grassed to finish off the improvements. 

Curbing our habits

A little cart path improvement update, more curbing installed on 15 today. This will help tremendously with the worn out edges of the grass in late season. 

The path improvements on 10 & 18 are 99% completed. A little final grading is all that's left. 

Started with this 

And now we have this 

The trees are ordered for 14/18 area and should be here this week for install. While we have the mini excavator Trevor pre-dug the holes. 

The new grass grow-in on the chipping green is complete and it is ready for practice. I just have to let the two grass edges around the perimeter grow together. We intentionally kept them separate to make sure we didn't get any Celebration on the putting surface. 

Now that most of the cart path stuff is done, Trevor will be starting on the teeing ground enhancements. Look for the dust bowl to know where.

This week's closure marks the end of our summer invasive maintenance practices. I'm happy to say we were able to accomplish all of the summer's agronomical plans. Once the course heals up we should poised for a great winter golfing season. Lastly, the damage to the putting surfaces is healing very nicely. Trevor rented a large roller and was able to fix a lot of it by smoothing it out and pressing the pulled up sections back in place. While the grass heals we will keep up a little higher nutrition program on those areas to make sure they are not far behind the rest of the course. 

Wanna know how it's done?

A few weeks ago I did a "how to" video with the marketing firm that promotes the Celebration Bermuda grass we have on the course. Not that my part was any good, but the video turned out pretty awesome. Here's the link so you can check it out. It explains our summer time maintenance practices pretty well. 

https://vimeo.com/136766720 

Who's Noah and what's with the Ark?

.8" of rain in 20 minutes today, that's in addition to yesterday's .4" of rain. Fortunately it came late in the afternoon and 85% of today's work load was completed. 

During these course closures I always feel like the Cruise Director, constantly working on making sure everyone is motivated and moving. I drive around with a cooler full of ice cold water bottles for the hard working staff and giving out constant "atta-boys." Today though, I played a little Grill Master as well and man were there some smiles. 

Beef, it's what's for lunch...along w/ cheesy potatoes and corn. 

It's a pretty good feeling when the guys come in for lunch like whipped lambs and go out like raging lions because they feel appreciated.  Lots more to do this week but don't worry, your hard working staff will get it all accomplished....they always do!